Sudanese asylum seekers living in Israel fear being kicked out once ties are normalized between the two countries, although some hope that their presence would be seen as an advantage.
Technically at war with Israel for decades, Sudan on Friday last week became the third Arab country this year to announce that it is normalizing ties with the Jewish state, following the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in August.
However, since the announcement, members of the Sudanese community in Israel have been “very afraid” of being sent back, said 26-year-old Barik Saleh, a Sudanese asylum seeker who lives in a suburb of Tel Aviv.
Photo: AFP
Israel has a Sudanese population of about 6,000 people, mostly asylum seekers.
Thousands of others left or were forced to return after Sudan split in 2011, when South Sudan won its independence — only for the fledgling country to plunge into civil war.
Some of the Sudanese — often labeled as “infiltrators” for crossing illegally into Israeli territory before being granted permission to stay — were minors when they arrived.
They are not always allowed to work and they cannot gain Israeli citizenship.
Saleh, who grew up in West Darfur, was just nine when his family fled war to Chad.
“My parents are in a refugee camp,” said the young man, who arrived after journeying through Libya and Egypt, and has lived in Israel for 13 years.
“I will be the first one for normalization, but if I will be deported from here, then I will be in 100 percent danger,” he said.
Former Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir oversaw Sudan’s civil war in the Darfur region from 2003. About 300,000 people died in the conflict and 2.5 million were forced from their homes.
Al-Bashir, in detention in Khartoum, is wanted by the International Criminal Court over charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur.
“We are here because it is not safe to go back to Sudan yet,” said 31-year-old Monim Haroon, who comes from a stronghold region of Darfuri rebel leader Abdelwahid Nour’s Sudan Liberation Movement.
“The reason why we are here in Israel is not because of the lack of a diplomatic relationship between Sudan and Israel, but because of the genocide and ethnic cleansing that we went through,” Haroon said.
Sudan’s transitional government, in place after the fall of al-Bashir last year, signed a landmark peace deal with an alliance of rebel groups earlier this month.
However, Nour’s rebel faction was not one of them.
Some of those in power in Sudan today were also in control under al-Bashir.
They include Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, vice president of Sudan’s ruling transitional sovereign council.
Dagalo heads the Rapid Support Forces, which human rights groups accuse of abuses in Sudan’s Darfur provinces.
“For me it is very dangerous,” said Haroon, who was previously head of Nour’s office in Israel. “Unless Abdelwahid signs a peace agreement, I cannot go back.”
In Neve Shaanan, a suburb of Tel Aviv known for its community of asylum seekers, stalls and restaurants offering Sudanese food, including a version of the popular bean dish foul, served with grated cheese. Usumain Baraka, a smartly dressed 26-year-old who works nearby, has recently finished a master’s degree in public policy at a university in Herzliya, north of Tel Aviv.
Like Saleh, he too was nine when he fled Darfur for Chad, where his mother still lives in a refugee camp.
“They [militiamen] killed my dad and my big brother, and they took everything we had in the village,” Baraka said. “At one point I had two options: to go back to Darfur to fight for a rebel group, or leave the camp and try to have a normal life.”
While the young men expressed fear that their presence in Israel would be at risk under the normalization agreement, some said they would like the Jewish state to see it as an asset rather than a burden.
Haroon said that Sudanese in Israel could be a “bridge” between them, not only in the private sector, but to also to help build understanding between the two nations.
“I hope the Israeli government will see this potential asset, the important role that we can bring promoting the interest of the two countries,” he said.
Sudan and Israel have said in the past few days that migration would be one of the issues on the agenda during upcoming meetings on bilateral cooperation.
“Israel is my second home,” Saleh said. “There is no language that I speak better than Hebrew, even my own local language.”
However, Jean-Marc Liling, an Israeli lawyer who specializes in asylum issues, warned that with the normalization announcement, the return of Sudanese asylum seekers would likely be on the Israeli government’s radar.
“The first thing that comes to the government’s mind is: We’ll be able to send back the ‘infiltrators,’” Liling said.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of