A Crisis of Conscience Over Refugees in Israel

Michael Bavly, the current head of the U.N. refugee agency in Jerusalem, confirmed that Israel had returned the group of 48 to Egypt without giving them interviews or hearings regarding asylum. A former Israeli diplomat, Bavly has approved roughly 1 percent of asylum requests in Israel, according to Israeli media, and rights groups and refugee activists question his impartiality.

Bavly defended Israel's action.

"It's something we understand, to stop the flow that brings about 50 newcomers a night," he said. "Sinai is the only land passage from Africa to Europe. There's a strong desire to use it by people not necessarily seeking asylum in Israel. . . . Israel is not capable of receiving all those who want to come in."

Israel and the U.N. agency share responsibility for the lawful handling of the refugees, Bill Frelick, refugee policy director at the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch, said by telephone this week. But "the responsibility is on UNHCR to try to find a permanent solution on that person's behalf so that Israel is not left with having to provide a permanent home for that person," he said.

Frelick cited shootings by Egyptian border guards this month and in July that have killed at least one African, a 28-year-old Darfur woman, and expressed uncertainty about the refugees' fate in Egypt.

"It just seems like a very haphazard way to make policy where people's lives are at stake," Frelick said.

Human Rights Watch issued a statement Friday urging Israel to cease summary expulsions of the Sudanese, saying the returns without hearings appeared to violate the law.

Anat Ben-Dor, an attorney for some of the refugees at Tel Aviv University Legal Clinic, said Israel had agreed in 2005 not to deport migrants to Egypt, where they faced indefinite detention. She also faulted the U.N. refugee agency in Israel.

"If the UNHCR agrees to allow the return of people without a prior hearing and interview and assessment if they are not in danger because of this return, I think UNHCR is violating its own guidelines," Ben-Dor said.

The U.N. refugee agency in Geneva did not return calls for comment.

Danny Ben-Moshe, who teaches Jewish studies at Victoria University in Melbourne, Australia, said Jewish groups globally should be proud of their activism on Darfur, and Israelis of support they have given to refugees.

"But this has forced the issue, and the responses all around by Jewish organizations and Israel are found in my opinion to be lacking," Ben-Moshe said.

"No more lacking than anywhere else in the world," he added. "But that's not the measure. The benchmark is not American action. The benchmark is as the heirs of the first industrial genocide."

Special correspondent Nora Younis contributed to this report.