Update: The marchers are spending the night in a hall at Kibbutz Nachson. They are about 20 miles from Jerusalem. The head of the Knesset Interior Committee, Miri Regev, has said that the detainees would be arrested before they enter Jerusalem.
Update 2: The demonstrators have been arrested and are being returned to the Holot detention center. On Tuesday after arriving in Jerusalem, the detainees and their supporters marched from Prime Minister Netanyahu’s office to the Knesset where they demonstrated for a couple of hours before being arrested. According to Ha’aretz (Hebrew), the police used “much force” when taking the refugees to waiting buses.
This horrifying tweet appeared minutes ago (9:30 AM EST) from the Israeli human rights organization which assisted the marchers.
An immigration officer told an Israeli activist that violently arresting innocent refugees was “fun”. #saysItAll #MarchForFreedom
— HRM Israel (@HRMIsrael) December 17, 2013
Here is a riveting video of the Immigration Police arresting about 200 African asylum-seekers. The commentary is basically in English. Some of the demonstrators non-violently resisted. Reports from the scene say that the police used excessive force in making arrests. A member of the Israeli Parliament invited the protesters to make their case at the Knesset. He says that the Knesset agreed to permit them to talk to the members, but the police ignored this.
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A group of 150 – 200 African asylum seekers who were detained in a new Israeli Negev facility, Holot, are marching to Jerusalem to demand their right to remain and work in Israel as political refugees. The detainees were not confined to the detention facility during the day, but were required by the authorities to spend nights incarcerated.
The marchers are supported by Israeli activists who are accompanying them during the walk. Also on the scene are officials from the Ministry of Immigration who are not interfering with the march.
The demonstrators, who are mostly Sudanese, began the march on Sunday. The detainees spent part of last night in the Beersheva central bus terminal where they were not allowed to board buses to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, according to reports.
The refugees are carrying signs in Hebrew and English which read, “you were strangers in the land of Egypt,” “refugees not criminals,” and “we are walking for freedom and human rights.”
The marchers were transferred to Holot from the Saharonim facility, where some have been held for as long as two years.
The demonstrators plan to arrive in Jerusalem tomorrow where they will be joined by 50 Eritrean asylum-seekers.
It is about 60 miles from Beersheva to Jerusalem.
The progress of the March For Freedom can be followed on Twitter at #MarchForFreedom and at @HRMIsrael.
And ze government of Ozreal shrugs its shoulders.
Such problems! So many “infiltrators”! What to do??? We are so good a state; we help everyone– we even flooded Gaza and they never said thank you. Such ingratitude we live with. And we are such a sexy people– how can it be?
https://mondoweiss.mystagingwebsite.com/2013/12/israel-uniquely-shavit.html
We had Freedom riders.
Now we have Freedom marchers.
Will the NYT sympathize with the plight of the oppressed in Israel with the same moral force as it condemned Jim Crow in America? The NYT certainly devotes a lot of space to Israel, so it’s not like it does not care about what happens in the country. We even get to read Hagopgraphic profiles of generals overseeing apartheid in the West Bank.
I don’t get it. Why can’t they just pack them on boats or planes and send them back to Africa? And if that doesn’t work, why don’t they just stick them in DP camps? I really don’t get it. It seems perfectly fine with TPTB when they do it to the Pal.s. I mean, if you can kick out 75% of the actual native population and then take their natural resources, and basically put them in ghettos, and Gaza will be uninhabitable in a few years I don’t understand what is stopping you from putting Africans who came from a whole ‘nother continent in DP camps. How do you even let them roam your country?
(Please nobody take my post seriously).
The marchers are spending the night in a hall at Kibbutz Nachson.
The marchers are supported by Israeli activists who are accompanying them during the walk.
Also on the scene are officials from the Ministry of Immigration who are not interfering with the march.
Racist Society????
The detainees spent part of last night in the Beersheva central bus terminal where they were not allowed to board buses to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, according to reports.
Ira, please, link me to the reports. If this fact is true, I will submit a complaint to the ministry of transportation.