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| By Amiram Barkat | "Haaretz", March 13, 2007 |
Yad Vashem visit reminds Darfur refugees of own genocide
Thirteen Sudanese refugees, survivors of the genocide in Darfur, visited Jerusalem's Yad Vashem Holocaust museum on Monday. They were part of a group of 330 refugees who fled to Israel, only to be jailed here. According to a law passed in the 1950s, infiltrators whose countries of origin are defined as enemy nations may be jailed for a lengthy period of time. The refugees crossed into Israel through Egypt, where they were arrested on the border. Some 200 refugees are still detained in Israeli prisons, but some are residing in kibbutzim around the country instead of serving out jail sentences, and are working in the various kibbutz industries. For two hours, the refugees toured Yad Vashem with the director of the museum library, Dr. Rob Rosette. After viewing the pictures on display, some of the refugees said the visit reminded them of the persecution in Sudan that they fled to Israel in order to escape. Yad Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev, who greeted the refugees, said, "as members of the Jewish people, for whom the memory of the Holocaust burns, we cannot stand by as the refugees from the genocide in Darfur hammer on our doors. The memory of the past and the Jewish values, on which our existence is based, require us to show human solidarity with the persecuted." The Committee for Darfur Refugees organized the refugees' visit to Yad Vashem. The committee, chaired by Prof. Yehuda Bauer, is working to persuade the government to change its tough policies on the refugees. The committee's spokesman, Eitan Schwartz, said that the refugees had initiated the visit out of curiosity to learn more about the subject. Schwartz noted that few of the many journalists reporting on the refugees' visit were Israeli. He said the committee was frustrated by the Israeli media's lack of interest in the refugees. Schwartz added that in contrast to the Israeli media, the plight of Sudanese refugees had prompted great interest in the international media. The committee hopes Yad Vashem's support will help them in their public campaign for the refugees. Last June, following a petition the committee submitted to the High Court of Justice, an agreement was reached to place refugees in kibbutzim instead of Israeli prisons.
