On African Refugees in Israel

(Letter)

17 March 2018

Dear comrades,

The caption for the main back page photo of WV No. 1129 (9 March) [“Israel: African Migrants Face Mass Expulsion”] includes a factual error. It states that the February 22 migrant demo went from the Holot detention center “toward another detention center” in the Negev Desert. In fact the migrants were marching to Saharonim Prison. This may sound picky, but there is a real difference. Holot is a so-called “open” facility that migrants could leave so long as they checked in three times a day and returned at night; thus the ability to stage the protest. Saharonim, in contrast, is a full-scale prison with all that that implies. The Zionist regime has repeatedly stated that if the detainees in Holot do not accept the “offer” of expulsion, they will be imprisoned indefinitely in Saharonim. In fact, the immediate precipitant for the protest was the transfer of seven asylum-seekers to Saharonim during the previous week.

Three days ago (i.e., after the WV article), the regime actually closed Holot, which cabinet ministers incredibly claimed had become a “comfortable” alternative for asylum-seekers. Their intent remains to imprison all those who do not accept expulsion, though the expulsions have temporarily been blocked by a High Court ruling. For now, those removed from Holot have simply been banned from living or working in any of the seven major cities that have African refugee communities, i.e., the only places where they might have a possibility of receiving support. In the words of an article on the Israeli left-liberal website +972, “The hundreds of asylum seekers who were released this week are free—temporarily—before they face the same impossible choice as their fellow refugees currently in Saharonim: indefinite imprisonment or deportation.”

Comradely,
John Masters

WV replies:

We thank comrade Masters for his correction. In early April, the Israeli government announced that it had reached an agreement to deport African refugees to several Western countries. However, that deal quickly fell apart. While wrangling continues between the government and the High Court, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made clear that his regime will try to deport the remaining 40,000 African migrants. (Already, some 20,000 have been pushed out over the past six years.) As the Israeli military continues its slaughter of protesters in Gaza—now numbering at least 34 dead and nearly 3,000 wounded—we underline that fighters for Palestinian national rights must raise, alongside the call to defend the Palestinian people, the demand to stop the deportation of African asylum-seekers from Israel.