The richer Israel gets, the more attractive it becomes to Africans.
From the Forward.com: The visit with African asylum seekers in Tel Aviv introduced the pastors to one of Israel’s most disadvantaged, and controversial, groups. The approximately 40,000 such migrants in Israel, mostly from Eritrea, say they came to Israel to escape a brutal dictatorship and an unlimited, punishing military draft. But the government has portrayed them as illegal economic migrants who came to Israel for jobs.
Since 2013, the government has detained thousands in Holot, a detention facility adjacent to a prison on the Egyptian border. Last month, Israel’s Supreme Court ruled that detainees must be released after a maximum stay of 12 months.
Speaking to the pastors about the migrants, International Fellowship of Christians and Jews President Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein said, “You have your human responsibility as people, as Jews,” adding that the government “need[s] to do better.” Sibhat Petros, an Eritrean Pentecostal preacher, then told the group about his escape from Eritrea to Israel because Pentecostal Christianity is illegal there.
But it doesn’t look like the meeting will mobilize the Church of God in Christ to aid the asylum seekers’ cause. Pastor Glenn Plummer, who led the group’s delegation, said he appreciated the meeting but that the group wants to focus more on aiding Ethiopian Israelis, not migrants.
“We don’t want to talk about the Eritreans, the immigration challenge,” he told JTA. “Our larger focus is to strengthen relations with the country of Israel.”
Eckstein also didn’t want to make a political statement, telling JTA that he sees the balance between helping vulnerable populations and securing Israel’s borders. But he said the visit was still vital for the trip, even if it shined a light on some of the government’s controversial policies.
