18 Jewish Democrats express ‘dismay’ over migrants

WASHINGTON — Eighteen Jewish Democrats out of 21 in the House of Representatives said in a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that they were “dismayed” and “disappointed” over his retreat from a plan that replaced his earlier proposal to deport tens of thousands of African migrants from Israel.

The letter said the lawmakers — including New Yorkers Nita Lowey and Eliot Engel — were “heartened” on April 2 when they learned that Netanyahu had worked out a plan with the United Nations to process the half of the migrants through regularized refugee channels only to hear within hours that he had reversed himself.

“We were dismayed to hear that the agreement had been suspended, then canceled, leaving the Sudanese and Eritrean asylum seekers in limbo, with no clear next step,” said the letter sent Monday and initiated by four of the top Jewish lawmakers: Lowey, the top Democratic appropriator; Engel, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee; Ted Deutch of Florida, the top Democrat on the House Middle East subcommittee; and Sander Levin of Michigan, the longest-serving Jewish member of Congress.

The lawmakers said they were writing as Jewish Congress members and also on behalf of their constituents; the majority of the lawmakers represent districts with substantive Jewish communities.

“Many of us have heard in recent months from constituents who care deeply about Israel and who are also gravely concerned with the respect to the future of the approximately 38,000 asylum seekers living in the Jewish state,” the letter said.

Netanyahu announced a plan in January to deport and/or jail the asylum seekers, many of whom have been in Israel for years. That plan was vigorously criticized by the international human rights community, as well as an array of Jewish organizations and figures in the United States, including a number that rarely openly criticize Israel. A United Nations plan would have left half the migrants in Israel with undetermined status while seeking countries willing to absorb the other half, a process that can take up to five years. 

Netanyahu dropped the U.N. plan and said he would revert to his earlier plan to send the asylum seekers to an unnamed African country, believed to be Uganda.