There are an estimated 30,000 African asylum seekers in Israel. Most came before 2012 from Eritrea, where a repressive regime has been in place for 30 years
On the face of it, Teklit Michael is similar to so many Israelis living in Tel Aviv. He just marked 10 years living in the city, works at a non-profit, and speaks fluent Hebrew and English. But after a decade in Israel, he might get sent packing to a country he’s never been to before,…
JERUSALEM (JTA) — African asylum seekers in a detention center in southern Israel began a hunger strike after the first seven Eritreans who refused to leave the country were jailed. The hunger strike by 750 asylum seekers detained at the Holot open detention facility began Tuesday night after the seven men were transferred to the nearby…
A version of this article originally appeared on 972mag.com. As a social worker in south Tel Aviv working with African asylum seekers from Eritrea and Sudan, I have seen my fair share of racism and opposition from Israeli politicians and residents in these neighborhoods. Let’s be clear on one thing, south Tel Aviv is not…
I recently received an invitation from the Consulate General of Israel in Chicago to visit Israel. I should have felt proud. I should have felt honored. I should have felt something. But I didn’t. Imagine, a trip to the Holy Land, the land promised by God to Abraham: I’d wanted to go for so long,…
In 1939, my grandmother left Vienna with her sister, parents and the few belongings they could carry and headed by ship, east to Shanghai. They were among tens of thousands of Jewish refugees fleeing the violence of Naziism who would make the city their home for the next several years. They lived in a single…
A Jewish woman and her rabbi husband are helping two Eritrean refugees get settled in New York City – after the mother and daughter arrived in the United States earlier this month. “I got a call and they said, ‘Your friend Saba has been approved and would you consider being her U.S. sponsor,’” Mara Getz…
An Eritrean woman is facing child abuse charges in Israel, after she performed a circumcision on her toddler son in her home in Eilat, failing to use the instruments employed by a Jewish ritual circumciser. She’s defending her actions as in keeping with her culture. “This is my son, my baby,” she testified in Israeli…
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