From Israel:
Jerusalem (AFP) – Nearly 200 African asylum seekers who entered Israel illegally demonstrated Tuesday in Jerusalem against being housed at a new open facility they walked out of two days earlier.
The men had left the Holot facility in southern Israel on Sunday night and made their way to the city on foot and by bus.
Holding banners reading “we are refugees not criminals” and “walk for freedom and humanity,” they marched from the prime minister’s office to the nearby parliament, accompanied by dozens of Israeli human rights activists.
The demonstrators, who would be allowed to work and have social benefits if they held refugee status, accused the government of “racism.”
Sound familiar?
Except this is how they deal with illegal immigration in Israel:
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told parliament Tuesday that “the infiltrators who were transferred to the special facility can be in it, or return to their countries.”
Police broke up the protest outside parliament, a spokesman said, noting that “some 180 people were transferred to buses awaiting them after an illegal protest.”
An AFP correspondent said police used force to disperse the demonstrators, at least two of whom needed medical care.
Why the hard line on these ‘Dreamers’?
It was the latest in a series of measures aimed at cracking down on close to 60,000 illegal immigrants from Africa, whom Israel says pose a threat to the state’s Jewish character.
The construction of a high-tech fence along the border with Egypt was recently completed.
The new law amends earlier legislation which allowed for immigrants to be held for up to three years without trial, but which was overturned by the Supreme Court in September.
Strongly-enforced immigration laws… a high-tech fence… all so that the nation of Israel can maintain it’s “Jewish character.”
How many Jews in the U.S. agree with such a policy for Israel, but oppose such policy in the U.S.?
I wonder why.
