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Political Asylum And Enlightened False Consciousness: The Challenges Of Human Rights Advocacy In Israel, Ilil Benjamin

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

Since 2007, nearly 60,000 asylum seekers have arrived in Israel, primarily from Sudan and Eritrea, and been granted temporary stay visas by the Israeli Ministry of Interior while their asylum cases were being adjudicated.

Mindful of the ministry’s hostility to asylum seekers and its 99.9% rejection rate of applicants to date, many asylum seekers have come to doubt that their personal histories of poverty or violence would persuade Israeli asylum officers to permit them to stay. Based on ethnographic research in an asylum advocacy NGO in Tel Aviv, I examine the exclusions of Israel’s asylum system as seen by aid …