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Deportation Redux

Israel begins deporting and detaining non-refugee migrants.

by
Irin Carmon
June 11, 2012
An African migrant from South Sudan watches television in Tel Aviv. (JACK GUEZ/AFP/GettyImages))
An African migrant from South Sudan watches television in Tel Aviv. (JACK GUEZ/AFP/GettyImages))

Eight years ago, I rode along on Israel’s deportation campaign and talked to migrants like David Kofi, who said he was going to take the door the police broke down back with him to Ghana. Today’s headlines are jarringly familiar, though this time they’ve come after a wave of uglier moments, including racist riots, the casual and constant use of the word “infiltrator,” and this undeniable reality uttered by Interior Minister Eli Yishai: “I am a minister in Israel, not the African welfare minister.”

Irin Carmon is a senior correspondent at New York magazine and co-author of The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Her Twitter feed is @irin.