Black Skin, White Cameras

The recent arrival in Israel of thousands refugees from countries like Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Sudan has triggered a spate hate crimes mob violence. Asked about these asylum seekers 2012, Likud-party member Miri Regev called them “cancer.” For this comment, she later apologized—not to the African asylum-seekers but Israeli cancer survivors, expressed regret for comparing Africans. Around that same time, Interior Minister Eli Yishai Shas Party told reporter “this country belongs us, white man.” Continuing on, he stated would use “all tools [necessary] expel foreigners, until not one infiltrator remains.” While racial dynamics have been thoroughly examined with respect both intra-Jewish tensions (Ashkenazi supremacy) Palestinian issue (white settler-colonialism), essay, I want theorize whiteness refugees. Specifically, will examine two documentaries dealing refugees—Hotline (dir. Silvina Landsmann, 2015) Between Fences Avi Mograbi, 2016). Both openly demonstrate solidarity asylum-seekers, they do so different ways, if former film leaves hierarchies Zionism intact, latter works shatter them.