Sunday, September 6, 2015

Israel to build fence to keep refugees out

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced the start of construction of a fence along Israel's border with Jordan after calls for Tel Aviv to take in Syrian refugees.

Netanyahu said on Sunday that he would not allow Israel to be "submerged by a wave of illegal migrants and terrorist activists".

"Israel is not indifferent to the human tragedy of Syrian and African refugees... but Israel is a small country, very small, without demographic or geographic depth. That is why we must control our borders", he said at the weekly cabinet meeting according to his office.

The announcement came a day after Isaac Herzog, Israeli opposition leader, said on Saturday that Israel should take in Syrian refugees, recalling the plight of Jews who sought refuge from past conflicts.

Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, also called for Israel to allow Palestinians from Syria's refugee camps to travel to the Palestinian territories, whose external borders are controlled by Tel Aviv.

The series of fences

The new 30km fence will be a continuation of a 240km barrier that already runs along the Egyptian border.

Israel also has a fence that runs along the Syrian frontier through the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and through the occupied West Bank.

Netanyahu said further barrier work was being planned.

"We will as much as possible surround Israel's borders with a sophisticated security fence that will allow us to control our borders," he said.

Official figures show 45,000 refugees are in Israel, almost all from Eritrea and Sudan. Most of those not in detention live in poor areas of southern Tel Aviv, where there have been several protests against them.

Rights groups say thousands of African asylum-seekers have been coerced into "voluntary" departures.
Source: AFP

aljazeera.com
6/9/15
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Related:
  • Opposition Labor party leader Isaac Herzog called Saturday for Israel to take in Syrian refugees, recalling the plight of Jews who sought refuge from past conflicts.

"Our people has experienced first-hand the silence of the world and cannot be indifferent in the face of the murder and massacre raging in Syria," Herzog posted on his Facebook page.

Speaking at a panel discussion in Tel Aviv, he called on the government "to act toward receiving refugees from the war in Syria, in addition to the humanitarian efforts it is already making."

There is already hostility in Israel toward asylum-seekers from Africa and a concerted government effort to repatriate them.

Official figures show there are 45,000 illegal immigrants in the Jewish state, almost all from Eritrea and Sudan.

Most of those who are not in detention centers live in poor areas on the south side of Tel Aviv, where there have been several protests against them.

Someone identifying himself as Sefi Kamrani wrote on Herzog's Facebook page: "Take all the refugees into your home if you're so worried about them. I'd like to see you live just one week in south Tel Aviv."

  • Meanwhile, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas called on the United Nations Saturday to press Israel to allow Palestinians from refugee camps in Syria to take shelter in the Palestinian territories, whose external borders are controlled by the Jewish state.

"President Abbas has asked the Palestinian representative to the U.N. to implement as quickly as possible, in coordination with the U.N. secretary general, measures for the return of Palestinian refugees from Syria to the Palestinian territories," his office said.

The U.N. says there are more than 525,000 Palestinian refugees at its camps in Syria, many of whom have been displaced by the civil war there.

Israel has long been treating wounded Syrians who reach Israeli lines on the occupied Golan Heights, but hostility among the Druze of the area has flared due to rebel attacks on their brethren in Syria.

In June Druze attacked an Israeli military ambulance on the Golan transporting wounded Syrians to hospital, killing one of them.

Previously, Druze in northern Israel's Galilee region stoned a military ambulance they suspected was taking Syrian rebels to hospital.

   dailystar.com.lb
  6/9/15 

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