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Israeli politicians quarrel over handling of Syrian refugees

Xinhua, September 6, 2015 Adjust font size:

Israeli politicians on Sunday expressed opposing views on how Israel should handle the Syrian refugees' crisis.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that while Israel has helped wounded Syrian in the past four years amid the Syrian civil war, it could not take in Syrian refugees into its territory.

"Israel is not indifferent to the human tragedy of the refugees from Syria and Africa," Netanyahu said in the weekly cabinet meeting, according to a statement issued by his office.

"We have already devotedly cared for approximately 1,000 wounded people from fighting in Syria and helped them rehabilitate their lives. But Israel is a small country that lacks demographic and geographic depth, therefore we must control our borders," Netanyahu said on Sunday.

Israel started building a fence on Sunday on its eastern border with Jordan, down from the southern town of Eilat up to northern Israel and the Golan Heights.

Netanyahu's statements contradict the views expressed by the head of the Israeli opposition bloc in the parliament, Isaac Herzog, who called on the Israeli government to open its door to Syrian refugees over the weekend.

Herzog, the chief of the Labor party, also commented on Netanyahu's statements on Sunday, accusing the government of forgetting the lessons of the Jewish history.

Israel gave medical assistance to over 1,700 wounded Syrians in the past four years and supplied baby food and blankets as well, according to the Israel Defense Forces,.

In recent months, Israeli Druze, a small Arab sect dispersed in Lebanon, Syria and Israel, has staged protests and called upon the authorities to take in Syrian Druze who are being prosecuted by the al-Nusra front amid Syrian civil war.

Israeli officials then said they would "not stand by" and see a massacre of Syrian Druze take place. In May, the Walla! news website reported Israel has conducted initial contacts with world nations to create a "safe zone' along the border with Syria, specifically for Druze refugees.

Aout 45,000 African refugees are in Israel, mainly from Sudan and Eritrea, whose requests to be considered as asylum seekers have not been followed through. Endit