I am also very proud of the very animated disagreement and more or less civilized democratic debate surrounding the issues of how many refugees we should actually take in and what should happen to them once they get here. There is no black and white simple answer to this problem.
I offer the following text of a well publicized open letter as explanation of the source of my pride and invite you to share in it with me.
"I am 25 years old, was born in Brooklyn NY, and raised in Efrat
Israel. Though very busy, I don’t view my life as unusual. Most of
the time, I am just another Israeli citizen. During the day I work as
a paramedic in Magen David Adom, Israel’s national EMS service. At
night, I’m in my first year of law school. I got married this
October and am starting a new chapter of life together with my
wonderful wife Shulamit.
15-20 days out of every year, I’m called up to the Israeli army to
do my reserve duty. I serve as a paramedic in an IDF paratrooper unit.
My squad is made up of others like me; people living normal lives who
step up to serve whenever responsibility calls. The oldest in my squad
is 58, a father of four girls and grandfather of two; there are two
bankers, one engineer, a holistic healer, and my 24 year old commander
who is still trying to figure out what to do with his life. Most of
the year we are just normal people living our lives, but for 15-20
days each year we are soldiers on the front lines preparing for a war
that we hope we never have to fight.
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 region where it all happens is highly sensitive and risky from a
security point of view, an area stricken with terror at every turn.
It’s just a few miles south of the place where Gilad Shalit was
kidnapped. And yet the Israeli soldiers who are confronted with these
refugees do it not with rifles aimed at them, but with a helping hand
and an open heart. The refugees are taken to a nearby IDF base, given
clean clothes, a hot drink, food and medical attention. They are
finally safe.
Even though I live Israel and am aware through media reports of the
events that take place on the Egyptian border, I never understood the
intensity and complexity of the scenario until I experienced it
myself.
In the course of the past few nights, I have witnessed much. At 9:00
PM last night, the first reports came in of gunfire heard from the
Egyptian border. Minutes later, IDF scouts spotted small groups of
people trying to get across the fence. In the period of about one
hour, we picked up 13 men – cold, barefoot, dehydrated – some
wearing nothing except underpants. Their bodies were covered with
lacerations and other wounds. We gathered them in a room, gave them
blankets, tea and treated their wounds. I don’t speak a word of
their language, but the look on their faces said it all and reminded
me once again why I am so proud to be a Jew and an Israeli. Sadly, it
was later determined that the gunshots we heard were deadly, killing
three others fleeing for their lives.
During the 350 days a year when I am not on active duty, when I am
just another man trying to get by, the people tasked with doing this
amazing job, this amazing deed, the people witnessing these events,
are mostly young Israeli soldiers just out of high school, serving
their compulsory time in the IDF, some only 18 years old.
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 of Israel,
Aron Adler writing from the Israel/Gaza/Egyptian border."
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