The Promised Land

Is Israel once again the promised land? From Ha'aretz:

The Sudanese refugees were housed [in Jerusalem] in tents after they had entered Israel through Egypt, after escaping the genocide in the Western Sudan region of Darfur...

"Our student group was concerned with raising the public's awareness to the refugees' plight," activist Na'ama Katz said. "When they arrived in Wohl Rose Park in Jerusalem, we got a chance to actually see what shape they were in. We began gathering testimonies and interviewing them. They told us they had been persecuted in Egypt, and we understood what going back there meant for them."

According to Katz, many of the refugees told the students that they had suffered persecution and physical abuse in Egypt. One of them who wished to remain anonymous told Haaretz that at some point during his stay in Egypt, he and his family were afraid to leave home for fear of being beaten...

Egyptian soldiers murdered three Sudanese refugees, beating two to death in front of horrified Israel Defense Forces soldiers, Channel 10 television reported Thursday, screening what it said was army surveillance video and interviews with the soldiers.

This is oddly reminiscent of Exodus: an oppressed people in Egypt, walking across Sinai to Canaan to escape the wrath of pharaoh Mubarak. Thank God that the spirit of Tikkun Olom - and an appreciation of the parallel with their own history - lives on in some Israeli students. They just might save the refugees from being deported.