Arad residents don't want refugees
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3745675,00.html
Funny, these Russian
*Southern city's hospitality replaced by fear, aversion and loathing towards African infiltrators, with residents setting up committee to thin out their presence in area. 'The future is black,' one resident says *
Ilana Curiel Published: 07.13.09, 12:05 / Israel News <http://www.ynetnews.com/home/0,7340,L-3082,00.html>
Some will see it as pure racism, while others will refer to it as a real concern over a small city's identity. Taxi drivers at the cab station in Arad's commercial center launch a spontaneous parliament when asked about the issue of infiltrators. They don't even try to conceal their sense of aversion towards the guests from Sudan, Eritrea and other African countries.
"The blacks have Sinai, the Chinese have China, and the Moroccans and Russians have Arad," says cab driver Leon.
"I don't want my grandson to be in a kindergarten with Sudanese," says Alexander, a veteran immigrant, who claims the refugees have not undergone proper medical examinations. "Their women are pregnant with many kids," he states. When asked about large Israeli families, he gets angry: "It’s my garbage. It's stinks, but it's mine."
Only taxi driver Haim asks to calm everyone down, saying that "the Sudanese of all people are the ones who saved Arad. They rent apartments here and spend money at the center." The other cab drivers shout at him angrily. "But without the Bedouins and Sudanese Arad is dead," he tries to defend himself. "They take our jobs," says Alexander in an attempt to settle the argument.
In the past, Arad was a sought after desert diamond, and those who wished to be absorbed in the city were required to appear before admission committee. Today such committees no longer exist. In order to be an Arad resident, all one has to do is to arrive in the city.
Some of the residents, who have had enough of the burden of infiltrators falling on their city, have decided to set up a committee of action with the goal being an equal distribution of the burden. In the past few months the committee has been meeting every week in a bid to find a way to reduce the number of infiltrators settling in the city.
Arad has become periphery's dustbin'
"What about Dimona? What about Beersheba?" asks one of the committee members. "Is Arad all there is?"
Maxim Oknin, a committee member and a former City Council member, says "Arad has been chosen to be the Darfurians' paradise. Without a solution we could simply be annihilated."
And this is the problem – the infiltrators' "paradise" is their "hell".
"Arad has become the periphery's dustbin," claims Matti Rose, manager of the Neradim Village for children at risk. "The welfare budget is finished, and one cannot move from one side of the commercial center to another without being afraid."
This is a matter Bazian and the committee members see eye to eye on. "Never in my life have I seen a country act this war. We are not enemies but friends, Christians," he says.
Fear is the key player here. When there were only dozens of infiltrators, Arad's residents welcomed them kindly. But over time, the hospitality has been replaced by fear, aversion and loathing.
"My daughter is afraid to walk on the street at night," says Moshe Edri. "My family is Arad, and I can't sleep because of this fear."
Marcelo, a volunteer at the jeep unit, speaks about his small children, saying "I see a black future for them."
The committee tries to come up with ways of action. Matti draws the different stages on a board: 1 – leaflets; 2 – traveling to the Knesset; 3 – advertising across the city; 4 – a petition; 5 – a meeting with the mayor; 6 – a major event. They try to build everything ahead of that event, which will be a sort of demonstration of power in which they will present their struggle to the residents and urge them to take part in it.
Not far from the commercial center is a kindergarten for the infiltrators' children. They have been without electricity for more than 10 days, and the landlord refuses to deal with the problem.
Michael Bazian, 45, comes here in the evenings with other Sudanese in order to learn English. After the children come home and the grownups return from work, they gather here in order to study.
Do they feel unwanted here? Are they aware of the committee seeking to deport some of them to a different place? "The people here are kind to us. Our children study in the school together. There's no difference between a Sudanese and Israeli child. No discrimination."
The only discrimination troubling Bazian is that of the Hadera-Gedera procedure. According to this policy, the infiltrators are not allowed to stay in the central region, but only north of Hadera or south of Gedera. This policy has put the periphery towns in charge of the refugees and exempted the established central cities from sharing the burden.