Photos: Oren Ziv/Activestills.org, Yotam Ronen/Activestills.org
Text: Haggai Matar
Approximately 2,000 African asylum seekers and Israeli activists marched from Levinsky Park in south Tel Aviv to Rothschild Boulevard Saturday night to protest the arrests that took place during two “freedom marches” earlier this week. They blocked major intersections in the heart of the city while chanting “freedom!” At least three protesters were arrested.
African asylum seekers march in Tel Aviv to protest prolonged detention, arrests made during “freedom marches” earlier in the week. (photo: Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)
Earlier this week, a group of approximately 150 asylum seekers went on a two-day “freedom march” from the Holot “open prison” in Israel’s south to the Knesset in Jerusalem. Upon their arrival, the group was arrested, placed on buses and sent to a closed facility in the Negev. Just one day later, another 130 asylum seekers left Holot, this time in the direction of Tel Aviv. That time, immigration officers stopped the march shortly after it began.
African asylum seekers march in Tel Aviv to protest government policies, arrests made during “freedom marches” earlier in the week. (photo: Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)
African asylum seekers march in Tel Aviv to protest government policies, arrests made during “freedom marches” earlier in the week. (photo: Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)
Israeli activists help an African asylum seeker who was pepper sprayed during a refugee protest in Tel Aviv. (photo: Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)
Police hold back Asylum seekers, Israeli protesters during march in central Tel Aviv. (photo: Activestills.org
African asylum seekers march in Tel Aviv to protest prolonged detention, arrests made during “freedom marches” earlier in the week. (photo: Activestills.org)
African asylum seekers march in Tel Aviv to protest prolonged detention, arrests made during “freedom marches” earlier in the week. (photo: Activestills.org)
African asylum seekers march in Tel Aviv to protest prolonged detention, arrests made during “freedom marches” earlier in the week as Israelis attending a performance at the Bima national theater look on. (photo: Activestills.org)
Our team has been devastated by the horrific events of this latest war – the atrocities committed by Hamas in Israel and the massive retaliatory Israeli attacks on Gaza. Our hearts are with all the people and communities facing violence.
We are in an extraordinarily dangerous era in Israel-Palestine. The bloodshed unleashed by these events has reached extreme levels of brutality and threatens to engulf the entire region. Hamas’ murderous assault in southern Israel has devastated and shocked the country to its core. Israel’s retaliatory bombing of Gaza is wreaking destruction on the already besieged strip and killing a ballooning number of civilians. Emboldened settlers in the West Bank, backed by the army, are seizing the opportunity to escalate their attacks on Palestinians.
This escalation has a very clear context, one that +972 has spent the past 13 years covering: Israeli society’s growing racism and militarism, the entrenched occupation, and an increasingly normalized siege on Gaza.
We are well positioned to cover this perilous moment – but we need your help to do it. This terrible period will challenge the humanity of all of those working for a better future in this land. Palestinians and Israelis are already organizing and strategizing to put up the fight of their lives.
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