From the Ground: The Real Israel-Palestine

New Issue: Refugees In Israel

We spent the morning meeting with Asmerom, a 24-year-old Eritrean man who has been in Israel for 13 months. Like thousands of others who fled from a war in Eritrea and landed in Israel, he’s seeking status as an official “refugee.” The Israeli government refuses to give him, or essentially any of the others, this label. Now, he has no where else to turn.

We spent a couple hours chatting in a local coffee shop (along with Ellen, who volunteers to protect the rights of these people). Asmerom told us a little of his harrowing story, but at the beginning made clear that we didn’t have enough time for him to tell us all that he’s been through.

As the Eritreans (there are also a lot of Sudanese would-be refugees here, but the largest population is from Eritrea) continue to protest their treatment, the Israeli government has continued to ignore them. They refuse to give them refugee status, which would give them some rights, but instead leave them to a very hard life. Many are not allowed to work, and they live constantly in fear of imprisonment or deportation.

Clearly, Palestinians are not the only ones suffering here.