The Israeli newspaper Haaretz obtained personal accounts from African asylum seekers who were offered by Israeli military institutions to contribute to the war effort in Gaza, in exchange for the promise of assistance in obtaining permanent residency in Israel, which means asking them to risk their lives in order to regularize their residency status, which, according to the report, is contrary to ethical considerations.
However, according to testimonies published by Haaretz on September 15 from people who were asked to join the army or officials who spoke to it privately, no asylum seeker who contributed to the war effort has yet been granted official status, and of the 30,000 African asylum seekers who arrived, most of them about a decade ago, only a very small number have been granted asylum.
What is dangerous about the matter is that the occupation authorities define asylum seekers as individuals who fled their homelands due to justified fear or persecution on various grounds, and instead of giving them their rights, Israel exploits them as tools in carrying out another war of extermination.
Who are asylum seekers from Africa?
According to the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, more than 45,000 African asylum seekers now live in the Israeli occupation state, which is about 15,000 more than the figure reported by Haaretz, which estimated there were about 30,000.
Some reports suggest that the figure cited by the Migrant Aid Society appears to be more accurate, as it is supported by leaks of discussions about an Israeli government plan to deport 40,000 African infiltrators in 2018.
The previous report confirms that 73% of asylum seekers are from Eritrea and 19% from Sudan, most of them from Darfur. They are people who fled wars, genocide and persecution. Given the increasing conflicts in these regions, the number of asylum seekers has increased since 2018.
From another angle, this group receives low wages and works in jobs that Israelis refuse to work in, such as construction, cleaning, and restaurants. The state has also recently passed laws that create new obstacles that severely limit the ability of many asylum seekers to work, and therefore their need increases, making them vulnerable to exploitation in such projects.
organized project
This is not a matter of personal interpretations. The Haaretz report indicated that officials in the Ministry of Defense confirmed the existence of a project that is being carried out in an organized manner and under the guidance of legal advisors.
According to the report, the project targets about 30,000 African asylum seekers living in Israel, most of whom are young people, including a large number who received temporary status from the court because the government did not process or finalize their applications.
According to the Israeli occupation authorities, 0.5% of the applications were found to be legitimate, and the rest were classified as immigrants who entered Israel illegally in search of economic opportunities, and therefore are not entitled to refugee protection under international law.
Meanwhile, the rest of the developed countries give asylum seekers from Eritrea and Sudan at very high rates of up to 82% of applications, and so those who remain stuck regarding their legal status in the occupying state remain.
Defense Department officials therefore assessed that they could play on the idea of incentivizing asylum seekers to contribute to the war effort in exchange for exploiting their desire for permanent status.
It is indicative that the targeting of asylum seekers is a systematic matter in which the army is trying to serve one of the goals of the Ministry of Interior’s selection of refugees who can integrate into society. According to the testimony of one of the asylum seekers, the army also views it as a preferred institution for employment in terms of considering it the best place for integration into Israeli society.
In order to select the elements, police officers summon asylum seekers and direct them to security facilities without any explanation. Upon arrival, they are told by a security official that the institution is looking for special people to join the army.
According to the testimonies included in the report, some asylum seekers are being persuaded for more than two weeks and those who decide to reject this offer are treated with extreme anger.
Despite the anger, the officers themselves hold themselves together in their mission, as happened with asylum seeker “A”, who was angry with the officer for refusing the offer and then said to him, “Let’s continue talking and if you want later, we will be able to do that.”
If the asylum seeker is accepted, he is trained for two weeks and sent to participate in battles, even though he has never used a weapon in his life.
bottomless slope
Expulsion and deportation were the first option to get rid of asylum seekers, then moved to employing them in the war of extermination. According to a report published by The Cardle website, most of the asylum seekers came from war-torn countries in Africa, such as Eritrea and Sudan.
Between 2005 and 2012, they crossed the Sinai Desert and entered in batches. In 2017, Israel adopted a plan to deport 20,000 African immigrants, and the Ministry of Security said at the time that “the infiltrators will have the option of imprisonment or leaving the country.”
With the rise of the right, voices have been raised calling for the isolation of asylum seekers and their eventual return to their homelands. These demands did not stop at nationalist anti-immigration protests, but rather turned into acts of violence and assault on Africans and the looting of their shops and properties.
Ironically, the then Minister of Security, Gilad Erdan, who currently represents the occupying state at the United Nations, confirmed at the time that the deportation of African infiltrators to a third country according to a deal was what was actually happening, without providing any details about the deal or the third country.
When looking at the process of recruiting Africans who fled wars and genocide, we find a shift from treating them with racism and then expelling them to sacrificing them and throwing them into the battlefields where an African country – South Africa – is filing a lawsuit in the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of committing the crime of genocide.
The matter was not limited to seeking to recruit African adults, but the Haaretz report indicated that the Ministry of Defense explored the possibility of recruiting the children of asylum seekers who were educated in Israeli schools.
Israel violates the rights of asylum seekers. The 1951 UN Refugee Convention, which governs international refugee law, guarantees some protection to people fleeing persecution. The most important provisions of this protection are non-refoulement and the prompt processing of their asylum applications.
The occupation authorities have intentionally delayed processing refugee applications, have not considered most applications, and are trying to describe asylum seekers as people who entered illegally in search of economic opportunity, and therefore are not entitled to refugee protection under international law.
An indicator of army exhaustion
Since October 7, the Israeli army has been clearly suffering from a shortage of human resources. A report issued by the General Staff last March warned of a severe shortage of human resources, due to the killing of hundreds of soldiers and the wounding of thousands of others, and said that 7,000 soldiers were needed to be transferred to the battle fronts.
Over the past week, a number of former Israeli generals have criticized the army’s leaders for their visions of reducing the army’s size in terms of human resources and conventional equipment.
Among them is former General Yitzhak Brick, who said, “For about 20 years, most of the IDF chiefs of staff lived on a perception that led to the disintegration of the IDF, when they decided that the major wars were over, that we had peace with Egypt and Jordan, and therefore we could make do with a small, technological, intelligent army with offensive capabilities.”
“During those years, thousands of tanks were cut from the army, about half of the artillery battalions, many infantry units, engineering battalions, and 6 divisions of the ground forces, which we lack today, were cut,” Brik added. “Since 2002, the ground forces have been reduced by 66%, to a third of their size.”
This shortage of human resources, along with the difficulty of reaching a consensus on the issue of recruiting the Haredim into the army, indicates that the occupation’s resort to other means, such as recruiting mercenaries, dual nationals, and even refugees, is expected.
Palestinian response
In response to what was published by Haaretz newspaper, the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas said in a statement, “What the Hebrew media revealed about the terrorist occupation army recruiting African asylum seekers to fight in the Gaza Strip within its ranks, in exchange for facilitating their obtaining the right of residence, is confirmation of the depth of the moral crisis that this rogue entity is experiencing.”
The statement added that this recruitment is a “violation of the most basic human rights rules, by exploiting the needs of immigrants and asylum seekers, to throw them into battles, and an attempt to compensate for the great loss in the number of its army due to the confrontation of our brave people’s resistance in the Gaza Strip.”
The movement called on the international community and international human rights institutions to “condemn this crime, which reflects the behaviour of racist gangs, and take the necessary measures to hold the criminal occupation leaders accountable for their serious violations of the laws of war and international and humanitarian law.”
Dual nationals and mercenaries
Before the file of attempts to recruit asylum seekers into the Israeli army was exposed, several reports addressed files of recruiting mercenaries and dual nationals joining the Israeli army.
In a statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the South African government expressed its deep concern over reports that some South African citizens have joined or are considering joining Israeli forces in the war in Gaza and the occupied Palestinian territories.
The ministry warned that this measure contributes to violating international law, making citizens joining the Israeli army vulnerable to prosecution in South Africa.
In this context, the Turkish Parliament also approved the discussion of a draft law submitted by the Huda Par Party regarding the revocation of the citizenship of Turkish citizens with dual citizenship who participate in the war of extermination on Gaza in the ranks of the Israeli army.
The resolution also calls for other penalties for citizens who participate in crimes by joining the armies of foreign countries, such as confiscating their property if they do not return to Turkey within 3 months from the date of their summons for investigation.
Voices have been raised in the French parliament calling for the trial of French citizens with foreign nationality who are fighting alongside the Israeli army in Gaza, and many reports have spoken of the presence of mercenaries from foreign countries fighting in the ranks of the Israeli army, such as mercenaries from Ukraine.
In the past, several countries have been criticised for exploiting asylum seekers in certain jobs to cover labour shortages or employing them in dangerous or low-paid jobs without labour rights.
However, the Israeli occupation’s exploitation of asylum seekers fleeing persecution and wars of extermination in a war of extermination and persecution of the Palestinian people constitutes a dangerous precedent and a flagrant violation and disregard even for moral reputation and international image, which requires the international community to establish effective mechanisms to combat these practices.
