sudanese refugees right to asylom

I spent the last year volunteering on a daily basis for amnesty international in Israel (I am an American who lives in Israel at the moment). Today there are about a thousand Sudanese refugees in Israel who fled the genocide in Darfur or the ongoing civil war in south Sudan. These refugees come to Israel after being purely treated in Egypt to seek security. Once they cross the border they are taken by the army and being put in prison or else being left in the street without anything. These refugees are seen as enemy states because they come from Sudan which is allegedly an enemy of Israel. Because they are enemy nationals, despite of Israel’s obligations under the u.n. refugee convention of 1951 (which is signed and ratified by Israel), the Israeli government will not allow them to begin the process of resaving refugee status. Over the last year I have been coordinating amnesty’s campaign to get the Sudanese refugees in to the process of resaving a refugee status in Israel. The campaign had one main objective, to organize a “day to the Sudanese in the Israeli parliament”. After months of phone calls, e-mail, faxes, letters and meetings a “day” has been arranged. On that day the subject had been discussed in six different committees and in the general assembly of the parliament. The discussions had great impact on a few members of parliament who are now pushing the subject. They are also pushing Israel to constitute a refugee law (Israel does not have a law concerning refugees) which was written with the help of amnesty.