Published: 5 April 2018
Last updated: 4 March 2024
Not that you could even call it an inquiry. Prime Minister Netanyahu began with the manifestly false claim that NIF “endangers the security and future of the State of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people.” If that is the premise, what’s left to investigate?
But let’s back up a moment. As we know, the Israeli government has become increasingly hostile to some 37,000 individuals seeking protection in Israel from serious persecution in Sudan and Eritrea. Contrary to the Refugee Convention, hardly any have been allowed to even submit applications, but when they have, the courts have found that many are genuine refugees.
Nevertheless, the government decided that these people were to be forcibly deported en masse to Rwanda – a developing country without the skills or resources to absorb them. Across Israel there was an outpouring of opposition to the plan – including from rabbis, El Al pilots, and human rights organisations like those supported and funded by NIF.
Here in Australia, NIF raised more than $23,000 almost overnight from a concerned Jewish community.
On Monday, with the government reeling in the aftermath of a military operation on the Gazan border that left 15 people dead and 700 wounded – an incident into which it has defiantly refused to allow any inquiry at all – Prime Minister Netanyahu announced that a deal had been done with the UNHCR under which roughly half the asylum seekers would be resettled in safe third countries, and half would remain in Israel.
It was a pragmatic outcome that would provide security and certainty to people who so desperately need it, and it was widely welcomed, including by NIF.
But less than 24 hours later, the Prime Minister flipped. The UNHCR deal was unilaterally cancelled. And NIF was to blame, he claimed, because it had undermined the Rwanda arrangement. For this, an inquiry is to be held into NIF.
It’s astonishing to comprehend the magnitude of the incongruity: no investigation into the cause of the deaths of 15 people and the wounding of 700 others, but an investigation into a human rights campaign that resulted in an outcome that would have allowed 37,000 vulnerable people to rebuild their lives in peace and security.
One is compelled to ponder why. No security was endangered except the security of tenure of a government whose policies are failing. No wounds were inflicted except to the government’s pride.
NIF has nothing to hide and nothing to fear. As NIF’s CEO, Daniel Sokatch, said: “We're proud of our work. NIF did not pressure the Rwandan government to refuse to participate in Netanyahu's cruel mass deportation plan. We did support massive numbers of Israelis standing up for what is right and demanding action from their own government… Mr. Netanyahu, you want to investigate us? I'll answer any question you like.”
