A theater troupe made up of both asylum seekers and Israelis puts on their debut performance — and lets the audience choose the ending.
Text and photos by Oren Ziv / Activestills.org
Israelis and African Asylum seekers jailed in Holot preform during a theatre show outside the Holot detention center in the Negev desert, June 13, 2015. (photo: Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)
Nearly 1,000 asylum seekers and Israelis arrived at Holot detention center on Saturday to watch the premier of a play put on by the Holot theater troupe just outside the facility.
The Holot theater troupe in action, June 13, 2015. (photo: Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)
The play — directed by Avi Mughrabi and Chen Alon, which includes refugees jailed in Holot as well as Israelis — tells the story of Eritrean asylum seekers. The actors depict the escape from forced labor in Eritrea, torture in Sinai, life in Israel, being arrested, and the experiences in Holot.
Direct0r Avi Mughrabi seen during the Holot theater troupe’s performance, Holot detention center in the Negev desert, June 13, 2015. (photo: Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)
At the end of the show, Alon got up and invited the crowd to re-write the end of the play in order to propose a new solution for the asylum seekers. The crowd made suggestions, which the actors then performed on the spot.
Israelis and African Asylum seekers jailed in Holot preform during a theatre show outside the Holot detention center in the Negev desert, June 13, 2015. (photo: Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)
The Israeli government has sent thousands of Eritrean and Sudanese asylum seekers to Holot, an open detention center in the Negev Desert, since December 2013. Inmates are allowed to leave the premises, but must report back several times a day. Israeli NGOs have successfully petitioned the High Court to shut down the facility; however the government, unmoved by the High Court’s order, has repeatedly passed a replacement law that would leave the detention center open while somehow feigning compliance with the court’s order.
In March, the Israeli government announced that it would begin deporting asylum seekers from Sudan and Eritrea to Uganda or Rwanda, or force them to face unlimited imprisonment in Israel. In April, three Eritrean asylum seekers and former Holot detainees were executed by Islamic State militants in Libya.
Related:
ISIS executes three asylum seekers deported by Israel
Israel to indefinitely imprison refugees who refuse deportation
‘I believed them when they said I could stay in Uganda’
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.
Can we count on your support? +972 Magazine is the leading media voice of this movement, a desperately needed platform where Palestinian and Israeli journalists and activists can report on and analyze what is happening, guided by humanism, equality, and justice. Join us.