Dozens of Israeli Holocaust survivors have begged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to deport thousands of illegal African migrants.
In an open letter written to left-wing newspaper Haaretz on the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day, the 36 survivors cited their own experience with genocide in defence of the 38,000 migrants.
Their letter explained: 'We, who know precisely what it's like to be refugees, to be homeless and bereft of a state that preserves and protects us from violence and suffering, cannot comprehend how a Jewish government can expel refugees and asylum seekers to a journey of suffering, torment and death.'
On January 3, Netanyahu announced implementation of a plan to deport the migrants who entered Israel illegallymainly Eritreans and Sudaneseand gave them until the end of March to leave voluntarily or face jail and eventual expulsion by force.
African migrants demonstrate against the Israeli government's policy to forcibly deport refugees and asylum seekers from Israel at a protest in the Israeli city of Herzliya
At the beginning of the month Prime Minister Netanyahu (pictured) called the migrants' presence a threat to Israel's social fabric and Jewish character, and one government minister has referred to them as 'a cancer'
Children from South Sudan hold their hands up against a bus window where an Israeli aid worker had written 'I Love U' on the window as dozens of South Sudanese migrants from the Tel Aviv area are deported from Israel in 2012
He defended his decision at the weekly cabinet meeting last Sunday, denying that the potential deportees were refugees.
'We are acting against illegal migrants who come here not as refugees but for work needs,' he stated. 'Israel will not stop to offer asylum for genuine refugees and will remove illegal migrants from its midst.'
He did not say to which country they would be sent but Israel tacitly recognises it is too dangerous to return the Sudanese and Eritreans home.
Aid workers and media have named Uganda and Rwanda.
Uganda has publicly denied being a destination.
At the beginning of the month Prime Minister Netanyahu called the migrants' presence a threat to Israel's social fabric and Jewish character, and one government minister has referred to them as 'a cancer'.
A plan was launched to offer African migrants a $3,500 payment from the Israeli government and a free air ticket to return home or go to 'third countries'.
The website of the Aid Organization for Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Israel (ASSAF) says that of 10,000 asylum requests from Eritreans in Israel, only seven have been granted, while one Sudanese has received asylum.
It does not state the number of Sudanese applicants, but government figures from October 2016 list 8,066 Sudan nationals among the migrants.
A 2016 UN commission of inquiry into Eritrea's regime found 'widespread and systematic' crimes against humanity and said an estimated 5,000 people flee the country each month.
The International Criminal Court has indicted Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide linked to his regime's counter-insurgency tactics in the 14-year-old Darfur conflict.
ASSAF says that there are 'thousands' from the Darfur region of western Sudan among those seeking asylum in Israel whose applications have yet to receive an answer.