Court prohibits detention of Sudanese refugees days before mass arrests begin

Mya Guarnieri Jaradat By Mya Guarnieri Jaradat October 12, 2012 | Edit

A Jerusalem court issued a temporary injunction on Thursday, prohibiting the detention of Sudanese refugees. The group was slated for arrest and forced transfer to a prison camp in the Negev desert beginning on October 15.

The court’s move comes in response to an October 3 petition, filed by the Clinic for Migrants’ Rights at the Academic Center of Law and Business, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), the Hotline for Migrant Workers, ASSAF Aid Organization for Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Israel, the African Refugee Development Center (ADRC), and Kav La’Oved, as well six African asylum seekers. The petition was filed against Interior Minister Eli Yishai, Defense Minster Ehud Barak, and the government’s legal counsel, and requested the court to issue an injunction stopping Yishai and the others from jailing refugees.

Yesterday’s ruling–which was issued by Jerusalem District Court Judge Nava Ben-Or, and which comes just three days before the arrests were scheduled to begin–means that the detention of Sudanese asylum seekers is temporarily delayed, pending a final decision on the petition. A hearing on the matter will take place October 30.

According to ACRI, “the Minister of the Interior’s policy would result in thousands of Sudanese asylum seekers along with their children being hunted down, arrested en masse, and detained indefinitely in extreme conditions in the desert.  Included among these people are survivors of genocide in Darfur and atrocities in other areas.”

ACRI attorney Oded Feller remarks:

The asylum requests of Sudanese citizens are not even checked, and in any event, it is not possible to deport them from Israel in a way that will safeguard their welfare. The decision to imprison asylum seekers from Sudan and their children for indefinite terms in extreme desert conditions is exceptionally cruel. Regrettably, the Prime Minster and Attorney General are not willing to restrain the Minister of the Interior, and therefore a petition must be brought to the court.

Israel is home to approximately 60,000 African refugees, most of whom are from Sudan and Eritrea. Israel began deporting South Sudanese refugees this past June.

Mya Guarnieri Jaradat

Mya Guarnieri Jaradat is a writer and independent journalist based in South Florida after almost a decade in Israel/Palestine. Her book, The Unchosen: The Lives of Israel's New Others (Pluto Press) was shortlisted for the Jewish Quarterly Wingate Prize. Her reportage and commentary has been published in The Nation, The NY Times, Haaretz, Le Monde Diplomatique, Al Jazeera English, The Guardian and many other outlets. Her essays and fiction have appeared in Slate, Guernica, the Jewish Quarterly, Narrative, and The Kenyon Review. She is currently working on a memoir.

End of article module for Members

TEST TEST GAL Our team has been devastated by the horrific events of this latest war. The world is reeling from Israel’s unprecedented onslaught on Gaza, inflicting mass devastation and death upon besieged Palestinians, as well as the atrocious attack and kidnappings by Hamas in Israel on October 7. Our hearts are with all the people and communities facing this violence.    We are in an extraordinarily dangerous era in Israel-Palestine. The bloodshed has reached extreme levels of brutality and threatens to engulf the entire region. Emboldened settlers in the West Bank, backed by the army, are seizing the opportunity to intensify their attacks on Palestinians. The most far-right government in Israel’s history is ramping up its policing of dissent, using the cover of war to silence Palestinian citizens and left-wing Jews who object to its policies.   This escalation has a very clear context, one that +972 has spent the past 14 years covering: Israeli society’s growing racism and militarism, entrenched occupation and apartheid, and a normalized siege on Gaza.   We are well positioned to cover this perilous moment – but we need your help to do it. This terrible period will challenge the humanity of all of those working for a better future in this land. Palestinians and Israelis are already organizing and strategizing to put up the fight of their lives.   Can we count on your support? +972 Magazine is a leading media voice of this movement, a desperately needed platform where Palestinian and Israeli journalists, activists, and thinkers can report on and analyze what is happening, guided by humanism, equality, and justice. Join us.

Make a Donation