Sudan refugees and Macedonia turn to Israel, despite dismal results in Global Peace Index
Posted on August 5, 2007 • By Miriam Schwab
Category: Featured, Social |
A growing number of Sudanese refugees are fleeing Egypt for Israel, Egypt’s Al-Ahram has reported. In addition, the Macedonian government has appealed to Israel for assistance in its struggle to extinguish the massive forest fires plaguing the country. Israel immediately responded in the affirmative, making it one of the first countries to send emergency assistance to Macedonia. Last night a special team set out to supply Macedonia with protection kits for firefighting and rescue personnel, breathing kits and high-temperature firefighting suits.
Apparently, the Sudanese refugees and Macedonia were not concerned by the fact that Israel is one of the least peaceful countries in the world according to the The Global Peace Index released at the end of May of this year. Out of 121 countries, Israel came up third from the bottom. The only two countries that were ranked as less peaceful than Israel are Sudan and Iraq.
The data for the index was compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit, and is composed of 24 indicators, ranging from a nation’s level of military expenditure to its relations with neighbouring countries and the level of respect for human rights. According to Andrew Williamson as reported in Ynetnews, the data were drawn from the United Nations, the World Bank, peace groups and the intelligence unit’s own assessments.
Sudan refugees voting with their feet
Many expressed criticism of the methods used in the Index, including The Economist. But instead of getting into a whole analysis of the Index, let’s look at how the downtrodden of the world see Israel, which received a lower ranking in the Human Rights factor than, say, Egypt:
Khamis, one of the first Sudanese to cross the border from Egypt to Israel maintains that he does not regret the move. “In Israel Sudanese can earn $4 per hour. In Egypt such a wage is unheard of. Moreover, medical care and educational opportunities are far better in Israel than in Egypt.”
Another Sudanese refugee in Israel, Daniel, described his ordeal. “We were smuggled across the wilderness of Sinai at night. There were Egyptian and Israeli military patrols and we were in constant danger of hitting a minefield. It was a hellish journey but we made it to the ‘Promised Land’,” he said.
Such stories have prompted many Sudanese to make the dangerous journey across the Sinai wastelands to Israel where, according to Mike Kagan of the American University in Cairo, some Sudanese refugees live for free on Israeli kibbutz’s.
…
Excessively harsh socio-economic conditions and racist attitudes in Egypt seem to be the main reason why Sudanese refugees want to relocate to Israel. Of the Sudanese refugees now resident in Israel 71 per cent report verbal and physical abuse as the main reason for their fleeing Egypt.
…
The December 2005 Mustafa Mahmoud Mosque incident, when police violently cleared a garden square of an encampment of protesting Sudanese refugees, killing many in the process, has had a negative impact on the refugees’ view of Egypt.
The following story from the Jerusalem Post describes the horrific fate awaiting refugees that try to escape into Israel from Egypt:
Egyptian soldiers killed four Sudanese refugees near the Egypt-Israel border overnight Wednesday in full view of IDF troops, a shaken-sounding IDF soldier said in an interview with Channel 10, Thursday evening.
According to the soldier, female IDF troops operating night vision devices identified several refugees approaching the border in an attempt to infiltrate Israel and alerted other soldiers who arrived after a few minutes in an army jeep.
However, Egyptian troops who also discovered the refugees, fired upon them, immediately killing two and wounding a third. A fourth refugee ran towards the fence and an IDF soldier stretched out his hands, trying to help him cross.
At that point, the soldier recalled, two Egyptian soldiers arrived and started pulling at the refugee’s legs.
“It was literally like we were playing ‘tug of war’ with this man,” the soldier said. The soldier eventually loosened his grip on the man, fearing the Egyptians would shoot him.
“They were aiming loaded weapons straight at us, I was afraid they were going to shoot us,” he said.
The Egyptians then carried the man several meters away from the border fence, and proceeded to beat him and another wounded refugee to death with stones and clubs.
“What happened there yesterday was a lynch. These are not men, they’re animals. They killed him without even using firearms,” the soldier said. “We just heard screams of pain and the sounds of beatings. Then the screams stopped.”
The downtrodden of the world seek shelter in Israel. Countries in times of need turn to Israel.
That speaks a heck of a lot louder than the Global Peace Index.
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