Seeking Asylum in Israel: Refugees and the History of Migration Law

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Since 2005, approximately 70,000 asylum-seeking refugees from Sudan and Eritrea have entered Israel. This, along with the highly publicised anti-African immigrant riots in Israel in 2012 and 2014 and the current global refugee crisis, has meant that the issue of African migration has become increasingly controversial. Here Gilad Ben-Nun looks at this phenomenon in its historical and contemporary contexts, and compares it to the wider debates surrounding the Palestinian refugees in the region and the concept of their right of return. He argues that this newer, African migration issue has forced Israel to move from conceiving of itself as an 'exceptional' state and now has to view itself as a more 'normal' and 'universal' entity. Ranging as far back as Israel's important role in the the ratification drafting of the 1951 Refugee Convention and drawing on a variety of methodologies and sources, Ben-Nun offers a wide-ranging legal, social and historical examination of asylum in Israel, that sheds timely light onto themes of migration and identity across the Middle East.
This is essential reading for legal historians and lawyers, as well as scholars working on migration studies and the history and politics of the Middle East.

Reviews

'Fascinating, even gripping ... [the book] sheds rare light onto the drafting process of the most important treaty on refugees.' - Pierre Hazan, Special Advisor on Transitional Justice, Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (Geneva) and Associate Professor, Neuchatel University, 'No moment could be more appropriate for tackling this topic than today, when all of Europe, inside and outside of the EU, and the Mediterranean region, are helpless and in disarray facing the refugee crisis. Gilad Ben-Nun dares a twin-track strategy of making us aware about the section of international law that has become so critical after World War II and the period of decolonization; and the role the young state of Israel played in writing and commenting this law: that is one track. The other is the application of international and national law on refugees to Israel. The second track can be observed as a paradigmatic oscillation between universalism - i.e. also a global commitment to conventions and rules of supranational law - and a fall-back into old and new nationalisms ... This book is pioneering in several ways.' - Michael Daxner, Professor, Freie Universitat Berlin and former Principal International Officer, United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), "This book demonstrates convincingly that knowing about global history is essential for understanding current international events. By analysing the conflict between judges and government in Israel concerning the treatment of refugees, the author has made visible the deep roots of today's migration policies." - Matthias Middell, Professor of Global History, University of Leipzig

Author Bio

Gilad Ben-Nun is Marie Curie Individual Fellow at the University of Verona's Department of Public International Law and holds a PhD from the University of Leipzig. He is also the author of The Fourth Geneva Convention: The History of International Humanitarian Law (I.B.Tauris, forthcoming).