Darfurian Refugees

An optional seminar was offered on Tuesday (Feb 16) in which a speaker discussed reasons to obtain refugee status and where refugees in Israel are immigrating from. One of the largest situations in Israel today involves Sudan. The Arab Africans are killing tribes of Black Africans in Darfur as well as Southern Sudan. The UN declared this genocide but has taken little action beyond that.

One area of Tel Aviv houses refugees and has a completely different atmosphere. The types of stores, languages seen/spoken, and ethnicity of the people make you feel as though you’ve left Israel. Ben, a participant in my program, said that one street looked exactly like Venezuela.

We stopped in a small store where two Darfurian refugees told their story. They hung a picture on the wall of their former tribe in Sudan, half of which has been killed off. The men managed to escape and worked as computer programmers for high-tech companies in Israel but the pay was not enough to get by. Now they’ve opened a shop in which they teach computer skills and sell accessories. They are fluent in their native language, English, and are learning Hebrew. Their families are growing up as Israelis but they are barely getting by. In addition, random raids by police checking for legal documents make them fear losing their store every day.