Forum Topics

Very deserving refugees - but not thought so then, when it mattered

"Repelling refugees, 2020 / 1938"by Becky Taylor"This seems a good moment to remember Britain’s well-established tradition of repelling refugees from its shores.As the persecution of Jews and dissidents in Nazi-controlled Germany and Austria intensified in the summer of 1938, and as the liberal democracies which surrounded its territories imposed more and tougher visa restrictions and hardened their borders against refugees, those seeking refuge started to look for other means to enter safe countries. Those who had reached France, but feared that the country might soon be in line for invasion, or who already had relatives in Britain, started to enter the country illegally.By definition, we have no means of knowing how many people did so successfully. If there are traces of these movements, they will lie in family memory, diaries and personal accounts and not public record. What we do have are accounts from newspapers, which over the summer and autumn of 1938 frequently carried stories of desperate attempts by refugees without the correct documentation to enter or remain in Britain. Reporters covered deportations of refugees landing at Croydon airport or Harwich port only to be turned back by immigration officers. They also wrote of refugees paying to cross the Channel in motor boats, landing at night or swimming ashore to circumvent immigration restrictions. They penned lurid reports of prosecutions for bigamous marriages, where German Jewish women were alleged to have offered money and other inducements to British men in exchange for marriage and the prospect of British nationality it offered. Alongside these stories, the newspapers devoted growing numbers of column inches to prosecutions of aliens who had successfully entered the country without the consent of an immigration official but had subsequently been caught. The aim here was to emphasise that the British state remained in control of the situation, even where its borders had been breached. Considering the case of an illegal Polish immigrant, the presiding magistrate at Old Street Police, Herbert Metcalfe, declared that immigration law, which at that time made distinction between refugees and other immigrants, ‘should be sternly enforced, and it ought to go forth as a general warning that people who disobeyed the aliens’ law and disregarded the whole thing generally would have “a rough time”’. Two months later, Metcalfe sentenced three aliens who had entered Britain without the permission of an immigration officer, stating: ‘it was becoming an outrage the way in which stateless Jews were pouring in from every port of this country. As far as he was concerned, he intended to enforce the law to the fullest extent’. Although the occasional newspaper report suggested that some magistrates dealt with illegal immigration with a degree of leniency in the months following Germany’s annexation of Austria, overall the tone of reported judgements suggests that deportation was the default option for anyone seen to be contravening immigration law.The penalties could be significant. Those landing illegally faced deportation. In July 1938 two foreign seamen were sentenced to three months in prison with hard labour for helping a German Jewish refugee to land illegally in Britain. Reporting on this case on 2nd August, the Daily Mail was keen both to make the most of the Home Office’s alarm at the increase in illegal landings and to stress the government’s proficiency in tracking down offenders:Never before has it been more difficult for an alien to land unlawfully and remain out of police hands for more than a few hours. The favourite method is to come ashore in a rowing boat with the appearance of having been out for a short sea-trip. Despite coastal watch it is possible for an alien to escape notice in this way, but his inevitable struggle for existence is almost certain to lead him before long into police hands.Warming to its theme, the article went on to discuss other means by which aliens were attempting to enter the country, before reassuring readers that ‘Immigration authorities now have a secret and scientific method’ for detecting the ploys of illegal aliens, so that ‘the offender soon finds himself trapped’. A week later, the Mail was again reporting on the Home Office’s ‘new drive to keep aliens out’, this time flagging up the ‘Eire dodge’, in which refugees were landing ‘from a fishing or small trading vessel at out-of-the-way places on the coast of Eire’, from whence they came to Britain: ‘Our ports are so keenly watched by Scotland Yard and immigration officers, that it is not worth any foreigner’s while trying to “gate-crash” into this country’.Clandestine entry, desperation, prosecution, deportation, a hysterical press: it is hard not to draw parallels with the present, even as these facts sit uncomfortably with Britain’s persistent sense of itself as having a ‘tradition of welcome’ towards vulnerable strangers. Seeing how refugees from Nazism – now held up as the emblematic refugees of the twentieth century – were treated when they attempted to reach Britain’s shores pushes us to acknowledge how history can be distorted for the purposes of the present. Alongside the welcome given to the Kindertransportees, we need to set the histories of those kept out and turned back from Britain’s shores. Both are part of Britain’s long and ambivalent relationship with refugees.Revisiting this history also reminds us that the agency of desperate people also has a history, and one that highlights how, if one can both be a ‘real refugee’ and enter a country illegally, then the problem lies not with the people landing but with the law."     https://refugeehistory.org/blog/2020/8/12/repelling-refugees-2020-1938London, UK. 30th Mar, 1939. Oskar Goldberg, a refugee from German-occupied Czechoslovakia, being forcibly deported from Croydon airport:-https://ehri-visualisations.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/original/78c401dd98aaf123e2fa4aca4d985802.jpgHe was lucky, and so was his group. His attempts to stop the deportation succeeded.

David Ainsworth ● 1d6 Comments ● 6h

A year later this Palestinian writer was killed

+972 MagazineNewsletterIn Umm al-Khair, the occupation is damning us to multigenerational traumaI saw the first bulldozers arrive in my village 17 years ago. Now, after the most brutal weeks in our history, my son will carry similarly painful memories.By Awdah Hathaleen July 22, 2024The demolition forces enter the village. All the children run to their mothers, who scramble to salvage whatever they can from their homes before it’s too late. Everyone watches on anxiously to see who will be made homeless today. The bulldozers gather in the center of the village and then stop. Soldiers disembark. The villagers look each other in the eye, searching for words of comfort, but there are none. Our children ask us why this is happening, but we have no answers.This was the scene on June 26 in my village of Umm al-Khair in the occupied West Bank, when Israeli forces demolished 11 homes, leaving families without shelter in the heat of summer. The demolitions were just the beginning of what became one of the most violent weeks in the history of our small agricultural community: we have since faced a sharp escalation in settler violence, with subsequent attacks seeing settlers shoot live ammunition in the village and destroy our water system during a severe heat wave.On the morning of the demolitions, we got word that officials from the Israeli Civil Administration — which administers the lives of Palestinians under occupation — were gathered on the highway near our village together with Border Police officers and demolition equipment. We have become accustomed to experiencing major demolition operations here in the South Hebron Hills, under the pretext that the structures were built without permits. Yet we have no other choice: Israel routinely denies permits to Palestinians in Area C of the West Bank as a method to expel us from our lands.Since October 7, the situation in Umm Al-Khair has been even more difficult than usual. And that morning, we quickly realized that we were about to witness another major demolition operation. My cousin, Eid al-Hathaleen, an artist and community leader, was one of the villagers whose world was turned upside down. “As activists who regularly document demolitions, we immediately started monitoring what was happening,” he said. “After a while, a military convoy accompanied by three bulldozers moved toward our village, closed off all the entrances, and barred the media and activists from entering.”Upon entering the village, the demolition forces went straight to one of the oldest tents in Umm al-Khair: the tent of the martyr Suleiman al-Hathaleen, a monumental figure who led the community for years and was crushed to death two years ago by an Israeli police truck that raided the village. The soldiers formed a line to prevent residents from reaching the tent before bulldozing it to the ground. In our state of shock, we thought maybe that would be the only tent demolished that day. Instead, the occupation forces continued to the main electricity room in our village, to Eid’s home, and then to one of the largest families in Umm al-Khair to destroy all of their homes and everything they owned.In total, 10 houses were demolished that morning, along with the village council tent and the solar electricity room. Thirty-eight residents are now homeless — including my sister, whose house was destroyed along with all her possessions. What was particularly shocking was that these were among the oldest homes in the village, with some having received demolition orders all the way back in 2008. Now we are worried about every single house here in Umm al-Khair.During a demolition, there is the immediate pain and horror of losing your home. But perhaps the hardest moment is the first night without it. In the hours after the demolition, you will be surrounded by your friends from the community and those who have come from elsewhere to offer solidarity. But at the end of that evening, all of them will go back to their homes — while you and your family are left to sleep outside among the rubble of your memories.“I never imagined sleeping in the open that night,” Eid said. “I cannot describe that situation — how much I wanted to express what was inside me, and what my family, who are now homeless, was facing. How can I reduce their fear and anxiety, their feeling of having no safe place?”For my sister, it took a few days to begin to process the tragedy. “During the nights, we usually make dinner for everyone and sit together,” she told me. “Then my children go to hang out with their friends in the community, the young ones go to sleep, and we plan for the following morning. But in one moment, we found ourselves in an unsteady tent which cannot protect us from anything. So in these moments, we understood what had actually happened to us.”Here in Umm al-Khair, the threat of home demolitions has hovered over every resident since we first received demolition orders 17 years ago. When I was young, my parents did everything to try to shield my siblings and I from this reality, but there are some memories that stuck with me. I was only 13 years old during the first demolitions in 2007, but I still remember that day so clearly: I walked to school with two of my cousins, then sat at my desk which was next to the window, giving me a clear view of the village. Suddenly, we started to see bulldozers and people moving around; we tried to go out, but the teachers wouldn’t let us.I remember my mother’s tears when I arrived back in the village, the women shouting, and the anger in the men’s faces. I remember the activists who stood with us, the soldiers and Border Police officers throwing tear gas, and the men being arrested. It’s a painful memory, yet I can’t help but remember.Now a parent myself, I’ve tried to shield my 4-year-old son from this harsh reality as much as possible, so that he will not have to carry the same memories that I did. But sometimes, no matter how good a father you are, there are things you cannot control. And the past weeks have been some of the worst we’ve ever experienced.In the afternoon of July 1, five days after the demolitions, a group of settlers from the illegal Israeli outpost of Havat Shorashim entered our village where a group of elderly women were feeding their sheep. They came into the home of my mother, the village elder Hajja Khadra al-Hathaleen, demanding that she make them coffee. When the women told the settlers to leave, one of them began shooting live fire into the air, beating the women with sticks, and spraying pepper spray in their eyes. In a panic, we called for the police and army to come, not knowing how else to protect our families from the settlers. But when the army arrived, instead of making the settlers leave our land, they started to shout at the village residents and push us out of our homes. In total, six residents were wounded by the settlers: four women, a 5-year-old girl, and a 17-year-old boy. We called ambulances to take the wounded to the hospital, but when they reached the village, the settlers blocked the road, delaying the injured from getting urgent medical treatment.  My son witnessed these attacks — he was playing in the area where the settlers arrived — and has been deeply affected by them. Understandably, he wants to know what is happening, and why. “Every time a settler sees me, will they use pepper spray?” he now asks. “Why did grandma go to the hospital?” He even knows some of the settlers by name. Sometimes I tell him that they went to jail; I’m lying, but I want to make him feel safe. But he still sees his grandmothers, his cousins, and his aunts collapsing on the ground in front of him. It’s a tough memory, and I know that it will stick with him. Since the attacks, my son has started stuttering — an entirely new symptom, and one that terrifies me. The doctor told us that the best treatment for stuttering is a safe environment. But this is what we cannot guarantee for our children: in Umm al-Khair, no one is in a safe place. The following day, the same settlers returned to the village; after pitching a tent in my neighbor’s yard, over 20 of them gathered to say the Jewish evening prayers together. The next morning, while grazing their sheep in our private agricultural lands, they severed the pipe that is Umm al-Khair’s only connection to running water. Amid all of this injustice, we often feel forgotten, lost, or hopeless. Sometimes we wonder: why do Israelis see us as terrorists and enemies? Why is the world not acting to achieve justice for Palestinians? But most of the time, we feel tired. The attacks, the raids, the demolitions: we think about them all the time. I always say that I wish fate hadn’t brought us to this point. But now we are stuck here; there’s no way to leave."Awdah Hathaleen is an activist and collective member of Umm al-Khair in the South Hebron Hills. He is an English teacher in his village, having studied English teaching at Hebron University.Hamdan Ballal Al-Huraini also contributed to this article.https://www.972mag.com/umm-al-khair-multigenerational-trauma/------------------See the settlers and their IDF "protectors":-https://static.972mag.com/www/uploads/2024/07/July-2-Shimon-and-army-and-sheep-3-1280x720.jpg------------------And now:-"On 28 July this year [2025], Yinon Levi [a radical Zionist settler] fired a bullet that killed Odeh [Awdah] Hathaleen, a Palestinian activist and journalist, during a disturbance in the West Bank village of Umm al-Khair. Levi pleaded self-defence and was released after three days of house arrest.""His [Awdah's] brother, Khalil, told me the dead man was holding his five-year-old son, Watan, and filming the violent scenes on his phone when he was killed."

David Ainsworth ● 7d10 Comments ● 1d

"Double tap" 15 minutes later

"Israel bombed the main hospital in southern Gaza on Monday and then struck the same spot again as rescuers and journalists rushed to help the wounded, killing at least 20 people including five journalists, health officials said.The first strike hit the top floor of a building at the Nasser hospital, killing the Reuters journalist Hussam al-Masri and others. Journalists and rescuers then rushed to the scene to help the wounded, when a second bomb struck the same spot 15 minutes later.A live video from AlGhad TV captured the moments of their killings, showing civil defence workers wearing bright orange vests and journalists raising their hands to shield themselves seconds before the second bomb kills them. A second video showed the aftermath of the bombings, with the bodies of the first responders and journalists lying on top of one another, bloody and covered in dust.The “double tap” strike and killing of journalists prompted a wave of international condemnation, including from the UK foreign secretary, David Lammy. “Horrified by Israel’s attack on Nasser hospital. Civilians, healthcare workers and journalists must be protected. We need an immediate ceasefire,” Lammy wrote on X.The US president, Donald Trump, told reporters “I’m not happy about it” when asked about the attack, while the French president, Emmanuel Macron, described it as “intolerable”." (Gdn 25/8/25)https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/25/journalists-among-people-killed-by-israeli-strike-on-gaza-hospital-----------------------"In a statement, the Israeli military said its troops on Monday "carried out a strike in the area of Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis"."The Chief of the General Staff instructed to conduct an initial inquiry as soon as possible," it said, adding it "regrets any harm to uninvolved individuals and does not target journalists as such".""uninvolved individuals" and "journalists as such". "initial inquiry as soon as possible".Of course.https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/four-journalists-among-15-killed-101221836.html

David Ainsworth ● 8d2 Comments ● 2d