The Only Moral Option for Our African Visitors

Like every political war, the first engagement is the battle of words. On one side, the over 40,000 Africans who have entered into Israel illegally are called “refugees.” On the other side, they are called infiltrators.

The answer to who are they lies at the heart of which option is the best for accommodating what they want, along with what we, as a Jewish State, can do for them while still being able to sleep at night.

African infiltrators in Israel are not refugees. I wish the media would stop its negligence in using this fraudulent label. It’s evil to play up ridiculous comparisons between Jewish refugees and African infiltrators. Jews fled Europe to escape certain death from a German leadership who made public their policy to wipe us out. No African leader has made such an intention or anything near it.

Jewish refugees came with their families. For every one man begging for life in the consulates of Canada, America, and England, there was a woman and at least 2 children. The Africans here are 90% men. If they really fled for their lives, where are their wives and children? Did they abandon them?

Despite their poverty and desperation, where Jewish refugees settled, crime didn’t change. In fact, where the Jews settled, crime rates went down, improving the quality of life for local residents.

For the 10 years African migrants have occupied South Tel Aviv, crime has skyrocketed. Theft is up. Destruction of property is everywhere. Drug use and trafficking has risen, as have rapes.

There is no Jewish value in allowing our women to be violated. This is not racism, check the police statistics. It’s a fact. What would you expect when 35,000 men come to a new place without women? Could any sane nation allow this to continue?

Israel is not like the West. We are not afraid to tell the truth about any group just because they look darker, or that someone will ‘get offended’. We are not required to speak a language of political correctness created out of the guilt stemming from 250 years of slavery and 100 years of Apartheid (politely called segregation).

What does that leave us with? We have 2 options.

Option 1 is to let them stay. We are a Jewish State and they are not Jewish, they cannot become citizens. They cannot get decent work, education, or assistance from the State. The best they can hope for is cash-only jobs.

They are Muslims so they cannot serve in the IDF and won’t learn Torah. That relegates them to the edges of society.  If they stay much longer, they will be a permanent sub-class of people without decent work, forced to do things both menial and criminal just to survive.

Sound familiar?

We won’t do that here. Israeli Arabs, one minority, have full rights. Palestinian Arabs have self-rule. They are governed by their own people. Did North Carolina ever afford such opportunity to their minority communities?

Option 2 is to accommodate them as best we can. We can offer them the chance to start a new life in a new country. A better country than they left, where they can enjoy full rights and citizenship. They will be given money, enough to live for a full year, and better opportunity. Isn’t that what they came to Israel for in the first place?

This isn’t an easy solution, but it is the best option for giving the migrants what they came for, and protecting the people who earned their right to say “I am an Israeli” by serving in the IDF, paying taxes, and meeting all of the challenges of day to day life here with dignity and pride.

It’s a solution we can all sleep well with.

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Shulamit Ben Horin grew up in the Soviet Union, emigrated to America where she lived in New York, and make aliyah to Israel in 2009. She developed www.abetterlifeinisrael.com, a 5-hour, 20-video series which gives you day to day guidance on How to Enjoy a Better Life in Israel. She lives in Netanya with her family.