“Nobody is disputing that these three individuals were victims of terror,” says an official in the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. “What is disturbing is that even after having lived in Israel for over a decade, their refugee status was never determined. They fled one war and died in another conflict, in a place where they felt safe. According asylum seekers basic rights and treating them equally as residents is a legal obligation, and the right thing to do. The lack of their status in life followed them in death. That they rest in peace.”
Published on Haaretz.com 18 March, 2024
Merwahi Gebrehiyet tries to surround himself with friends these days. But at night, when he rests his head on his pillow, he finds himself alone, the image of his brother in front of him. Many questions remain unanswered about what happened to him the morning of October 7 after the town of Sderot was taken over by Hamas terrorists. When was he killed? How? Where exactly? “How can I sleep?” Merwahi tells Haaretz. “I’ll never be able to forget him.”
His brother’s name was Goyitom, but everyone called him Gigi. He worked as a welder and moved to Sderot in 2008. Before fleeing Eritrea for Israel, he worked as a carpenter and car mechanic. At the age of 40, he was one of the 51 city residents who were killed that day.
But, in contrast to most of the others – both Israeli citizens and foreigners – the state has not officially recognized asylum seekers who were living in Israel without an entry permit as victims of terrorism. As a result, their family members are not entitled to social benefits.
Just like on other Saturdays, Gigi got up that morning and went running. At 7 A.M., Hamas terrorists reached the city from the west in white pick-up trucks. They rode down Herzl Street, massacring everyone in their path – bikers, pensioners on a mini-bus, a taxi driver, foreign workers, police officers, and three asylum seekers – Gigi among them. Twenty minutes later, the terrorists began to barricade themselves in the local police station.
When Merwahi woke up at 8 A.M., he tried to call his brother. It was already too late. “I didn’t know what to do,” he says. “His friends and I kept calling and he wasn’t answering. The next day, people went to look for him in Rahat and Ashkelon. I went to Barzilai Hospital [in Ashkelon] and they told me to go to the police.”
On October 10, Merwahi went to the police’s serious crimes unit to give investigators information and his brother’s DNA. A missing person file was opened. A few days later, a social worker from Mesila, the unit in the Tel Aviv-Jaffa Municipality’s social services department that deals with residents who aren’t Israeli, set up an appointment to meet with Merwahi at his home.
Goyitom (Gigi) Gebrehiyet. Photo: no credit
When several people showed up, he understood what had happened. “I didn’t ask what had happened to him, and they didn’t say,” he recalls. Two months have passed since the meeting, and Merwahi still hasn’t left his house.
Gigi’s body was flown back to Eritrea at the expense of the asylum seeker community in Tel Aviv, where Merwahi, who is two years younger than his brother, lives. Meanwhile, members of the community have been trying to help him as much as possible.
Goyitom (Gigi) Gebrehiyet’s grave in Eritrea. Photo: no credit
Before he was killed, Gigi had taken on the responsibility of helping Merwahi after a car accident left his younger brother unable to work. In fact, Gigi always looked after Merwahi. The two lost their mother at a young age, and it was Gigi who took her place. “He wasn’t just my brother,” Merwahi says. “He was like a mother and father to me.”
He says that after he was captured by Bedouin while crossing the Sinai Desert, it was Gigi who sent the money to free him. “The two of us were here alone,” says Merwahi. “When I needed something, he was the one who thought about me. Everything that I ever wanted, he got me. A real man, he helped everyone.”
The law on recognizing victims of terrorism applies to Israeli citizens at home and abroad, as well as those who are in Israel legally for any reason. In the past, the government has recognized victims even when they had been in the country without authorization, so long as they had entered the country legally. This was the case in 2021 when Israel provided financial assistance to the families of two Ukrainians who had been murdered in a Bnei Brak terror attack,
However, most African asylum seekers are in a different situation because they entered Israel illegally through the southern border. This denies them the right to be officially recognized as victims of terrorism, even though their residence in Israel is deemed legal because of their right to temporary protection in light of the situations in their home countries of Sudan and Eritrea.
An absurd situation has thus been created in which the citizens of these countries live in Israel legally but without rights or status, even after they have died. The government has stubbornly refused to review their asylum requests and grant refugee status when necessary.
“Nobody is disputing that these three individuals were victims of terror,” says an official in the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. “What is disturbing is that even after having lived in Israel for over a decade, their refugee status was never determined. They fled one war and died in another conflict, in a place where they felt safe. According asylum seekers basic rights and treating them equally as residents is a legal obligation, and the right thing to do. The lack of their status in life followed them in death. That they rest in peace.”
A source at the National Insurance Institute says that when someone living in Israel without legal status is a victim of terrorism, the case is given to its exceptions committee, which often awards compensation. In this case, however, most of the victims’ families are not in Israel and cannot apply.
Such was the case for Wolderaphael Hagos Berhe, 40, from Eritrea. He was a singer and player of the krar, a popular musical instrument in Eritrea and Ethiopia.
Wolderaphael (Tiger) Hagos Berhe. Photo: From Tiger Hagos YouTube page
Hagos Berhe was known to his friends as Tiger. His life centered around music. He worked odd jobs to make ends meet. That Friday night, Tiger sat with his friends, drinking and playing cards. Takele, a friend and resident of the city who was with him, recalls their last moments together.
“We were together until a little before 6:30 AM. There was a small party with friends at home,” he says. “When I got home, I heard sirens and gunshots. I saw dead people from my shelter and heard shouts of ‘Allahu Akbar’.”
Tiger, who also left the party shortly before the massacre started, never made it back home. The next day, when his friends couldn’t reach on the phone, they began to fear the worst.
“I asked friends which direction he’d gone in, and they said that in the general direction of the police [station],” Takele says. “When I didn’t get a hold of him over the phone, I understood.”
Tiger was officially missing until the middle of December, but his unidentified body was held by the authorities the whole time. Until he was unidentified, the police – along with volunteers and members of the UN High Commission for Refugees – tried to identify him in videos from October 7 and get information. About three months ago, his body was identified using a DNA sample.
Tiger’s body was flown to Eritrea on January 7 and brought to his hometown, where his mother and son live, for burial. The Prime Minister’s Office said it would pay for the expenses because the Eritrean embassy had charged a high fee from grieving families on previous occasions. According to sources, this is a well-known practice by embassy personnel, who act as the Eritrean regime’s local proxies.
If Tiger is recognized as a victim of terrorism, his mother and son may be entitled to compensation. The question is how to transfer it to them without it being taken by local government officials.
Adam Mohammed Barima, known by his friends as Puma, was employed as a cleaning worker in the area. His father had been murdered in Darfur, and he left his mother in his home village, traveling to Israel in search of a more stable life and a chance to support his family with dignity. In 2020, he was convicted of crimes and served about a year in prison.
Adam (Puma) Mohammed Abdallah Barima. Photo: No credit
His girlfriend, Nena, says he was shot and killed on the morning of October 7 after going out to film rockets being intercepted near his house, which is not far from the municipal pool. Monim Haroon, a refugee from Darfur, says his friend told him of Puma’s death by comparing Hamas to the Janjaweed militia, which is responsible for the genocide in Darfur. Mohammed Barima’s body was identified only eight days later, and he was buried more than a month after the massacre in a grave donated by the Tasso Muslim cemetery in Jaffa.
The grave of Adam (Puma) Mohammed Abdallah Barima in Jaffa. Photo: no credit
Haroon and Puma’s cousin, who lives in Israel, tried to inform Mohammed Barima’s family in Darfur of his death but were unable to contact them. Only after about three weeks did they manage to contact a relative in Sudan and ask him to go on a three-day journey through an active combat zone. A week later, confirmation was received that Puma’s mother had been informed of his death.
According to Haroon, the fact that the families of Puma, Gigi, and Tiger are not entitled to compensation is unjust and a direct continuation of Israel’s long-standing policy toward asylum seekers. “It’s a moral failure toward him and his family,” he says. “First because Israel didn’t recognize him as a refugee after he had fled persecution, and second by not recognizing that he was murdered here and being unwilling to help his family.”
A statement by Labor Minister Yoav Bentzur, who oversees the National Insurance Institute, said: “According to the compensations law, an individual who infiltrated Israel without permission will not be recognized by the state as a victim of hostilities. Some cases can be rediscussed in a special committee that may approve assistance under some conditions.”
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