Saharonim prison

African asylum seekers march in Tel Aviv to protest prolonged detention, arrests made during “freedom marches” earlier in the week. (photo: Activestills.org)

High Court approves detention of asylum seekers without charge, but only for 12 months

The High Court of Justice capitulates to the threats of Israel’s right wing and approves the prolonged detention of asylum seekers. By Haggai Matar Israel’s High Court of Justice approved on Tuesday the third and latest version of the Prevention of Infiltration Law, after it struck down the two previous versions passed by the Knesset.…

By Haggai Matar August 11, 2015

Aman's daughter, Dahab, at the Holot 'open detention center.' (photo: Ayla Pegg Adler)

Between Tel Aviv and Holot: Open jail splits refugee family

Six years after he fled Eritrea for Israel, Aman has found himself living in Holot – an ‘open detention center’ built by the Israeli government for African asylum seekers. His wife and his daughter, on the other hand, were left behind in Tel Aviv and are not permitted to live with him. By Ayla Peggy…

By +972 Magazine February 12, 2014

An asylum seeker detained by immigration police during the second "March for Freedom." (photo: Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

Immigration officers arrest asylum seekers on second ‘March for Freedom’

For the second time this week, 130 asylum seekers leave the Holot ‘open’ prison facility in southern Israel, march through the desert in an attempt to move their demonstration to a major city. This time around, immigration officers stopped the march shortly after it began. The asylum seekers are protesting their detention conditions and the arrest of…

By Haggai Matar December 19, 2013

Latest

Immigration police arresting an Eritrean refugee, Tel Aviv, Israel, 2/3/2008 (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

In Israel’s trade catalog, arms and asylum seekers are equal commodities

With arbitrary arrest and detention, forcible transfer, withholding of basic human rights, the imposition of birth control measures and now an arms-for-asylum-seekers deal which amounts to little more than human trafficking, Israel has become a theater of horrors for Africans. A report in yesterday’s Yedioth Aharonoth (originally in Hebrew, and translated into English for their website) revealed…

By Natasha Soffer-Roth July 10, 2013

An Israeli settler shouts at an African refugee during an anti-refugee demonstration in south Tel Aviv, December 31, 2012. (photo: Activestills)

A year in review: Anti-African racism and asylum seekers in Israel

While most Israelis were focused on the latest war on Gaza or the last election, verbal incitement, physical attacks, incarceration without trial and forced deportation of Africans continued unabated. A timeline of Israel’s war on African asylum-seekers between November 2012 and May 2013. By David Sheen Last Thursday, May 23, 2013, marked exactly one year to…

By +972 Magazine May 29, 2013