In a sloppily written diatribe, Newsweek’s Jack Moore singles out Israel for criticism with regard to the wide-ranging African refugee crisis.
First, Moore unfairly criticizes Israel for approving less asylum applications than other Western countries, while he omits the critical context that Israel is a tiny country, with limited resources. In fact, on a per capita basis Israel is facing over three times the number of asylum claims as Europe.
(The population of Europe as of 2015 is 743,122,816 with 1,321,560 asylum claims which yields .0018 asylum seekers per capita. For that same year, Israel’s population is 8,412,000 with 46,437 African asylum seekers which yields .0055 asylum seekers per capita.)
In addition, Europe has been attempting to close its borders in an effort to keep African refugees from entering in the first place. Furthermore, while a portion of African asylum seekers are true political refugees, a great many are actually economic refugees, in search of better jobs, but not actually in fear for their lives or safety. Moore, of course, mentions none of this.
Moore then claims that refugees face a high risk of violence in Israel: yet rather than bringing facts or figures to support his claim, he references one extreme and unusual example of a criminal attack, and then covers up that the attacker was promptly arrested and prosecuted in accordance with Israeli law.
The situation in Israel that Moore attempts to address lies in stark contrast to Egypt, where asylum seekers have been legally shot by the official military, and live under such dire conditions that their goal is to leave Egypt and reach Israel: the only modern, Western democracy in the region.
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
There is no question that the African refugee crisis is a serious problem, and that many nations around the world, including Israel, are struggling to deal with it: often inadequately. In fact, there is plenty of entirely fair criticism that one could make about all the nations involved, without even needing to twist the truth as Moore does.
Yet paradoxically:
- Moore has no words of criticism for the governments of Eritrea, Sudan or any of the African countries who created a refugee crisis in the first place.
- Moore does not criticize Egypt, Jordan nor any other North African or Middle Eastern countries: for failing to help and instead exacerbating this crisis and sending thousands of additional Africans fleeing toward Israel.
- Nor does Moore criticize other Western countries who, compared to Israel, are shouldering a much smaller proportion of this burden relative to their size and populations.
Instead Moore singles out Israel, and only Israel.
And in order to do so with any kind of impact, Moore covers up context, twists facts, and takes isolated bits of information drastically out of context.
Instead of writing like a responsible journalist, Jack Moore writes like an activist with an agenda. There is a place for private agendas in this world, but that place should not be in the pages of Newsweek.
Let Newsweek know that you expect professional and impartial journalism by clicking HERE. Be sure to reference this link to their story: http://europe.newsweek.com/israel-yet-approve-single-asylum-request-2016-15000-wait-482640
