Prof Ruvi Ziegler: Israel’s dysfunctional asylum system

JTalk at Beit Emanuel Progressive Synagogue

Professor Ruvi Ziegler of the University of Reading explores the precarious status of Eritrean and Sudanese asylum seekers in Israel. Having crossed the Israeli-Egyptian border without authorisation, they are defined as ‘infiltrators’, a charged term which dates back to border-crossings by Palestinian Fedayeen in the 1950s. While Israel refrains from deporting them to their countries of origin, recognising that such forced removal could expose them to risks to their lives, it refrains from granting them protection status, seeking instead to reach 'third country' agreements with sub-Saharan African states. The regularisation of asylum in Israel, including legal recognition of ‘refugees’ and ‘asylum-seekers’, is long overdue. We are privileged to host Professor Ziegler, an Israeli legal scholar, currently teaching in the UK, with impressive credentials as an internationally renowned expert in international refugee law.