Hundreds of African asylum seekers held a protest march against government policy and violence directed against them by Tel Aviv residents on Sunday. The protesters marched from Tel Aviv’s Levinsky Park to the UN mission in Ha’hashmonaim Street carrying signs which read “Don’t forget history. Being a refugee is not a choice” “A refugee is not cancer, he’s a person who escaped persecution and is entitled to protection” and “We want group protection, not refugee rights.” Planned by the “Bnei Darfur” (Sons of Darfur) Organization, the protest was one of the largest protest of its sort planned by members of the African migrant community.
Chanting “Sudanese are not cancer” and “refugee rights now,” the marchers made their way from Lewinsky Park in South Tel Aviv to the offices of the United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) on Hashmonaim Street. At the UNHCR offices they passed on a letter to the Israeli government, in which they asked for the Israeli government to recognize them as refugees and not migrant workers. One of the organizers, 24-year-old Darfur native Adam Bashar, said journalists that the protest was held to call for “the UN to take the responsibility over the refugees because the Israeli government is failing to do so.”
The African asylum seekers protest in Tel-Aviv, June 10, 2012 (Photo: Activestills)
The protesters are seeking greater UN involvement in their campaign for refugee status. Several argued that the UN’s Refugee Agency must see to it that should they be deported from Israel, it would be to a democratic state. “We have come to tell the lovely people of Tel Aviv that we are sorry for any girl who got raped and are asking you to treat us as individuals, not a collective. Those who committed a crime are not the majority.”
The protest was also attended by members of the “Hachoti” (My Sister) Movement for Women in Israel, including director Shula Keshet. “We are a group of south Tel Aviv residents who have come to support (the refugees) and declare we do not accept the incitement against asylum seekers,” she said. “Someone up high is trying to exploit the crisis in the area to divide and rule. We won’t allow this policy to continue. We want equality among us.”
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