Israeli activists and African asylum seekers living in Tel Aviv held an alternative Passover seder event Friday outside the Holot detention center in the Negev desert, where 1,800 African asylum seekers are currently being held.
Tablet Magazine reports:
Israeli activists and African asylum seekers living in Tel Aviv held an alternative Passover seder event Friday outside the Holot detention center in the Negev desert, where 1,800 African migrants are currently being held. Hundreds of African asylum seekers from the detention center attended the event, during which activists highlighted the connection between the story of the Jewish exodus from Egypt and that of the asylum seekers, who fled Eritrea and Sudan through the Sinai desert to seek refuge in Israel.
The event was part of a campaign to close down the controversial detention center, which opened at the end of 2013. Israeli courts recently slammed the detention process, and the legality of the detention centers is currently before the Israeli Supreme Court.…
One of the seder's organizers was Rabbi Susan Silverman, comedienne Sarah Silverman's sister.
The proper term for those held at Holot is "asylum seekers" or "unrecognized refugees," because the vast majority are considered refugees under the international treaties Israel has signed but failed to uphold.
Instead, Israel insists on calling these people "migrants" or "infiltrators," and has steadfastly refused to process applications for refugee status (or has turned down applications by people who meet the legal definition of refugee and then refuses to process their appeals).