Between 2006 and 2012, some 55,000 Africans—many of the Muslims, coming especially from Sudan and Eritrea—entered the Jewish state illegally via the Sinai Peninsula. Some fled war and famine; others merely sought opportunity. At the time, the influx of migrants caused much controversy, but since then the border has been sealed and the Israeli government arranged for about 20,000 to settle elsewhere. Of those who remain, some have become citizens and joined the IDF. Daniel Pipes revisits the episode, and what it suggests about changing Muslim attitudes toward Israel:
A Sudanese woman explained why she walked more than 200 miles across Egypt and the Sinai desert to the Israeli border: Egyptians “spit on us and called us monkeys and animals” while she heard that she would be treated well in Israel. And, indeed, she was: “they gave us chocolate and juice and handcuffed us.”
Muslim migrants abandoning their countries of origin, traveling long distances, enduring terrible experiences in Egypt, and taking a chance in the Jewish state unambiguously reveals a wide but covert appreciation of Israel. Far from the angry oratory of the United Nations or the insipid bigotry of the Middle East studies professoriate, large numbers of Muslims long to live among Zionists. As Malcolm Hedding of the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem has noted, “It is remarkable that while some highly educated British academics consider Israel a racist and immoral country, these simple Sudanese refugees seem to know better.”
Thus do Muslim Africans desperate to reach the Jewish state point to an important aspect of Israel’s growing acceptance.
Read more on Middle East Quarterly: https://www.meforum.org/64465/muslim-africans-harrowing-journey-to-israel