Mass march by asylum seekers

Israel’s illegal immigrants launched a mass protest this week, marching on foreign embassies in Tel Aviv demanding asylum.

More than 60,000 Africans have entered Israel illegally. Many claim they are fleeing persecution, but Jerusalem does not process their applications for refugee status.

Thousands of marchers held several days of demonstrations this week, calling on the government not only to process refugee applications but to let them work. Illegals can currently be detained for long periods, and the marchers also called for an end to the detentions.

On Tuesday, 150 Africans who are in detention upped the ante by starting a hunger strike. “We will continue the hunger strike until our requests will be fulfilled, or we will die from hunger,” the strikers declared. They said: “We cannot go back to our countries in this time and we can’t spend our lives as displaced refugees in prison.”

But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took to his Facebook page to insist that protests won’t change policy. “Neither protests nor strikes will help,” he wrote. “We completely stopped the infiltration into Israel and now we are determined to send away the illegal migrant workers who entered Israel.”

Netanyahu argued at Sunday’s cabinet meeting that Israel has no legal or moral right to take a softer line towards the illegals. “I would like to emphasise that these are not refugees, but people who are breaking the law and whom we will deal with to the fullest extent of the law,” he said.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry released a statement saying that Jerusalem has granted de-facto protection to most of the illegals who have entered Israel, it cannot be expected to do more. “Israel tries to balance the need to control its borders with the need to protect the human rights of those who enter,” said the statement.

Apparently responding to the protestors, the Foreign Ministry said: “Statements on migrant issues that fail to take into account all of the above-mentioned elements are unhelpful and do not contribute to clarify the complex issue, which the government of Israel is handling with the responsibility and seriousness that this situation commands.”

NATHAN JEFFAY