Israel Minister Defends Border Fence — by Pointing to Migrants Who Died at Sea
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
In the wake of the drowning death of hundreds of migrants from Libya trying to reach Italy, an Israeli government minister justified his country’s building of a fence to keep out migrants.
Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz in a post Monday on his Facebook page, called the deaths a “tragedy that shocks all humanity,” then added, “Look how right was the government’s policy to build a fence on the border with Gaza that blocks the way of migrant workers from Africa from entering Israel.”
Israel in 2012 built a fence on its border with Egypt and added sophisticated surveillance equipment to stem the influx of migrants from Eritrea and the Sudan, often hundreds per month.
Neither the Israeli government, nor the prime minister or president, had issued a statement by Monday evening on Sunday’s tragedy at sea, when a boatload of migrants sank off the coast of Libya, killing as many as 700. Nearly 3,200 migrants died on the same crossing route in 2014, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing figures from the International Organization for Migration.
Approximately 50,000 Africans who entered Israel through Egypt live in Israel, which is bound by international treaties to let them stay while they have United Nations refugee status. Most are economic migrants seeking a place to make a better life for themselves. Hundreds have been held in a detention center, while thousands given temporary visas live in impoverished parts of Israel.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
