Israeli PM nixes UN deal to resettle migrants

Netanyahu does flip-flop on allowing Africans to stay after caving in to nationalist critics

JERUSALEM — In an abrupt and startling reversal, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nixed his own deal Tuesday with the United Nations to resettle tens of thousands of African migrants in Israel and other Western nations, caving into nationalist critics who have demonized the migrants for taking over poor neighbourhoods in Tel Aviv.

The move leaves unresolved one of Israel’s most charged and divisive issues — what to do with Africans who say they fled for their lives in search of sanctuary in the Jewish state.

The about-face also opened Netanyahu to scathing assaults on his leadership, raising doubts about his ability to make controversial decisions on bigger issues in the future, including how he would respond to a peace plan promised by President Donald Trump.

Netanyahu proudly announced the deal Monday in a nationally televised news conference, saying Israel had agreed to cancel a planned expulsion of tens of thousands of Africans that had been widely condemned both at home and among Jews around the world.

Under the deal, roughly half of the 35,000 migrants living in Israel would be resettled in the West with the rest absorbed in Israel. Netanyahu praised it as a “good agreement” that marked “an important day” for Israel.

But hours later, after heavy criticism among nationalists within his own ruling coalition, he said he was putting the plan on hold. After meeting angry residents of working-class neighbourhoods in south Tel Aviv on Tuesday, Netanyahu said he was cancelling it outright.

“From time to time, there are decisions that have to be reconsidered,” he said. “We will continue to act determinedly to exhaust all our options of removing the infiltrators.”

A coalition of human rights organizations in Israel said the flip-flop proved the government could not be trusted to fulfill any “moral, legal or international commitments.” Domestic critics said it raised broader questions about whether Netanyahu could carry out any proper decisionmaking process.

The aborted UN deal had looked to avoid the spectre of forced deportations to undisclosed African destinations, widely believed to be Rwanda and Uganda, with which Israel said it had reached a secret agreement. Israel had planned to begin the mass deportations on Sunday.

In Geneva, the UN Refugee Agency expressed “disappointment” with Netanyahu’s decision and urged him to reconsider the most recent move.

“UNHCR continues to believe that a win-win agreement that would both benefit Israel and people needing asylum is in everyone’s best interest,” it said in a statement.

On the other hand, a wide coalition of critics at home and in the Jewish American community had called the government’s deportation plans unethical and a stain on Israel’s image as a refuge for Jewish migrants.

Groups of Israeli doctors, academics, Holocaust survivors, rabbis, poets and pilots had all appealed to halt the plan.