Asylum seekers

Eritrean asylum seekers who oppose the regime in Eritrea and pro-regime activists clash with Israeli police in south Tel Aviv, September 2, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

How Eritrean regime agents persecute asylum seekers in Israel

Israeli authorities have long turned a blind eye to the threat Eritreans face from their own government, leaving the community desperate to protect itself.

By Guli Dolev-Hashiloni September 5, 2023

Israeli teenagers sign their names onto a letter declaring their refusal to enlist in the army and serve a dictatorship in Israel or the occupied Palestinian territories, Gimnasia Herzliya, Tel Aviv, September 3, 2023. (Oren Ziv)

A lesson on Israeli ‘democracy’ from an 18-year-old draft refuser

Previous generations of Israelis closed their eyes to the oppression of Palestinians, Mizrahim, and asylum seekers. Our generation can be different.

By Yahli Agai September 5, 2023

People hold a Palestinian flag during a pride event under restrictions following the spread of the coronavirus, in Tel Aviv, June 28, 2020. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

A Palestinian trans woman’s story peels away Israel’s pinkwashing veil

From oppressive institutions to social prejudices, MC's ordeal embodies the dark reality of LGBTQ Palestinians who thought they could find safety in Israel.

By Sharona Weiss June 8, 2023

Latest

A South Sudanese refugee child looks out from a bus in Tel Aviv that will take him to Ben Gurion Airport where they will be deported to South Sudan with 150 people on a flight leaving that night, Israel, July 11, 2012. (Oren Ziv/Activestills)

These Sudanese were deported by Israel. Now they’re saving others from war

Israel carries heavy responsibility for denying asylum to Sudanese who are being forced to flee their homes yet again. Initiatives like ours can help them.

By Rami Gudovitch May 31, 2023

MK Itamar Ben Gvir, head of the Otzma Yehudit party, and activists protest in support of the deportation of asylum seekers in southern Tel Aviv, October 12, 2022. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

In the war on African asylum seekers, Ben Gvir finds a hero’s welcome

Left-wing activists confronted the Kahanist lawmaker's visit to south Tel Aviv, but his supremacism appears to be mobilizing a growing base in the city.

By Ben Reiff October 17, 2022

The aftermath of a Molotov cocktail attack on a kindergarten for immigrant children in the Shapira neighborhood of south Tel Aviv, Israel, April 27, 2012. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

‘Breaking the ghettos’: The struggle to desegregate Tel Aviv’s schools

The city that brands itself a 'liberal haven' is forcing asylum seekers' children into separate, impoverished schools. And the parents are fighting back.

By Ben Reiff January 16, 2022

LGBTQ youth look out the window as hundreds gather in Jerusalem to demonstrate against the stabbing attack that occurred during the Jerusalem Pride Parade just hours before, July 30, 2015. (Keren Manor/Activestills)

‘I’d rather die in the West Bank’: LGBTQ Palestinians find no safety in Israel

Israel markets itself to the world as an LGBTQ paradise, but testimonies from asylum-seeking queer Palestinians show it sentences them to a life of hell.

By Tamar Ben David and Lilach Ben David September 17, 2021

Palestinian workers from the West Bank city of Hebron carry personal belongings as they arrive to cross to Israel at a checkpoint in Tarqumiya, March 18, 2020. Photo by Wisam Hashlamoun/Flash90

Israel approves COVID vaccines for undocumented persons, but not for Palestinians

Health Ministry bars thousands of West Bank Palestinians living in Israel from getting vaccinated at makeshift COVID clinics around the country.

By Oren Ziv February 18, 2021

Hunderds attend a memorial ceremony for Eritrean asylum seeker Haftom Zarhum in southern Tel Aviv, October 21 2015. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

One lynching tells the story of Israel’s racial pyramid

The acquittal of the two Israelis in the lynching of an Eritrean asylum seeker reveals just how deeply white supremacism is entrenched in Israel's political establishment.

By Orly Noy July 21, 2020

Tamarza, a single mother (31) and her children Lydia (10), Hazravi (6) and Nabad (4). Left: Zahab (30), single mother, and her daughter, Jerusalem (6). Both have been in the country for about 10 years. Tamarza worked in a food factory before the crisis and is not currently working. Zahab was unemployed before the crisis. (Oren Ziv)

Portrait of a crisis: Asylum seekers in south Tel Aviv facing coronavirus

The spread of COVID-19 has left asylum seekers in Israel out of work, crammed into uninhabitable apartments with exorbitant rents, and desperate for government assistance.

By Oren Ziv April 30, 2020

People wear protective face masks as they shop for food at the Mahane Yehuda market in Jerusalem on April 7, 2020. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

Quarantine Diary: Part One

The coronavirus may be an equal threat to all, but it is far from affecting all communities equally. This is the first installment of personal stories on how the pandemic is impacting people across Israel-Palestine.

By +972 Magazine April 9, 2020

Asylum seeker children cross the street in south Tel Aviv, March 17, 2020. (Oren Ziv)

As coronavirus spreads, asylum seekers in Israel are on the brink of catastrophe

Israel's policies have left the asylum seeker community impoverished, living in cramped apartments, and bereft of health coverage, putting them at much greater risk from the virus.

By Oren Ziv March 18, 2020

Protesters on a train coming from Atbra city about 300 km from Khartoum, during the Sudanese revolution, 17 August 2019. (Osama Elfaki/Wikimedia)

What is behind Israel’s warming ties to Sudan?

Israeli-Sudanese relations have been fraught with public tensions and secret collaborations — with the fate of refugees in Israel hanging in the balance.

By Inbal Ben Yehuda March 1, 2020