Tuesday, September 09, 2014

Israel in breach of international law - so what's new?

Human Rights Watch says Israeli authorities have coerced almost 7,000 Eritrean and Sudanese to return to their homes, where they may face serious abuse. The report says that some returning Sudanese have faced torture, arbitrary detention, and treason charges at the hands of the anti-Israel Sudanese government, while returning Eritreans also risk harassment.

For the past several years Israel has been placing thousands of Eritrean and Sudanese migrants in detention centers in the Negev desert. Citing statements by senior Israeli officials including former Israeli Interior Minister Eli Yishai, Human Rights Watch says the aim of the policy is to make life so intolerable that the migrants leave Israel on their own volition.

"Destroying people's hope of finding protection by forcing them into a corner and then claiming they are voluntarily leaving Israel is transparently abusive," said report author Gerry Simpson. "Eritreans and Sudanese in Israel are left with the choice of living in fear of spending the rest of their days locked up in desert detention centers or of risking detention and abuse back home."

 Israel, itself, is made up and created by migrants and to accommodate those, Israel expelled hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes and villages. Israel offers poor African migrants relatively good opportunities to improve their economic standing. Many are employed in menial jobs in the hotel and restaurant industries in Tel Aviv and the Red Sea resort city of Eilat.

From here 

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