Sudanese asylum seekers condemned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's efforts to normalize Israel's diplomatic relations with the African state in a series on interviews to Channel 12.
According to Channel 12, sources close to Netanyahu suggested that the establishment of diplomatic ties with Sudan would help with the deportation of the state's nationals currently seeking asylum in Israel.
"It is immoral that the Israeli prime minister is shaking hands with a murderer," said Monim Haron, referring to Sudanese general and de-facto leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. "I would suggest he establish ties with interim Prime Minister [Abdalla Hamdok] who is loved by the Sudanese people for supporting the democratization of the country and advocating for human rights.
"Al-Burhan is a murderer in the fullest sense of the word," he continued. "He is the one who recruited the Arab militias that are perpetrating a genocide in Darfour and and he is the one that destroyed villages like the one I fled from.Haron added that the general had killed his family members.
"[Burhan] has the military force and does not want to give the power to the citizens," he continued. "He is not very fond of the areas we [the assylum seekers] came from."
Haron told Channel 12 that he "would expect [Netanyahu] to meet the prime minister and not Burhan who was a key part of the previous government that was overthrown."He said that Buhran "is not very interested in completing the democratic process in the country."
Haron added that he does not "oppose normalization with Israel. Quite the contrary - I have supported it even before arriving in Israel. But I do oppose [any] normalization with the murderous head of the Sovereignty Council. The world thinks that the genocide in Sudan has ended, but for us, nothing has changed."
Anwar, another asylum seeker, said that, "[the asylum seekers] are not afraid because all UN reports say the situation in Darfour has not changed."He added that the government has not been successful in deporting the refugees for years.
"Al-Burhan is an unstable person and a military man who has committed multiple crimes in Darfour," Anwar told Channel 12. "The citizens of Sudan do not trust him and his status comes from power. International law does not give Israel the option to deport us. Where will they put us?"
The war in Darfur has been going on since 2003, with close to 3 million citizens being displaced and at least 300,000 dead.
In 2004, the UN's International Commission of Inquiry "found that [Sudanese] Government forces and militias conducted indiscriminate attacks, including killing of civilians, torture, enforced disappearances, destruction of villages, rape and
other forms of sexual violence, pillaging and forced displacement, throughout Darfur."
In 2018, 25,000 protesters rallied in Tel Aviv's Rabin Square against the deportation of the Sudanese asylum seekers currently living in the southern parts of the city.