Israel Moves to Expel Africans. Critics Say That’s Not Jewish.

Image

African migrants at the Rwandan embassy last month protesting the Israeli government’s plan to deport African asylum-seekers.CreditJack Guez/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

By Isabel Kershner

Feb. 2, 2018

JERUSALEM — On a recent weeknight, about two dozen Israelis, mostly in their 20s, gathered in a Jerusalem basement to hear the story of an Eritrean man who is facing deportation.

Like thousands of Eritreans, Frezgi Ketef Tehehaymanut, 27, fled his country to avoid the draft into slave-like national service, a crime punishable by death. He would return to Eritrea tomorrow, he said, but he feared he would “end up under the ground.”