by Shalom Rav [➚] · Monday, June 30th, 2008
As perfect a 21st century Jewish mission statement as you are going to find – here’s a taste from a recent Ha’aretz editorial on the plight of Darfurian refugees who are currently seeking asylum in Israel:
Too soon we have forgotten the suffering that is the lot of the persecuted. Perhaps we have grown accustomed to concern ourselves only with our own plight after absorbing Jewish refugees since the founding of the state. Today, when we are more prosperous, when the reservoir of Jewish refugees has dried up, there is fortunately no reason to scan the globe for people who could be considered Jewish and coax them to come here. And there is no reason to remain indifferent to the suffering of non-Jews who could contribute to the State of Israel as much as any Jew.
Darfur and its refugees are like an alarm bell for the collective conscience, and that bell is supposed to ring also when non-Jews are suffering.
Another great take (again in Ha’aretz) comes from the venerable Israeli Holocaust scholar Yehuda Bauer.
by zt [➚] · Wednesday, August 22nd, 2007
Mobius discussed a related situation a few days ago but since then much has happened:
JERUSALEM, Aug. 19 — Israel sent approximately 50 African migrants, many reported to be Sudanese refugees from war-torn Darfur, back across the border to Egypt late Saturday night, a move that drew the condemnation of Israeli human rights advocates when it became known on Sunday.
The migrants had illegally crossed the Israeli-Egyptian border earlier Saturday and were sent back the same day, as Israel instituted a new policy of instantly deporting such illegal migrants, regardless of their status, an Israeli government spokesman said.
Israel is a great place to flee if your are a refugee. Provided, of course, that you happen to be Jewish.
UPDATE: If Israel accepted refugees it might accidentally forward the idea that there is a pervasive genocide thereby devaluing the holocaust and challenging the uniqueness of the Jewish narrative.
by Mobius [➚] · Monday, April 16th, 2007
Haaretz reports,
Hundreds of Holocaust survivors, students and members of youth movements gathered Monday in front of the Knesset to protest against Israel’s neglect of Holocaust survivors, many of whom are in a dire financial situation.
The rally came as Israel marked Holocaust Remembrance Day on Monday with memorials at the Knesset and the Yad Vashem Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority.
[...] A representative of the treasury told a special Knesset hearing concerning survivors’ financial situation on Sunday that some 180,000 Israeli Holocaust survivors do not receive any form of assistance from the state.
[...] “Israel has a moral and financial obligation to the survivors, and time in this particular case is of the essence,” [Welfare Minister Isaac] Herzog said. He added that the “dire condition of the survivors casts a shadow on Israeli society.”
In related news, ynet reports,
Several members of the Meretz Youth movement protested outside the Interior Ministry in Jerusalem Monday evening against what they said was Israel’s unfair treatment of refugees from Darfur.
The demonstrators, who purposely chose Holocaust Memorial Day to voice their protest, said Israel should be the first to welcome the refugees.
“On a day when the country unites in the memory of the six million Jews who were murdered during the Holocaust, we say that Israel must keep its doors open to the Darfur refugees, despite the fact that we have no diplomatic relations with Sudan,†Meretz Youth chairman Uri Zacki told Ynet.
As perfect a 21st century Jewish mission statement as you are going to find – here’s a taste from a recent Ha’aretz editorial on the plight of Darfurian refugees who are currently seeking asylum in Israel:
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