A Tough Time For African Asylum Seekers

Anna is a 5 month Community Service participant and University of Pittsburgh graduate originally from Maryland. Anna wrote an opinion piece on the state of African refugees in Israel for a recent Tikkun Olam newsletter.

I recognize that the drastic influx of asylum seekers poses a great challenge for the Israeli government.  However, I have been highly disappointed by the way in which the Israeli government has treated those escaping violent, targeted persecution over the past decade.  The government has used detention as the default course of action.  And, in the past few months, I have become exponentially more frustrated by proposals to limit asylum seekers right to work and to build a prison facility to house those currently living civilian lives in Israel.

African asylum seekers have been entering Israel in record numbers in the past few years.  In 2009, about 300 people entered Israel from Egypt each month.  In recent months, political and community leaders have articulated increasing hostility towards asylum seekers living in Israel.  Across the country, asylum seekers have been illegally denied work and housing.

In December, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu proposed that a detention center be built to house about 10,000 individuals entering Israel from the Egyptian border.  The Prison Service would run the detention center, but Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch has stated that the Prison Service lacks the knowledge and experience necessary to address this civilian population.  This plan would also severely limit the movement of asylum seekers, in a manner that is both unjust and in violation of international Treaties to which Israel is party. It would prevent these asylum seekers from having any contact with Israeli society and force them to live as if they were incarcerated criminals.  Meanwhile, the Israeli government started to construct a barrier that will seal off parts of Egypt.  This barrier will make asylum seekers more susceptible to attack on the Egyptian side and cost many their lives.

As a democratic state and a state founded as a safe haven for those escaping persecution, Israel is obligated to treat its asylum-seeker population much more justly than afforded by the newly proposed policies.  Furthermore, Israel is a signatory to the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, but the government has not yet adopted substantive asylum legislation and the asylum process is marked by unclear policies and procedures. Asylum seekers have limited to no access to basic services such as health care, housing, education, vocational training and employment.  When one looks at the conditions of Eritrean and Sudanese nationals living in Israel, it is easy to forget that asylum seekers once governed this country. 

Shabbat Tikkun Olam (and Hillel) Style

This Friday, Tikkun Olam had the pleasure of joining Hillel Tel Aviv and T’filat Halev Congregation for Kabbalat Shabbat and a delicious potluck. A number of us headed across town on a rainy evening to join the progressive congregation for their bi-weekly services and were happy to find a diverse group with plenty of young folk and multi-generational families. The rabbi leading the service also lead the four piece band, including clarinet and accordion, through rousing versions of many Shabbat favorites. The children in attendance excitedly took over from him for the last song, Shalom Aleichem. More Tikkun Olamers showed up for the potluck dinner afterword, and acquitted themselves well, bringing homemade cornbread, curry, apple kugel, and pesto gnocchi. Madrich Benji showed off the wonderful way he interacts with kids, and proved that he might wind up with one after the parents, after seeing in what good hands their child is in, accidentally leave the scene with an empty back seat.

Contributed by Nathan Kemphues

Zionism Through Art: Omanoot’s Website Launch!

One of the volunteer places hosting some of our Coexistence track participants is Omanoot. Hebrew for art, Omanoot is a young organization aiming to showcase Israeli art to the world. Omanoot’s goal is to be “Israel’s Hulu, Amazon, iTunes and virtual MoMa, all in one.” The organization’s website just launched a few days ago and is a treasure trove of cultural resources. The website hosts fifty films from Israeli artists, provides lesson plans and is also attached to a blog with current listings of artistic events around Israel. Currently, Omanoot’s content is largely written by English speaking volunteers, including our own Anna Drillech, Allyson Page and Hannah Yohalem. Anna, a native of Paris, France, is also working to make Omanoot accessible to Francophones as well.

Omanoot’s focus on cultural inclusion and critical examination of society through alternative lenses reflects Tikkun Olam’s commitment to involvement in all facets of Israeli society. Check out Omanoot’s website today: watch a movie, find a film screening in Tel Aviv or find out about an Israeli author you never knew existed. Tikkun Olam is about repairing the world: Omanoot is about broadening your perspective of it. What could be a more complementary partnership?

Read more about Omanoot’s launch and the organization’s goals in a recent Haaretz article: http://blog.omanoot.com/art-for-israels-sake#more-307

Just in case you haven't clicked on the hyperlink yet, Omanoot can be found on the web at: www.omanoot.com

Sandstorms and Kibbutniks: Israeli Society Shabbaton

This past Shabbat, three of our volunteers joined the Masa community for a Shabbaton hosted by Kibbutz Kranim in the Northern Negev.  The weekend opened with a tour of two Bedouin villages in the Negev and a discussion of modern Bedouin culture, led by Bustan, a NGO that works for cooperation and social justice with Bedouin and Jewish communities in the Negev.   Dor Friedman, a student at Ben Gurion University, gave an overview of the differences between recognized and unrecognized Bedouin communities, and how the larger plans for the Negev will impact these traditionally nomadic communities.  The villages, recognized and unrecognized, were both faced by intense poverty and lack of services, but the group was impressed by the leadership and hope shown by the Bedouins who spoke to the Masa participants.

After touring the Bedouin villages, Kibbutz Kranim was the next stop.  Founded in 1980, the kibbutz had lost a great deal of its membership by the beginning of the 21st century.  It has been renewed by a membership dedicated to the principles of religious pluralism, sustainability and activism in the Negev.  The community's progressive ideals and commitment to developing meaningful community between religious and secular Jews rang true with the Tikkun Olamers present at the Shabbaton.  For Shabbat, the communities families each hosted a group of Masa participants at their tables.  It was an opportunity to really understand how a semi-privatized kibbutz functions and how a progressive community can flourish in the desert.

The weekend's speakers touched on a variety of topics ranging from ecology to Jewish Identity and Peoplehood to the Arab-Israeli conflict to the integration of Russian and Ethiopians in Beer Sheva to the challenges faced by the social workers trying to improve the lives of those in the Negev.  Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the weekend was that all of the educational programming and speakers were from Kibbutz Kranim or from nearby Moshavim or Kibbutzim. 

One of the major challenges faced in the Negev is the climate.  The group witnessed its first sandstorm and took the opportunity to stay indoors and have their own discussion about Jewish Identity.  Unfortunately, the periodic sandstorms prevented pictures from being taken, but please check out our other group photos on our facebook page, www.facebook.com/tikkunolamisrael, and website www.tikkunolamisrael.org.

Tikun olam in Tel Aviv, Jaffa, Skokie (JUF News)

Tikun olam in Tel Aviv, Jaffa, Skokie

BY ARIELLE GOTTLIEB ON JULY 01, 2010

Graduating from Northwestern University in the midst of the economic crisis, a good job seemed unobtainable. So with a suitcase, JUF SKIP funds, and a Masa Israel scholarship, I went to volunteer in Israel.

Hoping to learn more about the country while working in a meaningful field, I enrolled in the Community Service track of Masa Israel’s Tikkun Olam in Tel Aviv-Jaffa program. Its focus on working with the immigrant and refugee communities of Tel Aviv attracted me initially, while the program’s intensive Hebrew lessons, classes about Jewish identity, and trips around the country promised to round out the experience.

My volunteering took me to parts of Tel Aviv that one doesn’t see as a tourist—from a prison in Ramle where I mentored minors who came into Israel without parents or guardians, to a local public school where I taught the children of refugee and migrant workers, to a therapeutic horse riding center for children with special needs, to a refugee shelter which was little more than a dingy apartment building in the rough part of town.

I became particularly involved with the children at the refugee shelter. While most of our time together was spent laughing and playing, there were certain moments when I was overwhelmed by their personal stories. My first day there I met a bright and smiley eight-year old girl from Sudan who giggled as she talked about school and friends. Another volunteer later told me how that happy girl had seen two of her older brothers shot and killed right in front of her. That same day, I was playing with her little sister who, between spinning in circles and tickle fights, wanted to know where I was from.  “America,” I told her, and asked where she was from. “A bad place,” she responded solemnly in Hebrew. Even with my elementary level of Hebrew, there was no mistaking the meaning behind those words.

Trips all over Israel further shaped my understanding of the country. As a group, we visited places such as Sderot, where we met people for whom rockets and bomb shelters had become a way of life, and recognized and unrecognized Bedouin villages, where we talked about the particular challenges facing them and other minority populations.

I also learned a lot from the Israeli soldiers who were part of our weekly classes. They did similar volunteer work as part of their army service, and their participation in our discussions provided an Israeli perspective to what we saw and understood only as visiting volunteers.
Overall, I came to see Tel Aviv with new eyes. What was once all glitzy beaches and cosmopolitan glamour proved to be much more complicated and interesting. Being confronted with Israel’s problems on a daily basis challenged the rosy, idealistic view of Israel that I had always been taught to believe. How, for example, could a country founded by refugees for refugees be so hesitant, even negligent, towards the growing number of African refugees who are looking for a safe haven? Does being a Jewish state mean turning its back on non-Jews?

As an American, I didn’t feel it was my place to provide the answers to these impossible questions, but rather to observe, learn, and help in whatever small way I could.

I don’t know what comes next now that my five months with Tikkun Olam in Tel Aviv-Jaffa have ended. It’s difficult to predict how managing a class of toddlers in a roach-infested preschool or talking about Barack Obama with teenage boys living in prison will impact my professional or personal life. There were lessons learned and skills acquired to be sure, but it’s a little too soon to be wrapping up this story. Suffice it to say that my Israeli interlude was a valuable and meaningful experience, and I wish that every college graduate could say the same for their first few months in the real world.

For more information about The Send-a-Kid-to-Israel Partnership (SKIP) savings incentive program, visit http://www.juf.org/israel_experience/skip.aspx.

Arielle Gottlieb grew up in Skokie and attended Northwestern University where she studied Latin American Studies and Creative Writing. She hopes to continue working with immigrants and refugees in Chicago.