African Refugees Plan March On Jerusalem Amid Anger At Israeli Dentention Plans!

Protesting asylum-seekers from some of Africa's worst-hit conflict zones have hit back at Benjamin Netanyahu's dismissal of their refugee credentials

By Robert Tait

African asylum seekers vowed to defy Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, on Tuesday by staging a dramatic mass march to Jerusalem in protest at draconian new laws allowing them to be detained indefinitely.

The pledge came as thousands of demonstrators from Sudan and Eritrea demonstrated in Tel Aviv for the third day running over Israel's refusal to treat them as refugees rather than economic migrants.

The knesset, the Israeli parliament, last month passed legislation enabling the authorities to detain illegal "infiltrators" for up to one year without charge. It also opened a new "open" detention centre under a strict regime in an isolated spot in the Negev desert designed to house up to 9,000 people. Some 150 inmates at the new facility, known as Holot, have started a hunger strike in protest at their treatment.

The new measures are part of a concerted campaign to persuade an estimated 54,000 asylum-seekers to "voluntarily" return to their home countries.

The flow of African asylum-seekers to Israel - which began in 2006 - came to stop last year after the completion of a vast security fence on the country's border with Egypt's Sinai region, which had been used as a transit point.

At a demonstration on Tuesday in Levinski Square in Tel Aviv's impoverished southern suburbs - home to many African migrants - a procession of speakers said returning to their war-torn countries would endanger their lives and called on international agencies to pressure Israel to treat them as genuine refugees.

They also accused Mr Netanyahu's government of forgetting Israel's past as a haven for persecuted Jewish refugees from Europe - with some poignantly describing how they had escaped genocide in the Sudanese region of Darfur.

One man from Darfur, who described himself as a genocide survivor, hung a placard arouund his neck which read: "We are not Filistins [Palestinians] to stay in Israel forever."

^{African refugees plan march on Jerusalem amid anger at Israeli dentention plans (ARIEL SCHALIT/AP)}

"One of the reasons we came to Israel is because of its history, not because it's the same history but because it has some of the same points," said Mutasim Ali, a demonstration organiser.

"But we came here and found that everything is completely the opposite. We have told them many times that we are genocide survivors and they need to learn from history and act according to the Geneva Convention [on refugees]."

Mr Ali said he had escaped Sudan after being imprisoned for political activism only to spend another four-and-a-half months in detention in Israel after being arrested as an illegal immigrant.

Dawit, 27, fled his native Eritrea where he was studying marine microbiology after being to do indefinite army service. He first went to Ethiopia but says the primitive conditions in a refugee camp there drove him to leave for Egypt. He eventually fled from there fearing that its close diplomatic ties to the Sudanese government would lead to his arrest.

"I thought Israel was a democratic country and could save my life but I'm still living in a very bad situation because the authorities haven't checked my asylum request," he said, recalling that he spent three months in detention after entering Israel. "One of the things that brought us here was that we knew the history of the Jews meant they knew more than anyone what a refugee was. So our expectation was that they would treat us as refugees. We've been disappointed. We think maybe they have forgotten."

Bsow Ebrahim, 30, said he was forced to leave his native Nuba Mountain region of Sudan because he had fought in the rebel Sudanese People's Liberation Army. "I left because my life was in danger," he said.

"In 2011, war broke out and the government started killing everybody who was part of the rebel group and their supporters. If I hadn't left, I would have been killed too. We are surprised at the way the Israeli government deals with us. We thought we would be treated with respect but after I arrived here, I had to sleep outdoors in this park for the first two months."

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has criticised Israel for labelling the asylum-seekers as "infiltrators" without examining their asylum claims - warning that it could amount to a violation of refugee conventions.

^{An woman holds an Israeli flag during the rally (URIEL SINAI/GETTY IMAGES)}

The demonstrators - who started their protests on Sunday outside Tel Aviv city hall - say they will occupy Levinski Square indefinitely if they are denied police permission to march to Jerusalem, where they say they will petition the Knesset.

They also pledged to continue a workers strike. Despite being denied official work permits, many of them hold down jobs illegally in hotels, restaurants and as cleaners.

Mr Netanyahu, who has warned that the influx of African migrants threatens Israel's Jewish character, has insisted he will not bow to the protesters and continues to reject their claims to political asylum.

"Demonstrations and strikes won't do any good," he told members of his Likud party on Monday.

"Just as we've succeeded in blocking off illegal infiltrations thanks to the security fence, we're determined to send back those who made it in before the border was closed. These are not refugees... they are illegal immigrants who've come looking for work."