Paper short abstract:

The paper will historically analyse the evolution of Israel’s asylum regime, from the 1948 war to present day, within the context of perpetual conflict in the Middle-East.

Paper long abstract:

How does a country's asylum regime evolve? What are the main factors to determine its evolution? What responses to these questions can be found in the Israeli case study?

Israel, the Jewish nation-state, was founded by a people that represented the prototype of an unassimilated ethnic, religious and cultural minority. In the aftermath of the Holocaust and within the perpetual conflicts in the Middle-East, Israel's status as a haven for all Jews emerged as a pivotal force in the state's national identity and one of its central raisons d'être. In practice this fundamental commitment excludes almost all forms of non-Jewish immigration to Israel. Scholars have therefore referred to Israel as an "ethnic immigration country" which practices an "ethnically stratified migration regime".

Recently, Israel has become host to circa 50,000 African migrants, mostly potential asylum seekers. The dominant political discourse regards them as an existential national threat. Accordingly, the government and parliament have prompt stern and effective anti-immigration policies. In an unprecedented opposition to the will of the legislative and executive branches, the Israeli supreme court has annulled twice the anti-immigration laws in the name of Israel's commitment to liberal-democratic values and international law.

This paper will seek to show that the various competing agendas regarding asylum and unauthorised migration in Israel emanate from profoundly different worldviews regarding the national and the liberal-democratic definitions of the Jewish nation-state. The constant tension and potential opposition between these essential characteristics have determined the political, legal and social space in which the country's asylum regime has evolved.