It’s imperative that Israel build a fence along its border now! No, I’m not talking about completing the security barrier along the Green Line, the 1949 Armistice Line. As a matter of fact, only about two-thirds of that barrier (320 miles of 500) has been built, and construction of the remainder is uncertain, due to court deliberations, a lack of ready cash, and a seeming lack of interest.

I’m referring to the appalling lack of a border fence with Egypt. In January, 2010, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said: “I took the decision to close Israel’s southern border to infiltrators and terrorists. This is a strategic decision to secure Israel’s Jewish and democratic character. We cannot let tens of thousands of illegal workers infiltrate into Israel through the southern border and inundate our country with illegal aliens.”

Israel’s border with Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula is 166 miles long. It is the country’s southwestern border alongside the Negev Desert. Illegal aliens are only one part of the problem. Besides infiltration by mostly African refugees, the great majority of whom are economic immigrants, there are the problems of smuggling of drugs and other items, trafficking in women as sex slaves, and infiltration by terrorists.

Smuggling of drugs, weapons, and women by Beduin in Sinai and their compatriots in Israel is huge, but it’s unlikely that a fence can stop this type of activity, which has been going on for centuries. There are more than a million Beduin in Egypt, with limited opportunities for employment. The relatively unguarded border with Israel has become the source of income for several generations of Bedouin, who cooperate with their brethren in Israel’s Negev Desert to penetrate the border.

Security against terror is not the major problem. “Senior IDF officers say stopping infiltration is the central consideration behind the government’s decision on the fence, not the danger of terror. They say the Israel Defense Forces and the Shin Bet security service have found a reasonable solution to terror through combined surveillance and sophisticated deployment of forces.” (Amos Harel in Haaretz newspaper: Israel’s border with Egypt is like the Wild West).

That leaves the infiltration of illegal workers from Africa as the primary problem. Because Israel is the only non-Muslim, Western country within “walking distance” of North African countries, a thousand or more Africans, both Christian and Muslim, attempt to cross through Egypt into Israel’s southern regions each month. What happens to them in Egypt makes it imperative that Israel build a barrier on the border as soon as possible.

In Seth Frantzman’s Jerusalem Post article of August 18, “The Long Road of Death, Massacre in Sinai,” he writes: The story probably begins with the end of the Ethiopia-Eritrea War in 2000, the beginning of the Darfur genocide in 2003 and the end of the war in South Sudan in 2005, each of which in its own way created numerous refugees. In December 2005, Egypt began cracking down on African migrants, in one infamous incident many (between 10 and 60 refugees) were massacred by police attempting to clear a park of their encampments.

“This helped provide incentive [to the refugees] to travel further afield. With Europe a tough destination, they trickled into Sinai and thence to Israel. Eritreans, who now make up the majority of refugees (10,000 plus), have been arriving in Israel since 2007. In that year it was reported that 48 African refugees deported to Egypt by Israel had been abused and then disappeared. One migrant claimed Egyptians imprisoned him and poured boiling water on his body.

“At the time Egypt was busy trying to get rid of the refugees, sending them back to Sudan if possible. Criticism about the “disappearances” of many refugees was raised by [human rights] activists in 2007, mostly to complain that Israel should stop its “hot return” policy of immediately returning refugees to Egypt. One report alleged that 139 refugees had disappeared [probably murdered].

“What the disappearances highlight is the increasing brutalization meted out to Africans in Sinai beginning in 2007. Between July 2007 and October 2008, the media reported that 33 Africans were shot [by Egyptian soldiers] in Sinai while trying to cross the border into Israel. By March of 2010 more than sixty had been killed. The man charged with implementing the policy is General Muhammad Shousha, governor of north Sinai. For him it is quite clear; ‘of course it’s not a mistake that we shoot them, it’s necessary to shoot them. To deal with an infiltrator, he has to be fired at.’ The migrants reported that the Egyptian border guards shot at women and children and that if they were captured alive they were then subjected to beatings and insults; ‘you are a Jew’ and ‘you are the enemy of the Arabs and of Islam.’

“Today Sinai has become a human prison, a place of death, gang rape and murder. While initially many of the Africans were refugees, it seems now that, like the sex slave trade in Eastern European women that was a staple of the 1990s in Sinai, the slave trade in Africans in Sinai has become a business . . . one where victims are recruited and then transported to Israel only as a way to get rid of the human cargo.”

Frantzman’s reporting underlines the urgency of Israel constructing the border fence between Egyptian Sinai and Israel’s Negev Desert. The barrier will reduce the likelihood of terrorists infiltrating into Israel and impede the smuggling of women, weapons, drugs and other goods into Israel. Most importantly, it will allow Israel to formulate a responsible policy towards African refugees, a policy that is sorely lacking now. With a proper barrier between Egypt and Israel, the word will quickly get out that it’s not worth trekking across dangerous Egyptian territory to attempt to pass the new, formidable obstacle to entering Israel.

It’s not Israel’s responsibility to succor the hundreds of thousands of suffering Africans who would like to immigrate to a Western country. We are already dealing with thousands of potential Ethiopian refugees who are eligible for the Right of Return to Israel. It is Israel’s responsibility to reduce the number of Muslim and Christian illegal migrants who are tortured and killed in Sinai while trying to enter Israel. The decision has been taken for Israel to build a proper border fence. But when will the construction begin?

Stephen Kramer’s new book,“Encountering Israel – Geography, History, Culture,” can be ordered in Israel from mskramer@jhu.edu, or order worldwide at: www.comteqpublishing.com

Stephen Kramer resided and worked in the Atlantic City area until 1991, when he moved to Israel with his wife, Michal Langweiler, and two sons. He can be reached at Sjk1@jhu.edu.