By Alexis Alex

On Sunday, The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced he has reached an unspecified "international agreement" that allows Israel to deport about 40,000 African refugees currently living in the country.  The majority of migrants are from Eritrea (27,000) and Sudan (7,700) and they claim they are asylum seekers who  left their country to flee the war and persecution as well as economic hardship in their countries. But, the Israeli government calls the migrants "infiltrators" because they have not entered the country through legal borders and expelling them is necessary to maintaining the Jewish character of the state. Now, Israel has given an ultimatum to Eritrean and Sudanese immigrants: leave Israel by the end of March or face imprisonment. Israel has even offered to pay African immigrants $3,500 (USD) to leave and a free plane ticket to go home or be sent to other African countries such as Rwanda or Uganda. Also, The Population and Immigration Authority bureau in Israel is now offering a salary of $8,700  (USD) to civilians willing to temporarily serve as inspectors in expelling the migrants. The United Nations refugee agency is urging Israel to consider resettling the African migrants in European countries and not back to Africa forcibly. Activists and human rights organizations are pleading with Israel to reconsider this decision,  "Instead of turning away refugees within its territory, Israel can and should protect asylum seekers like other countries of the world, instead of imprisoning them or deporting them to continue the journey as refugees," a coalition of human rights organizations in Israel said. What do you think? Is Israel being democratic by expelling these African migrants?