Israelis mark Refugee Day
Refugees, human rights activists and celebrities mark the fifth International Refugee Day in Tel Aviv. 'I am ashamed to a part of a country that imprisons refugees,' said Danny Filk, chairperson of Physicians for Human Rights
"I want to thank you in the name of all the children of the refugees in Israel," announced 10-year-old Garcia, from the Congolese refugee community in Israel. In fluent, accentless Hebrew, she described the situation in her homeland to the attendees of Saturday's International Refugee day event in the Jewish-Arab center in Jaffa.
"As you know our parents fled to Israel along with the older children. In Congo, women are raped, children are abused and the situation is fragile. In such a place there is no future and, we, the children of the refugees want to thank the State of Israel and the UN's High Commission for Refugees for all their efforts."
Hundreds of people including refugees from Congo, Sudan, the Ivory Coast and Liberia, together with human rights activists and public figures ignored the heat and the humidity and arrived at the events. Some participated in a junior soccer tournament, others enjoyed the African dishes, and everyone listened to the speakers who summed up the event."
"The Jewish people is intimately familiar with the idea of refuge-seeking, I am ashamed to a part of a nation that imprisons refugees," said Danny Filk, chairperson of Physicians for Human Rights. "Displaced, scared people waiting for a passport are sent back to the countries they fled where they will probably be executed. Recently we were faced with the threat to deport the Liberian refugees from Israel," he concluded and the audience applauded.
The International Refugee Day has been celebrated for the past five years by local humanitarian organizations that work on behalf of the refugees in Israel, including Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), Amnesty, Mesila and the African Refugee Association in Israel.
"We want to bring Israelis closer to the refuges," said Ran Goldstein, a PHR activist. "We must remember that a significant portion of the 1,800 refugees that currently reside in Israel have not been recognized by the establishment and are not eligible for social and healthcare benefits."
