Given that Jews throughout history have been persecuted and Israel today is a very small country with many problems of security and demographics, should Israel absorb the many refugees from Sudan who cross the border from Egypt?
That is a difficult question...
The people of Israel should remember their own Diaspora thus feel a kinship but economically I doubt they could handle it. It could seriously cripple their economy if they have a lot of people without incomes supporting themselves.
Love is the battery of life....
Hi Rosie,
Thank you but it is a lot more complicated than just a problem of economics.
Your creative solution ignores a current problem and that is absorbing the Ethiopian Jewish communities and even more, just compensation and help for the thousands of people forcibly ejected from their homes in Gush Katif. They were promised immediate solution to their ejection and still two years later are waiting. There has to be a soltion for these people first.
I think that Israel, as a place of Jews who have dealt with persecution very much in their past, it is their obligation to take in refugees, even if they are not granted citizenship. I think we all hope that the genocide in Sudan will end sometime in the near future. The fact that people are being offered assistance in Israel does not mean that they will be allowed to stay once they are able to return to a safe country. There are many jobs that the people from Darfur could partake in and useful things that they could do while in exile from Sudan. I think the real question is whether the Israeli government is willing to spend the time to think of creative solutions. I have to say though, that other countries should be offering to help the Darfur refugees as well. The world should be taking a stronger stand to end this genocide, and to help the refugees.
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