Between 2006 and 2012, approximately 38,000 African asylum seekers and economic migrants — most of whom are Eritrean and Sudanese nationals — entered Israel from Egypt. This influx has ignited a debate in Israel and around the world about how a country can balance its values with its interests.
To reduce the number of new arrivals, Israel constructed a border fence with Egypt, but many migrants and asylum seekers already live inside its borders. Concerns over rising crime rates and the demographic character of Israel as a Jewish state have led some Israelis to support deportations. At the same time, others believe that Israel has a moral obligation to those in need and should assist the asylum seekers to build new lives in Israel and have protested the deportations.
The issue has again come to the forefront of Israeli and international news because of an a deal with the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees that was announced in April 2018 — and subsequently suspended to resettle half of the asylum seekers in Western countries.
Within the American Jewish community, this issue has elicited strong responses driven by a commitment to the security of Israel, compassion for asylum seekers, and a love for the State of Israel.
Below is a list of sources representing a range of opinions. This list is not intended to be comprehensive, but it is a selection of sources that we believe are balanced and accurate in their coverage of the issue.
Background Resources
Illegal Migrants & Refugees in Israel Major Trends and Background Information (Jewish Federations of North America, February 2018)
Unpacking Israel’s African Migrant Dilemma (HonestReporting, March 2018)
An Integrated Jewish World Response to Israel’s Migrant Challenge (The Jewish People Policy Institute, March 2018)
Editorials and Opinion (listed in order of author’s surname):
Then There Was Disbelief
Times of Israel
By Julie Fisher
“Politics are complex. The prime minister is under tremendous pressure from his political allies. Political realities, however real, do not negate the legal rights of the asylum seekers to have their refugee status determined in a transparent process and not to be sent to countries where their safety cannot be assured. These rights are based on the 1951 Refugee Convention signed by Israel.”
Mr. Prime Minister, I am ashamed of you
Times of Israel
By Donniel Hartman
“Your morally bankrupt rhetoric, branding all asylum seekers as “infiltrators,” instead of allowing that, at the very least, some are refugees, and supporting the false claims that they pose a danger to the Jewishness of Israel and the well-being of southern Tel Aviv, caught up with you. Or more correctly, infected us all.”
Migrant Policy
Jerusalem Post
By the Jerusalem Post editorial board
“Israel, a tiny country of Jews – many of them refugees or descendants of refugees – surrounded by hundreds of millions of hostile Muslims and with its own minority Arabs, is less well positioned than Europe to absorb Africans.”
Israel's Asylum Seeker Crisis: Quick Fix Can’t Mask Racism Problem
Haaretz
By Anshel Pfeffer
“More than the government ever cared about solving the social problems in the neighborhoods of south Tel Aviv, which were dilapidated and neglected long before the wave of African asylum seekers began arriving some 12 years ago, it wanted its base to know it was doing something to get rid of these ‘infiltrators.’
PM Netanyahu absolutely right in annulling migrant deal
Ynet
By Shlomo Pyutrekovsky
The deal with the UN's refugee agency was a bad one, which would have provided ample incentives for economically-minded migrants to infiltrate Israel in hopes of a better future here on in other Western countries
Why deportation of asylum seekers is unnecessary
Ynet
By Ben-Dror Yemini
“According to serious reports and European court rulings from recent years, Eritreans returning to their country are no longer in danger of being tortured; now that the situation has changed, there’s no need to deport them—there’s a need to return them.”
The United States relocated its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem on May 14, 2018, coinciding with celebrations commemorating Israel’s 70th Independence Day. Following through on his campaign promise, President Trump broke with decades of U.S. policy. He acted under a 1995 law that requires the United States to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and move its embassy to Jerusalem , a law that every other president has consistently waived.
Recognizing that Jerusalem is sacred to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, the UN’s 1947 Partition Plan intended for Jerusalem to be a corpus separatum, a city administered by an international body. Arab nations, however, rejected the Partition Plan and launched a war against Israel. The Arab nations lost that war, and the armistice line divided Jerusalem: west of the armistice line became undisputedly Israel’s, while east of the line entered an extended period of disputed claims.
In 1980, the Israeli parliament passed a law declaring the “complete and united” city of Jerusalem, both west and east, to be the capital of Israel. But the United Nations regards East Jerusalem as occupied and the whole city as disputed until negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians resolve its status. Today, much of the international community does not recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, demanding that its status be determined in negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas responded to the United States embassy move by saying that it represented a “slap in the face” and signified that Washington was no longer to be trusted as an honest broker in potential peace negotiations.
Since the United States relocated its embassy to Jerusalem, Guatemala and Paraguay have followed suit, and as many as half a dozen more countries are reportedly planning to similarly relocate their embassies.
Below is a list of sources representing a range of opinions. This list is not intended to be comprehensive, but it is a selection of sources that we believe are balanced and accurate in their coverage of the issue.
Background Resources
The U.S. Embassy Prepares to Move to Jerusalem (Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, May 7, 2018)
Is the U.S. Embassy Move Legal? (HonestReporting, posted in the Jerusalem Post, May 15, 2018)
Why is the U.S. Moving Its Embassy to Jerusalem? (Reuters, May 7, 2018)
U.S. Embassy Move to Jerusalem: Everything You Need to Know (Haaretz, May 14, 2018)
Editorials and Opinion (listed in order of author’s surname):
Trump’s Jerusalem Embassy Move Validates 3,500 Years of Jewish History
Fox News
By Rabbi Abraham Cooper
“Israel faces a relentless asymmetrical war of demonization and delegitimization. From U.N. resolutions to church groups to academic assaults to global boycotts to social media campaigns, Zionists are denounced as racists and Israelis as Nazis, latter-day colonialists, interlopers and even “fake” Jews. Enter Donald Trump. With the stroke of a pen, he validated 3,500 years of Jewish history by opening the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem, debunking the global smear campaign against the Jewish State.”
Donald Trump follows through on promise to move U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem
Las Vegas Review-Journal
By the Editorial Board
“Critics have assailed the president for jeopardizing the peace process in the Middle East. Would they prefer the same strategies that have produced failure for decades? In fact, Jerusalem has always been Israel’s capital, even if the United States preferred to carry out some sort of diplomatic facade to appease various interests.”
A Grotesque Spectacle in Jerusalem
The New York Times
By Michelle Goldberg
“Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner and other leading lights of the Trumpist right gathered in Israel to celebrate the relocation of the American Embassy to Jerusalem, a gesture widely seen as a slap in the face to Palestinians who envision East Jerusalem as their future capital. The event was grotesque. It was a consummation of the cynical alliance between hawkish Jews and Zionist evangelicals who believe that the return of Jews to Israel will usher in the apocalypse and the return of Christ, after which Jews who don’t convert will burn forever.”
In Jerusalem, it’s the Trump team vs. reality
Washington Post
By Kathleen Parker
“The relocation of the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv has everything to do with the Palestinian protests. Blaming Hamas for organizing the protests is like blaming Republicans for electing Trump. Did anyone really think there would be no protests against a move that essentially ends the bilateral peace process? Moving the embassy may have been the right thing to do — and maybe no time would be right — but we shouldn’t delude ourselves. The embassy was moved because it served Trump. How do we know this? Because everything Trump does is for Trump.”
Moving US embassy to Jerusalem could help end the conflict
CNN
By Daniel Shapiro
“Moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem will help strengthen the principle that Israel's claim to the city, born of centuries of Jewish connection to the city, is legitimate and must be recognized. It probably should have been long ago. What will help complete the picture is similar clarity by the US that the Palestinians, with their own historical and religious ties, have a valid claim to East Jerusalem. Trump has signaled this step by saying that, despite US recognition, the boundaries of Israeli sovereignty will only be determined in negotiations.”
