African Exodus

Since 2006, nearly 60,000 non-Jewish Africans, primarily from Sudan and Eritrea, have fled the wars and dictatorships of their homelands and made their way through Egypt into Israel. These African refugees and asylum seekers risked their lives in the hope of finding a safe haven until they can return home. Paradoxically, they are considered "infiltrators" in a country that was unprepared to handle this wave of Africans. While Israel has a very clear policy for absorbing Jews and is a signatory to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, it has struggled to deal with its newest migrant community. Recognizing that it cannot send the Africans back to their home countries, the government of Israel keeps them in suspended animation by not allowing them to work legally. With the numbers of homeless, jobless Africans on the rise, it's no surprise that tensions are growing in the poor neighborhoods where they've settled. While the State gropes for an adequate solution to this looming humanitarian crisis, Israel's civil society has stepped into the breach and is invoking Jewish values to help the Africans most in need. Exodus, a documentary film, chronicles this issue and sheds light on the largely hidden world of Israel's African refugees.