In Africa, Some See Israel as a Beacon of Hope

by Daniel E. Levenson

May 9, 2009

JERUSALEM - They are men, women and children, fleeing violence and persecution in Darfur, Sudan and Eritrea, desperate to find a safe place where they can lead lives of dignity and peace, where they will not be subject to torture, death and imprisonment over political or ethnic rivalries. A place where they can rebuild their shattered lives with the hope of returning to their own homeland one day. For many of these African refugees, the place they are desperately trying to reach is the State of Israel, and I believe that as Jews we have a moral obligation to help these people and do whatever is within our power to bring attention to this serious problem. This issue deserves not only our careful consideration, but careful action as well.

The national history of the Jewish people is one which is filled with cruelty and oppression, of wandering from one place to another in search of some semblance of security. Because of those who helped us in the past, and especially because of those who did not, we have a special responsibility to those who need our help today. We need to do this in a thoughtful way, one in which we will not imperil the fate of those who have already made it here to Israel, while at the same time recognizing that Israel itself has limited resources. This is a difficult balancing act – we have within our own community many different and competing priorities when it comes to the allocation of resources, but to ignore the plight of these people who see Israel as a possible refuge would not only be cruel, but I believe would run counter to what we should have learned from the past 2,000 years of Jewish history. We cannot afford not to do for others what so few have done for us, which is to stand up and provide life-saving aide in a time of desperate need.

We should also be asking ourselves what we in the Diaspora can do for these people who see Israel as a potential safe-haven. These are difficult economic times in America, and our military and diplomatic resources are being stretched thin in places like Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq, but we can certainly help raise awareness of the plight of these people who have turned to the Jewish state in desperation. This past week I had the opportunity to meet some dedicated students from Hebrew University in Jerusalem who are working to help African refugees by offering them Hebrew and English language classes, lobbying on their behalf in the Knesset and generally doing whatever they can to bring this issue to the attention of the Israeli public.

Israel is not a perfect country, no country is, but when I had a chance to hear some of the things that the refugees had to say about how they perceived Israel, as a positive place in which they hoped to find temporary refuge until it was safe for them to return to their homes, despite the embarrassingly awful way the Israeli government has treated many of them, it made me at once proud to be a Jew, and at the same time very concerned about the way the refugees are being treated in Israel where they often find themselves caught in a bureaucratic limbo without access to basic services. Even more troubling are some of the accounts of what has happened to individuals that Israel has sent back into Egypt, including a report from Human Rights Watch of three African asylum seekers being murdered by Egyptian border guards. It seems, based on news reports that many more refugees have simply been dumped back at the Egyptian border, with little idea of what happens to them afterwards. This situation is unacceptable and we need to speak out and put pressure on both Israel and Egypt to deal with this issue in a more humane and moral manner. This will only happen if people are willing to write letters, to tell their friends about what is happening, and to engage their own communities in discussion about this topic. The information is out there, easily accessible in the media and on the websites of human rights organizations, we just have to be willing to engage with the material.

As we think about the holiday of Lag B’omer, which celebrates our own brief respite from persecution by the Romans two millennia ago, perhaps we should all pause and give some thought to what we might do to help end present day persecution, and then put those thoughts into action.

Copyright Daniel E. Levenson 2009