Aron Adler: A Letter From The Border...
This year, our reserve unit was stationed on the border between Israel,
Egypt and the Gaza Strip in an area called "Kerem Shalom." Above and beyond
the "typical" things for which we train - war, terrorism, border
infiltration, etc., - this year we were confronted by a new challenge.
Several years ago, a trend started of African refugees crossing the Egyptian
border from Sinai into Israel to seek asylum from the atrocities in Darfur.
What started out as a small number of men, women and children fleeing from
the machetes of the Janjaweed and violent fundamentalists to seek a better
life elsewhere, turned into an organized industry of human trafficking. In
return for huge sums of money, sometimes entire life savings paid to Bedouin
"guides," these refugees are promised to be transported from Sudan, Eritrea,
and other African countries through Egypt and the Sinai desert, into the
safe haven of Israel.
We increasingly hear horror stories of the atrocities these refugees suffer
on their way to freedom. They are subject to, and victims of extortion,
rape, murder, and even organ theft, their bodies left to rot in the desert.
Then, if lucky, after surviving this gruesome experience whose prize is
freedom, when only a barbed wire fence separates them from Israel and their
goal, they must go through the final death run and try to evade the bullets
of the Egyptian soldiers stationed along the border. Egypt's soldiers are
ordered to shoot to kill anyone trying to cross the border OUT of Egypt and
into Israel. It's an almost nightly event.
For those who finally get across the border, the first people they encounter
are Israeli soldiers, people like me and those in my unit, who are tasked
with a primary mission of defending the lives of the Israeli people. On one
side of the border soldiers shoot to kill. On the other side, they know they
will be treated with more respect than in any of the countries they crossed
to get to this point
The refugees flooding into Israel are a heavy burden on our small country.
More than 100,000 refugees have fled this way, and hundreds more cross the
border every month. The social, economic, and humanitarian issues created by
this influx of refugees are immense. There are serious security consequences
for Israel as well. This influx of African refugees poses a crisis for
Israel. Israel has yet to come up with the solutions required to deal with
this crisis effectively, balancing its' sensitive social, economic, and
security issues, at the same time striving to care for the refugees.
I don't have the answers to these complex problems which desperately need to
be resolved. I'm not writing these words with the intention of taking a
political position or a tactical stand on the issue.
I am writing to tell you and the entire world what's really happening down
here on the Egyptian/Israeli border. And to tell you that despite all the
serious problems created by this national crisis, these refugees have no
reason to fear us. Because they know, as the entire world needs to know,
that Israel has not shut its eyes to their suffering and pain. Israel has
not looked the other way.
The State of Israel has put politics aside to take
the ethical and humane path as it has so often done before, in every
instance of human suffering and natural disasters around the globe. We Jews
know only too well about suffering and pain. The Jewish people have been
there. We have been the refugees and the persecuted so many times, over
thousands of years, all over the world.
Today, when African refugees flood our borders in search of freedom and
better lives, and some for fear of their lives, it is particularly
noteworthy how Israel deals with them, despite the enormous strain it puts
on our country on so many levels. Our young and thriving Jewish people and
country, built from the ashes of the Holocaust, do not turn their backs on
humanity. Though I already knew that, this week I once again experienced it
firsthand. I am overwhelmed with emotion and immensely proud to be a member
of this nation.
With love from Israel,
Aron Adler writing from the Israel/Gaza/Egyptian border.
(Photos: Copyright Control).
