Freedom march ends in tears: 150 Sudanese refugees imprisoned after fleeing 100 miles to Jerusalem
In the largest and most dramatic demonstration ever staged by African refugees in Israel, 150 Sudanese men who have been locked up in a monster immigration prison down south, some for over two years, stormed the Israeli government compound in Jerusalem yesterday. From about 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., they trudged through the snow that still lined the streets of the capital city after last weekend's record-setting blizzard, waving handmade signs in Hebrew and English and begging government officials to grant them asylum in Israel.
"No more prison! No more prison!" went one chant. Another: "Refugees' rights right now!"
As evening approached, they made a bold attempt to leave the main roadway and march up toward the Knesset (parliament) building. That's when a few dozen Israeli border cops stepped in, forming a human barricade around the group. All 150 refugees inside the circle either followed the cops' orders willingly or were tackled to the ground, one by one, and dragged onto two jumbo buses waiting to drive them back to their cold desert cells.
Many began sobbing near the end, while others chanted to deaf ears: "Freedom, yes! Prison, no!" A few left-wing Israeli supporters clung to the refugees' jackets, screaming, "They're HUMAN BEINGS!" as border cops ripped them away by their collars. News photographers elbowed past cops to capture the panic and agony in refugees' faces. The Reuters team even jumped onto the roof of a flimsy mobile home parked nearby (part of another man's protest outside Knesset headquarters) to capture the scene from above.
It was one half-hour of heartbreaking chaos — a quick, brutal end to the refugees' arduous journey across wintertime Israel.
http://www.jewishjournal.com/hella_tel_aviv/item/150_sudanese_refugees_sent_back_to_prison_after_fleeing_100_miles_to_jerusa
African Refugees Protest Detainment in Israel
Some arrived here on Tuesday in sturdy walking boots donated by local aid organizations; others came less equipped for the leftover snow on the ground, wearing sandals and house slippers.
They held placards bearing slogans like “Refugees but not criminals” and a verse invoking a biblical injunction against oppressing the stranger because “you were strangers in the land of Egypt.”
The roughly 200 asylum seekers from Sudan and Eritrea came to protest their treatment by the Israeli authorities, finishing a two-day journey. On Sunday they left a new “open” detention facility where they were being held in the Negev desert and walked for about six hours to Beersheba, the nearest city. They spent the night in the bus station there and another night at a kibbutz that had agreed to host them. They made the final leg of the journey by bus.
Once in Jerusalem, they gathered outside the Israeli prime minister’s office and marched to the Parliament building.
It was the latest round in the long-running political, legal and emotional struggle of the African migrants and their Israeli supporters against a government that is committed to clamping down on “infiltrators,” the term it uses for those who enter the country surreptitiously.
The protest came after Parliament last week approved an amendment to Israel’s Prevention of Infiltration Law. It allows for the detention of migrants who enter the country illegally for up to a year without trial and allows the state to hold those already in Israel indefinitely in the open detention facility. The amendment replaced previous legislation that allowed for detention without trial for up to three years. Israel’s Supreme Court overturned that law in September, ruling that it violated principles of human dignity and freedom. Local human rights groups have already petitioned the Supreme Court against the new measures.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/18/world/middleeast/african-refugees-protest-detainment-in-israel.html
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