Limmud Bay Area 2016

The summer of 2015 was dramatically shaped by the "Refugee Crisis," migrations from the global south to the global north. Dealing with irregular migration has become the lot of many Western, developed, democratic states. For such states, negotiating between democratic, universal claims to human rights and state rights to self-sovereignty and border control has become a central challenge. Israel, and its dealings with African asylum seekers, provides a compelling case study for this dynamic. I will explore how African asylum seekers and their rights are constructed in Israeli legal and legislative discourse in order to better our understanding of minority rights in Israel and Israel's commitment to rights protections.