18.08.26, DALIA SCHEIDLIN, Haaretz
Mutasim Ali fled Darfur, sought refuge in Israel and fought its government for refugee rights before moving to the United States where he became a scholar. He explains the moral imperative of Sudan, in his own words
Paying attention to Sudan is not whataboutism – it’s a matter of basic and universal humanity. But I also believe that those of us mired in violent conflict have a special responsibility to learn about others, especially neighbors. Sudan is linked to Israel and Palestine by geography, ethnicity and religion, and Middle East actors are heavily embroiled in its war – even Israel has had links to the main actors.
Further, a closer look reveals grim, yet familiar, themes from an Israeli-Palestinian perspective.
One of the most powerful voices working to convey deeper understandings, better solutions and urgency is Mutasim Ali, a refugee from Darfur who fled Sudan in 2009. For the next decade, Ali made his life in Israel, then completed a doctoral degree in the United States, where he married and had two children – all before turning 40 later this year.
Amazingly, Ali seems undaunted by the despair one can feel thinking about this war. His own journey leaves no doubt about his tenacity. He was born in Darfur and left for Khartoum as a teen, in 2003. As a student there, he was politically active (in one interview, he cited nonviolent activism with a rebel group), trying to raise awareness and demand accountability for the government’s crimes in Darfur in the early 2000s.
But in 2009, the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for Omar al-Bashir, the dictator who had ruled Sudan since 1989, for those crimes. That led to a major government crackdown, Ali said, and that’s when he fled. Ali traveled through Egypt to Israel, during the start of a large wave of migration mostly from Sudan and Eritrea, which coincided with the rise of right-wing nationalist politics in Israel.
Ali spent 14 months in detention as an asylum seeker in Israel. After a long legal battle with the help of NGOs, UN agencies and private supporters, in 2016 he became the first Sudanese migrant to obtain refugee status in Israel. He thought his success “signaled hope that things will change for the rest of the community,” but Israel has little interest in encouraging others. The rate of refugee recognition has been notoriously low.
Israel in 2014.Credit: Eliyahu Hershkovitz
I spoke to Ali in the U.S. in mid-May, by Zoom. The purpose wasn’t to force a comparison with Israel and Palestine, but to understand more. I have often felt that the occasional global coverage of Sudan tends to start with heartrending atrocities, without really explaining why this is happening, beyond the last year or two. That makes it hard to identify with the issue or to feel connected. But most of all, history will not forgive us – despite our own troubles – for not knowing.
A war on the people
Perhaps the most defining feature of this war is that the two military groups – Sudan’s army (the Sudanese Armed Forces), and the Rapid Support Forces militia (RSF) – are terrorizing civilians. The term “war on civilians” has been used repeatedly, by Amnesty International this April, and by the international director of the global medical aid group Doctors Without Borders just this May, for example.
But why are civilians the target?
The situation seems to confound even Ali. But his analysis suggests numerous reasons during the recent years of war, and stretching back to much older grievances of the diverse groups within Sudanese society.
The current war began in April 2023, following an effort at a civilian transition prompted by mass demonstrations that toppled longtime dictator al-Bashir in 2019. That year, a transitional military council took over, led by SAF head Abdel-Fattah Burhan, and included the RSF, a paramilitary associated with the Janjaweed government-backed militia who had committed mass atrocities in Darfur in the early 2000s that displaced Ali. After ousting al-Bashir, the transitional military body attacked protestors demanding civilian rule, and eventually the two sides negotiated for a transition.
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