URGENT ACTION ALERT: Stop Israel’s New Detention Plan for Asylum Seekers

The Knesset is trying to pass new, equally draconian legislation byDecember 2. Please call, email, post on FB and Twitter to Ambassador Ron Dermer, Benyamin Netanyahu, Yair Lapid, and Tzipi Livni the following message. We strongly urge you to do all listed outreach actions, but to at least call the US Embassy’s office in DC or the Israeli Embassy in your country if you have to choose only one actions. Recipient contact info is below followed by a sample script you can use.

Sincerely,

Maya Paley, Stephen Slater, and the Right Now team

RECIPIENTS: (Prioritize Embassy and do others if have time.)

1) Israeli Embassy to the US
Email: http://www.israelemb.org/washington/AboutTheEmbassy/Pages/Contact_Us.aspx
Tel: 202-364-5500
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IsraelinUSA
Twitter: @IsraelinUSA
Use #RonDermer to reach Ambassador Ron Dermer

2) Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu:
Email: http://www.pmo.gov.il/English/PrimeMinister/Pages/ContactUs.aspx
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IsraeliPM
Twitter: @israeliPM

3) Minister of Justice Tzipi Livni
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tzipilivni
Twitter: @Tzipi_Livni

4) Minister of Finance Yair Lapid
Email: http://www.financeisrael.mof.gov.il/FinanceIsrael/Pages/en/ContactUs.aspx,
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/YairLapid
Twitter: @yairlapid1

MESSAGE SCRIPT: PLEASE ADAPT AS NEEDED FOR CALLS AND EMAILS

Hello, my name is ____________ and I’m a member of the __________________ Jewish community.

I am calling to urge you to do what you can to put a stop to the current legislation that members of Knesset are trying to pass this week, which will create a new detention facility in the Negev desert to house over 3000 African asylum seekers. An “open” facility that calls for detainees to report three times a day is not truly an open facility. A detention facility that does not permit asylum seekers to apply for refugee status, allowing them to remain in detention indefinitely, is inhumane and contrary to the unanimous ruling by Israel’s High Court of Justice on September 16, 2013. And a detention facility run by the Israeli Prison Service is not just detention -- it is prison. Treating asylum seekers as criminals is a violation of international law.

We are also unhappy to learn that 560 public sector jobs will be cut in order for Israel to raise the funds for the detention facility. Spending 440 million shekel on this project is not only inhumane for the asylum seekers, but it is also unnecessarily costly and harmful to Israel’s economy and international reputation. Why take such severe measures over a population whose numbers are not increasing, whose crime rates are low, and who merely want to live in a free and democratic society such as Israel.

I’m asking you to note the international Jewish community’s concerns about this issue and to take appropriate steps to stop this legislation, uphold the High Court’s decision, and provide asylum seekers with a full, fair, and transparent refugee status determination system. Asylum seekers deserve a fair chance at a good life, just the same as the Jewish people deserved a fair chance in the countries they ended up in worldwide as refugees and asylum seekers throughout our history.

Thank you for your time,

XXX


SAMPLE FACEBOOK POST:
Please stop current Knesset legislation creating a new detention facility for African asylum seekers. An “open” facility that calls for detainees to report three times a day is not truly an open facility. A detention facility that does not permit asylum seekers to apply for refugee status, allowing them to remain in detention indefinitely, is inhumane and contrary to the unanimous ruling by Israel’s High Court of Justice on September 16, 2013. And a detention facility run by the Israeli Prison Service is not just detention -- it is prison. As a Jew in the Diaspora who cares, I urge you to take action on this issue. #africansinisrael #humanrights #tikkunolam

SAMPLE TWITTER POST: (exactly 140 characters)
.@israeliPM you must stop Knesset plan to create new detention for #African asylum seekers in Israel. It violates int law and Jewish values


See the joint Right Now-T'ruah press release, urgently calling on the Israeli government to stop deportations.

As a result of the anti-infiltration law, and the government policy of indefinite detention, an unknown number of Eritrean asylum seekers were deported to Asmara after all requests for asylum were rejected by the Ministry of Interior. 
According to detainees, the Eritrean Ambassador in Israel said that he escorted them on their return. Over one thousand Eritreans have been locked up for over a year at the Saharonim and Ktziot internment camps in the desert. Every several days, immigration officers visit them, informing them that their only way out of prison is to go back to their homeland. Detainees in a deteriorated mental state may be willing to risk their lives and ask to go back to a country that according to the U.S. State Department Human Rights Report, detains its national service evaders in life-threatening conditions.



Click here for more videos


Stop detaining victims of trafficking and torture in Israeli prisons

Click here to sign the petition. 

The petition is co-sponsored with 
Rene Cassin: The Jewish Voice for Human Rights

Since June 2012, all African asylum seekers arriving in Israel have been automatically imprisoned without trial, for a minimum of three years. Detainees include those previously trafficked, raped and tortured in the Egyptian Sinai. Israel is the destination country and not responsible for abuse suffered prior to entry, but it nevertheless has obligations as to how it treats these people once they arrive. There are serious problems with the current system of dealing with victims of torture and trafficking in detention centers including a lack of identification of victims of trafficking, a lack of sufficient shelter space, and insufficient access to medical rehabilitation. Victims of human trafficking and torture are placed in detention upon entering Israel's borders. The Israeli government should quickly discontinue its policy of detaining victims of trafficking and torture.


Read a powerful op-ed by Right Now member Lucy Newman, who researched Israeli response to to victims of torture for her MPhil at the University of Cambridge, and who is currently working with Rene Cassin on the issue of human trafficking.  


Read an article in the Daily Jewish Forward about our January 27th event in Los Angeles, co-sponsored with the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society:
"Advocates Spotlight Plight of African Immigrants in Israel: Los Angeles event calls for tolerance for asylum seekers"


About Right Now:

Right Now is an international coalition of Jews and allies who are advocating for the rights of the African asylum seekers in Israel through awareness-raising, direct advocacy, and grassroots campaigns. Becoming a member of Right Now entails joining our list serve. You can help out as much or as little as you’d like. All members are volunteers and we are located throughout the United States and in Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, Argentina, and Israel.

We call on the Israeli government to:

• Develop a fair Refugee Status Determination procedure that allows for each individual to apply for asylum and provides protection and support for refugees in line with all other Western, democratic countries in the world. 
• Change its deportation process so that asylum seekers are not deported during the Refugee Status Determination process, including the period of time in which they can appeal a decision, and so that they have enough time to prepare for deportation or resettlement.
• Cease to build the massive detention center in the Negev desert that arbitrarily imprisons asylum seekers indefinitely.



Right Now supports an immigration policy in which, through a fair and effective Refugee Status Determination process, the case of each individual asylum seeker is researched and heard resulting in the determination of refugee status on a case-by-case basis. We recommend that Israel provide refugees with permanent or long-term temporary social residency and award support services as refugees in line with the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol, including the right to work, the right to an education, the right to health services, and the right to travel freely in and out of the country. 

Israel should not send asylum seekers or refugees to countries in which their lives are in danger or in which they may be deported to their home countries where their lives are in danger. For those who do not receive refugee status upon going through the RSD process, they should be assisted in determining the safest place available to them. 

In light of the building of the fence along Israel's border with Egypt, the number of asylum seekers entering Israel has reduced drastically such that the numbers are not increasing. Thus, we feel that it is important that we prioritize the needs of the 60,000 asylum seekers in Israel's borders. Furthermore, the fence along the border, according to international law, is legal. However, Israel must abide by international law by allowing asylum seekers to enter Israel's borders through gates in the fence if they wish to apply for asylum. 

Take Action Right Now:


Email us at info@asylumseekers.org to learn about ways to get involved in the coalition or just to join our list serve for updates on the issue.

Learn about the issue: 

See our Youtube channel to view our documentary, "Refuge Among Refugees".