Dan Connell: An Eritrean in Israel

Over 35,000 Eritrean refugees live in Israel today. Dubbed a “cancer” by right-wing politicians, just four have been granted asylum.

Kifle was in the fourth grade at Bet Soira — the “Revolution School” run by the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front at their rear base in Harareb — when the final battle of the 30-year struggle for independence from Ethiopia was fought in 1991 outside Asmara.

His father, a fighter, had been killed in the war, and his mother and a younger brother were based elsewhere then. But Kifle was not alone. His family was the liberation front.

Today, Kifle languishes in a minimum-security prison, euphemistically termed a “detention center,” in Israel’s sweltering Negev Desert, unsure where his life is headed. His brother is a refugee in South Africa. His mother remains in Eritrea. Like most Eritrean refugees I’ve interviewed on four continents over the past six months, he asked that his real name be withheld to protect relatives from retribution at home and himself from repercussions in Israel.

Whether he or the others are right to be afraid at this point — many tell stories of family members punished in Eritrea after their flight — fear and uncertainty are their constant companions. Their experience teaches them this. More.