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href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/israeli-leaders-still-ache-deport-african-refugees/26431">https://electronicintifada.net/content/israeli-leaders-still-ache-deport-african-refugees/26431</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">Israeli leaders still ache to deport
African refugees</h1>
<p class="node__submitted">
<span class="field field-author"><a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/people/david-sheen">David
Sheen</a></span> <span class="field field-publisher">-</span>
<span class="field field-publication-date"><span
class="date-display-single"
content="2019-01-15T20:11:00+00:00">15 January 2019</span></span>
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<figure id="file-73651"><source media="(min-width:
72rem)"><figcaption><small><span></span></small></figcaption></figure>
<p>The year 2018 was one of the most critical for
African refugees in Israel. Under <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/african-refugees-get-no-reprieve-israels-racist-rage/23866">threat</a>
of imminent deportation, the community and their local
supporters took to the streets, pleading for their
rights to be recognized.</p>
<p>The mass deportations did not materialize.</p>
<p>First, it became clear that African governments were
<a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/02/world/middleeast/israel-african-migrants-un-resettlement.html">unwilling</a>
to accept refugees who had been forced out of Israel.
That prompted Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime
minister, to reach a deal with the United Nations
aimed at resettling African refugees in the West.</p>
<p>Netanyahu scrapped that deal after being <a
href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/netanyahu-suspends-new-asylum-seeker-deal-with-un-1.5974186">criticized</a>
by lawmakers in Israel’s ruling coalition who viewed
the arrangement as insufficiently tough on refugees.
The lawmakers <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/african-refugees-get-no-reprieve-israels-racist-rage/23866">objected</a>
to how the deal was contingent on allowing
approximately half of African refugees to remain in
Israel for five years.</p>
<p>Despite shelving his most merciless anti-refugee
plans, Netanyahu continued attacking Africans living
in Israel. He remains among Israel’s top 10 leaders in
its war against African refugees.</p>
<h2>10. Ayoob Kara, communications minister</h2>
<p>In January 2018, Ayoob Kara, a government minister, <a
href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/israeli-minister-dubs-african-migrants-sanitary-nuisance-1.5730429">suggested</a>
that African refugees were a health hazard.</p>
<p>He used that eliminationist language during a
conference of Likud – the party led by Netanyahu – in
Eilat, a Red Sea resort. Kara was seeking credit for
overseeing a policy – then as a minister for regional
cooperation – to fire Africans from that city’s hotel
industry.</p>
<p>The policy had been implemented after Africans across
Israel went on <a
href="https://www.haaretz.com/.premium-african-migrants-end-strike-1.5310512">strike</a>
in early 2014. A week-long strike was called as part
of <a
href="https://www.haaretz.com/.premium-asylum-seekers-protest-spreads-to-world-1.5314372">protests</a>
against Israel’s jailing of refugees.</p>
<p>Hotel owners in Eilat <a
href="https://www.makorrishon.co.il/nrg/online/1/ART2/538/487.html">lobbied</a>
Israel’s government to substitute African workers with
people living in Jordan. Under the plan, permits were
issued so that hundreds of workers could <a
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/in-a-first-israel-hires-jordanians-to-wash-the-dishes-change-the-sheets/2016/05/16/0126d87c-164e-11e6-971a-dadf9ab18869_story.html">enter</a>
Israel from Jordan each day and then be bussed back to
Jordan in the evening.</p>
<p>The Israeli government insisted that an African be
fired each time a worker from Jordan was recruited.</p>
<p>According to Kara, the objective of the plan was to
“save tourism in Eilat.” Its effect, he added during
his 2018 speech, was that “we expelled the illegal
[African] workers that burst in here and were a
sanitary nuisance.”</p>
<p>Kara, a <a
href="https://mfa.gov.il/MFA/AboutIsrael/State/Personalities/Pages/Ayoob_Kara.aspx">member</a>
of the Druze religious minority, is now Israel’s
communications minister.</p>
<h2>9. Nissim Malka, rabbi and politician</h2>
<p>As mayor of Kiryat Shmona – a town in northern Israel
– Nissim Malka used his position to muzzle anti-racist
campaigners.</p>
<p>In March, staff and students at Tel-Hai College were
<a
href="https://www.haaretz.com/mayor-of-kiryat-shmona-cancels-event-in-support-of-asylum-seekers-1.5937067">scheduled</a>
to hold a comedy evening to raise funds for fighting
the deportation of refugees. Right-wing local
residents had <a
href="https://mekomit.co.il/%D7%9C%D7%A9%D7%97%D7%A8%D7%A8-%D7%90%D7%95-%D7%94%D7%A0%D7%9E%D7%A8-%D7%90%D7%99%D7%9A-%D7%90%D7%99%D7%A8%D7%95%D7%A2-%D7%A9%D7%95%D7%91%D7%A8%D7%99%D7%9D-%D7%A9%D7%AA%D7%99%D7%A7%D7%94-%D7%91/">threatened</a>
to converge on the venue – a cooperative bar linked to
the local authority – and break up the event.</p>
<p>Rather than condemn those threats, Malka <a
href="https://www.facebook.com/nisim.malka.3/posts/10216192694436604">banned</a>
the event, accusing its organizers of “trying to
create unnecessary arguments and divide our city.”</p>
<p>It was not surprising that Malka would, in effect,
side with racist bullies. He has previously campaigned
against Africans who fled vigilante violence in Tel
Aviv and moved to Kiryat Shmona.</p>
<p>In 2012, Malka <a
href="http://www.galilon.co.il/node/4429">announced</a>
that the authorities “would carry out major
enforcement activities” against “the infiltrators that
are living in Kiryat Shmona and are working at
businesses in town, especially in the food industry.”</p>
<p>Malka, who is also a rabbi, marked 10 years as mayor
in 2018. He no longer holds the post after <a
href="https://www.10.tv/news/176917">losing</a> an
election later in the year.</p>
<h2>8. Gadi Yarkoni, local authority chief</h2>
<p>Gadi Yarkoni, head of Eshkol regional council in
southern Israel, was instrumental in having Africans
moved from accommodations provided to them.</p>
<p>During 2018, 15 students from South Sudan were <a
href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-israeli-residents-protested-south-sudanese-students-will-be-booted-1.6414310">housed</a>
in Avshalom, a short distance from Israel’s boundary
with Gaza. They were studying agriculture in Ashkelon
Academic College as part of a program sponsored by the
Israeli government.</p>
<p>It was something of an exception: Israel had begun <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/rehearsal-mass-expulsion-palestinian-citizens-israels-deportation-south-sudanese">deporting</a>
refugees from South Sudan <em>en masse</em> in 2012 –
less than a year after that state was established. Yet
even this rare act of official benevolence was too
much for Israelis living in Avshalom, who closed the
gate to the village, preventing the African students
from entering it.</p>
<p>One resident went so far as to describe the students
as “human trash.”</p>
<p>Although the police ordered the gate’s reopening,
Yarkoni intervened to urge the college authorities
that the students be moved. Deceptively, he suggested
that local residents were simply afraid of having 15
young men living in the same house and would have
reacted the same way if the students were Israeli.</p>
<h2>7. Amir Ohana, lawmaker</h2>
<p>Relations between Eritrea and Ethiopia – neighbors at
loggerheads, often violently, for more than two
decades – may finally be improving. Leaders of the two
countries held <a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/08/world/africa/ethiopia-eritrea-peace-talks.html">talks</a>
in July, committing themselves to a peaceful future.</p>
<p>Despite the breakthrough, Eritreans – who comprise
the majority of Africans living in Israel – would face
considerable risks if they were expelled by Israel.
Their country remains a dictatorship.</p>
<p>Amir Ohana, a Likud member of Israel’s parliament,
the Knesset, has implicitly recognized such concerns
are valid by saying that the situation in Eritrea
could deteriorate. His “solution” is “removing the
infiltrators” before the situation in Eritrea “changes
for the worse again.”</p>
<p>Speaking at a Knesset committee <a
href="https://main.knesset.gov.il/Activity/committees/InternalAffairs/News/Pages/25718.aspx">meeting</a>
during the summer, Ohana <a
href="https://www.facebook.com/davidsheen411/posts/957113571137184">said</a>
“we’re going to push with all our might” for the mass
expulsion of Eritreans.</p>
<h2>6. Baruch Marzel and Itamar Ben Gvir, pranksters</h2>
<p>Followers of the late Meir Kahane – a notorious
firebrand who urged that all Palestinians be expelled
from their homeland – are known for their extreme
violence. Baruch Goldstein, who committed the 1994 <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/hebron-still-under-siege-20-years-after-ibrahimi-mosque-massacre">massacre</a>
in Hebron’s Ibrahimi Mosque, drew inspiration from
Kahane.</p>
<p>Two of Kahane’s most high-profile followers displayed
a warped sense of humor during 2018.</p>
<p>As the Netanyahu government <a
href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/thousands-of-asylum-seekers-to-be-given-90-days-to-leave-israel-1.5629824">announced</a>
plans – subsequently dropped – to force 37,000
Africans out of Israel early in the year, some
extremists sought to worsen the confusion which the
refugees encountered.</p>
<p>Itamar Ben Gvir and Baruch Marzel, leaders of the
party Strength for Israel, plastered signs across
south Tel Aviv, in neighborhoods with high
concentrations of Africans. The posters offered aid to
people facing deportation.</p>
<div id="file-73671">
<div>
<blockquote data-width="550">
<p dir="rtl" lang="iw">מה שנראה כתעלול על חשבון
אריתריאים של איתמר בן-גביר וברוך מרזל, הסתיים
במבול שיחות לחברת מערכת "כאן חדשות" <a
href="https://twitter.com/Shira_HN?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Shira_HN</a>.
איך זה קרה? צפו <a
href="https://t.co/DEQEzxzEDY">pic.twitter.com/DEQEzxzEDY</a></p>
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) <a
href="https://twitter.com/kann_news/status/958047610354503682?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January
29, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
</div>
<p>Eritreans who read the notices, which were printed in
their native tongue Tigrinya, were led to believe that
they were being promised refuge in the homes of
Israeli citizens.</p>
<p>But when the Eritreans dialed up the phone numbers on
the posters, their calls were answered by Israelis who
had no knowledge of what they were attempting to
communicate.</p>
<p>It appears that the whole thing was a prank
orchestrated by racists, who wished to make fun of
people in distress.</p>
<h2>5. May Golan, campaigner</h2>
<p>May Golan, a political activist in Tel Aviv, once <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/may-you-be-raped-your-grave-says-new-darling-israels-ruling-likud-party">declared</a>
she was “proud to be a racist.”</p>
<p>In 2018, the newspaper <em>Haaretz</em> <a
href="https://www.haaretz.co.il/blogs/eishton/.premium-1.6099143">exposed</a>
how she had fabricated data about the number of
Africans entering Israel for scaremongering purposes.</p>
<figure id="file-73661"><source media="(min-width:
72rem)"><figcaption><small><span></span></small></figcaption></figure>
<p>Golan – another follower of Meir Kahane – <a
href="https://www.facebook.com/Eishton.Blog/videos/1520100014762028/">conceded</a>
as much in a follow-up interview with the TV channel
Reshet 13.</p>
<p>Time will tell if being outed as a liar causes any
damage to Golan’s political ambitions. She is <a
href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israeli-press-review-attorney-general-threatened-over-netanyahu-corruption-probes-1669878507">hoping</a>
to be selected as a Likud candidate in April’s
parliamentary elections.</p>
<h2>4. Oren Hazan, lawmaker</h2>
<p>In early 2018, Oren Hazan, a novice lawmaker, <a
href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/bad-boy-likud-mk-slapped-with-6-month-ban-on-knesset-activities/">received</a>
a six-month ban from taking part in Knesset debates.
He was punished for a series of insults directed at
fellow politicians.</p>
<p>Hazan, who represents Likud, has proven adept at
finding platforms other than the Knesset chamber for
airing his bigoted views. He is perhaps best known for
<a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/video-israeli-lawmaker-insults-palestinians-insects-and-dogs">boarding</a>
a bus transporting Palestinians to see relatives in
prison during 2017, telling one woman that her son was
a “dog” and an “insect.”</p>
<p>Interviewed by an Australian activist in 2018, Hazan
described Africans who had come to Israel as “fake
refugees,” alleging they “don’t even have culture.”</p>
<p>“In the end of the day, those people that came from
the black lands, came from Africa, all the way to
Israel, they did it only for one reason. They came
here to search for work, for jobs, they came here to
search for a future,” he said.</p>
<p>Complaining about how Africans were having babies,
Hazan concluded the interview with eliminationist
language.</p>
<p>“If you will not deal with the problem right now, you
will suffer in the future,” he said. “If you will not
kick them out right now, they will kick you out in the
future. If you will not wake up, you will wake up not
just in a dream – in a nightmare. You need to destroy
the problem when it’s still small.”</p>
<p>Hazan is a <a
href="https://www.knesset.gov.il/mk/eng/mk_eng.asp?mk_individual_id_t=924">resident</a>
of Ariel, an Israeli settlement in the occupied West
Bank.</p>
<h2>3. Moshe Edri, police chief</h2>
<p>In late January 2018, just before he stepped down as
Tel Aviv police chief, Moshe Edri issued a frightening
directive. Expecting that Africans would be rounded up
for expulsion, Edri told police officers that they
would soon be unleashing <a
href="https://www.10.tv/news/154220">physical force</a>
against the refugees.</p>
<p>“The scenario that really worries me the most is
large public disturbances. We have absolutely no
advantage over them, and therefore the swath of police
tools must be available to the station. In other
words, very quickly we will have to switch to shock
grenades, water cannons, exerting force,” said Edri,
according to Israel’s Channel 10.</p>
<figure id="file-73656"><source media="(min-width:
72rem)"><figcaption><small><span></span></small></figcaption></figure>
<p>Edri suggested that the police were powerless against
the Africans, and that their only option left was to
use lethal force. “They take stones, rocks, rods,
sticks, and beset you, and the only thing left for you
to do is to shoot live fire,” he said.</p>
<p>Fortunately, the plans were not implemented – as the
mass deportations were called off.</p>
<p>Later in 2018, Edri took up a top-level <a
href="https://www.gov.il/en/Departments/People/moshe_edri">post</a>
in the public security ministry, which oversees
Israel’s prisons and police.</p>
<h2>2. Aryeh Deri, interior minister</h2>
<p>As interior minister, Aryeh Deri has overseen
Israel’s war against African refugees.</p>
<p>He played a central role during the early months of
2018 in trying to push forward the mass deportation
plans. Before those plans were scrapped, he went on
radio <a
href="https://twitter.com/GLZRadio/status/955746656225562624">telling</a>
refugees that they must go back to Africa, as the
continent was their “natural place.”</p>
<p>Deri has dodged accountability. When activists
challenged his deportation drive in a religious court
during 2018, he <a
href="https://www.kikar.co.il/abroad/268449.html">refused</a>
to cooperate.</p>
<p>He even declined to recognize the court, despite how
his party Shas only <a
href="https://www.haaretz.co.il/news/education/1.1804484">regards</a>
religious courts as legitimate.</p>
<p>Towards the end of 2018, Deri was <a
href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/police-charge-minister-dery-with-fraud-breach-of-trust-and-tax-offenses-1.6673436">charged</a>
with fraud and tax-related offenses.</p>
<p>The allegations may not spell the end of his career.
He has previously proven capable of making a political
comeback after being imprisoned for taking bribes.</p>
<h2>1. Benjamin Netanyahu, prime minister</h2>
<p>In March, Benjamin Netanyahu <a
href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-says-flood-of-african-migrants-worse-than-sinai-terrorists/">praised</a>
the wall that Israel has built along its boundary with
Egypt. Without it, he claimed, Israel would face
“severe attacks by Sinai terrorists, and something
much worse, a flood of illegal migrants from Africa.”</p>
<p>That same month, Israel put into effect part of a <a
href="https://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-5224210,00.html">secret
deal</a> to provide at least one African nation with
military aid. Netanyahu wanted that country – which
has not been named – to accept refugees that Israel is
seeking to deport.</p>
<p>Eventually, Netanyahu was forced to admit failure; no
less than five African nations ultimately <a
href="https://www.kan.org.il/item/?itemId=30003">turned
down</a> his demand that they take refugees expelled
from Israel.</p>
<p>For the time being, Netanyahu’s efforts to expedite
the deportations have been thwarted. But his draconian
anti-refugee policies have already had a pronounced
effect.</p>
<p>Tens of thousands of Africans have been <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/african-refugees-get-no-reprieve-israels-racist-rage/23866">removed</a>
from Israel since Netanyahu became prime minister.</p>
<p>The crisis of African refugees may have fallen from
the headlines. That does not mean it has gone away.</p>
<p>If Netanyahu heads Israel’s government after April’s
election, it is a tragically safe bet that he will
continue pursuing his racist objectives.</p>
<p><em>David Sheen is an independent writer and
filmmaker. Website: <a
href="http://www.davidsheen.com/">www.davidsheen.com</a>.
Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/davidsheen">@davidsheen</a>.</em></p>
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