When Israelis seek political asylum in the PNA areas!
Palestine, Politics, 9/9/1997

What happens when Israelis seek refuge in the Palestinian National Authority areas? For Israeli prime minister Benyamin Netanyahu, who has had lots of setbacks and ill-fated steps over the past few months, the latest of which is the failed commando unit raid on Lebanon last week, having Israelis fleeing his rule and asking for the PNA help was certainly the last think he would think of. Certainly not in his worst nightmares had Netanyahu ever dreamed of Israelis, some of whom are hard line Likud supporters, seeking refuge in the PNA..

Several hours before the attack on Ben Yehuda Street in West Jerusalem Last Thursday, eight Israelis turned up in Palestinian-controlled Jericho and asked for political asylum. The group homeless people who took over the apartments of new immigrants in the Mevasseret Zion absorption center on the outskirts of West Jerusalem but were repeatedly evacuated by the police over the past few weeks.

They were stopped and checked by a Palestinian policeman at the entrance to Jericho. "We came to request political asylum," they told him. The policeman didn't believe what he was hearing. "He was sure we were not being serious. But we insisted that we wanted to enter the city and another officer was sent over," one of the asylum seekers said.

The group, comprising of Rafi Avivi, his wife Miriam, and their baby; Shlomo and Rachel Buzit; Eli Dahan, Yehiel Ashal, and Nahum Muallam, were taken from the checkpoint to the headquarters of Colonel Jibril Rajoub, head of preventive security in the West Bank. "He welcomed us warmly and promised the Palestinian Authority's assistance," said members of the group. Rooms were found for all of the Israelis at the Jerusalem Hotel in downtown Jericho and two security guards were provided to look after them.

"We know that Arafat can't take in all of the families. This is a poor country. But he promised, via Jibril Rajoub, that he will try to find us asylum in other places," Avivi said. "I have extreme right-wing views but after all that we saw here we can only thank them for how they welcome visitors. We never got this kind of treatment in Israel. We asked for political asylum on an ethnic, social, discriminatory basis," the refugees explained. "We felt discriminated against, humiliated, and helpless. We felt as if the Prime Minister deceived us after we voted for him. We represent 130 families with 500 children. Everyone is waiting for Albright to come and lift the closure. Believe me, if they open the closure just for 15 minutes, everyone will be here," said Shlomo Buzit.

Asked if he didn't feel that the Palestinians and namely President Arafat was using him and his group for propaganda purposes, Avivi said: "I don't know what Arafat thinks. I don't know what I think either. I didn't come here because of politics, I came here to ask for help. This is peace on paper. We came here to make it real. We don't have anything to lose, also if Israel doesn't want us back. We are ready to throw away our Israeli identity cards. We were devoted Likud members, and today we are ready to return our party membership cards.

Several hours after they arrived in Jericho, the triple blast took place in West Jerusalem. "When we heard about the terrorist attack we felt pain. Everyone mourned what happened. Even the security officers guarding us felt outraged," said Avivi. "We are waiting for the Israeli government to solve our problem, and we are asking them to cancel the indictments against us. Until a solution is found, we will continue to stay here as refugees. We feel more secure here than in Israel. Here at least they didn't try to kill us as they did when they evacuated us from the absorption center. There, they blew open the doors even though inside the apartments were 10 liters of benzene and gas canisters.

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