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Israel imprisons Darfur refugees
Israel sees itself as both a refuge for Jews fleeing persecution and a light unto nations. So when it was revealed here that 200 Sudanese, many fleeing the bloodshed of the Darfur region, had found their way to Israel only to be locked up in prison, controversy ensued.
Jewish state hit for not helping genocide survivors
Dina Kraft, New York Times
Friday, June 9, 2006
(06-09) 04:00 PDT Tel Aviv
Because Sudan is on the U.S. State Department's list of terrorist countries, the Israeli government says it fears terrorists could be lurking among the refugees. But human rights groups have challenged the detentions in court, and some of Israel's most loyal supporters are saying the policy is wrong because it allows fear to overwhelm moral obligation.
This week, Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor, joined the protesters.
"We as Jews are obliged to help not only Jews," Wiesel said in the daily Haaretz. "History constantly chooses a capital of human suffering, and Darfur is today the capital of human suffering. Israel should absorb refugees from Darfur, even a symbolic number."
About one-third of the detained Sudanese are from Darfur, another third are Christians fleeing Muslim persecution, and the rest fled Sudan's grinding poverty or left for other reasons.
The 1954 enemy infiltrators law under which the Sudanese were arrested allows the government to hold them without judicial review to determine if they are security threats. A small number of Sudanese, mostly minors or mothers with very young children, are confined to communal farms and villages.
Human rights groups in Israel have petitioned the Supreme Court to press the government to give hearings to the detainees, some of whom have been held for about a year. The government is due to respond to the court any day.
more
Dina Kraft, New York Times
Friday, June 9, 2006
(06-09) 04:00 PDT Tel Aviv
Because Sudan is on the U.S. State Department's list of terrorist countries, the Israeli government says it fears terrorists could be lurking among the refugees. But human rights groups have challenged the detentions in court, and some of Israel's most loyal supporters are saying the policy is wrong because it allows fear to overwhelm moral obligation.
This week, Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor, joined the protesters.
"We as Jews are obliged to help not only Jews," Wiesel said in the daily Haaretz. "History constantly chooses a capital of human suffering, and Darfur is today the capital of human suffering. Israel should absorb refugees from Darfur, even a symbolic number."
About one-third of the detained Sudanese are from Darfur, another third are Christians fleeing Muslim persecution, and the rest fled Sudan's grinding poverty or left for other reasons.
The 1954 enemy infiltrators law under which the Sudanese were arrested allows the government to hold them without judicial review to determine if they are security threats. A small number of Sudanese, mostly minors or mothers with very young children, are confined to communal farms and villages.
Human rights groups in Israel have petitioned the Supreme Court to press the government to give hearings to the detainees, some of whom have been held for about a year. The government is due to respond to the court any day.
more
For more information:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...
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