Tom Tugend, the Los Angeles corespondent for JTA (the Jewish Telegraphic Agency) reports about a documentary presented at a recent film festival.

A scene from ´The Journey of Vaan Nguyen.´
Zygote Films

Vietnamese ‘boat people’ go Israeli,
then visit their home in documentary.

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 25 (JTA)

In 1977, an Israeli cargo ship nearing Japan spotted a leaking boat crammed with 66 Vietnamese men, women, and children. They were among hundreds of thousands of “boat people” fleeing their country following the end of the Vietnam War.  Despite desperate SOS signals, the refugees, who were out of food and water, had been ignored by passing ships from East Germany, Norway, Japan and Panama.

The Israeli ship picked them up and took them to Israel where Prime Minister Menachem Begin authorized their permanent admission. to Israel, comparing their plight to that of European Jewish refugees seeking a haven in the 1930s.

What happened to the Vietnamese refugees in the Jewish state? One of the opening scenes of the Israeli film “The Journey of Vaan Nguyen” features one of the original refugees, Hanmoi Nguyen, who has been in Israel for 25 years and with his wife is raising five Israeli-born, Hebrew-speaking daughters. The oldest girl, Vaan, is a writer, has served in the army, and feels Israeli.

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www.SustainabiliTank.info sees in the story of these refugees, and the response by the Israelis, a small example of why people that were subjected to persecution themselves will naturally aligne themselves with those being persecute themselves today. This explains why the Jews of the world align themselves with the suffering in Darfur. The likes of Ahmedinejad better take notice.