Israel stops Sudanese protests against paramilitary group

Israeli authorities have called off two protests planned by refugees from Sudan who sought to highlight mass killings and abuses in Sudan carried out by the UAE-backed Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group, Middle East Eye and agencies reported on November 21st.

The gatherings were intended to draw attention to atrocities reported since the outbreak of war in April 2023 and to denounce the United Arab Emirates for its support of the RSF.

One of the banned demonstrations had been scheduled for November 20th outside the Emirati embassy in Herzliya. Organisers submitted their request earlier in the month, but police informed them that the event could pose “severe harm to state security and public order”, according to information cited in a Haaretz report.

A separate memorial event planned in Tel Aviv was also cancelled. Organisers intended to light candles in memory of civilians killed by UAE-backed RSF forces, but police again cited risks to Israel’s foreign relations.

According to one of the protest organisers, Anwar Suliman, authorities stopped the memorial to ensure that “there won’t be a demonstration or signs raised against the UAE”.

Suliman, an asylum seeker from Sudan, claimed that “the UAE requested that the demonstration not be held” and expressed concern that Israel “is doing dirty things with them”.

The push for demonstrating, comes against the wider context of the UAE-backed RSF’s capture of el-Fasher on October 26th, where many have been reported to be killed.

Rights groups and UN investigators have accused the UAE-backed RSF of war crimes and crimes against humanity. In the case of the Masalit community in West Darfur, the US and rights groups have claimed that the RSF have carried out a genocide on the community. Reports from el-Fasher describe murder, sexual violence and expulsions following the city’s fall.

Israel is home to 1,845 Sudanese asylum seekers as of September 2025, according to the Interior Ministry of Israel.

Israel imposes multiple barriers on asylum seekers seeking work, stable housing and adequate healthcare, according to a report published by the Hotline for Refugees and Migrants, an Israeli human rights group.

The report stated that Israeli public figures “portray the refugees as prone to criminality and as spreaders of disease, based on racist stereotypes”.

It also noted that “the refugees, who constitute less than a quarter of 1 percent of the country’s population, are also presented as a demographic and security threat.”

Israel seems to enforce policies designed to maintain a European-Jewish demographic. The Israeli government has previously admitted to sterilising Ethiopian-Jewish women by giving them birth control injections upon arrival in Israel, often without their consent.

Middle East Eye and agencies, Haaretz, The Independent, Maghrebi.org