Despite the fact that Israel’s High Court of Justice ordered the government last month to close the Holot detention center within 90 days, the government is still sending African asylum-seekers there against their will.
Netanyahu Government Mistreats African Asylum Seekers, Despite High Court Order
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
Despite the fact that Israel’s High Court of Justice ordered the government last month to close the Holot detention center within 90 days, the government is still sending African asylum-seekers there against their will, Ha’aretz reported.
Holot is located in the remote Negev desert. Detainees have a nightly curfew and three daily bed checks, effectively meaning that Holot is a prison, not a refugee center. The government built it and used to detain African asylum seekers without trial, and claimed that Holot was not a prison because, technically, inmates could walk in the desert for as much as several hours, and even hitchhike to a small town located several miles away, as long as they returned for roll call and for curfew. The High Court rejected this argument.
The government’s treatment of these asylum seekers drew international condemnation and condemnation from Israeli human rights activists and scholars, as well.
Successive Likud-led governments, especially governments headed by Benjamin Netanyahu, have routinely evaded and even ignored High Court rulings, failing for example to adequately enforce rulings against haredi gender discrimination and forced gender segregation and other court rulings that haredim oppose.