Paper short abstract:

The paper focuses on the narration of refuge and uprooting in the context of the discourses surrounding African asylum claimants staying in Israel. In the paper I describe the different voices which participate and operate within the discourses regarding refugees, discussing how one narrative of violence interacts with another

Paper long abstract:

The paper focuses on the narration of refuge and uprooting in the context of the discourses surrounding African asylum claimants staying in Israel. Since 2006 an increasing number of African asylum claimants crossed the southern border of Israel with Egypt and entered Israel. Many of the refugees who arrived in Israel originate from Sudan, including the region of Darfur, but also from other African countries such as Eritrea. In the absence of domestic legislation concerning asylum, the African refugees meet the authorities (including the military and the municipalities), as well as the public confused and indecisive. On the one hand, while human rights organizations and the refugees themselves draw on the Holocaust as the fundamental reason for Israel's moral obligation towards refugees, especially in light of violent events such as genocide and mass murder, the Palestinian right to return and experience of uprooting remains a disturbing unresolved issue in the moral discourse concerning refugees.

In the paper I describe the different voices which participate and operate within the discourses regarding refugees, discussing how one narrative of violence interacts with another. I explore this interaction both as a political construction but also as an element which construe individual narratives. The paper is based on my research which is currently in progress, and includes activist research in human rights organizations, shelters in Tel Aviv, as well as observations of public events and material available through the media.