eastafriqueen:

Three Day March for Migrant rights in Israel:

Today over 30,000 asylum seekers from Eritrea, South Sudan, Ethiopia, and other African countries as well as supporters marched on the streets and sidewalks of Tel Aviv in Day 1 of a proposed 3 day protest organized by the asylum seekers, most of them coming from Eritrea and South Sudan and most of the protestors being Eritrean, demanding that the Israeli government recognize their status as refugees and end the detention without trial policy. Men, Women and Children were present for the protest. Entire families came together to demand that their voices be heard. Flags of Eritrea, South Sudan, Ethiopia and Israel could be seen flown in the air among the tens of thousands of protestors joined together in a protest even the Israeli Police called peaceful and well organized. In December the Israeli Government implemented a law called the “Infiltrator Law”. The law allows the Israeli government to detain African migrants for up to one year without trial. The “Infiltrator Law” was revamped and changed from the original law which stated that migrants could be held up to three years without trial. Israel is notorious for it’s open racist and xenophobic practices. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has remarked that he thinks that the refugees from Eritrea, South Sudan and other African countries serve as a “threat to the Jewish State and Character.”

At the end of the day, protestors even cleaned up their own messes. Helping and picking up bottles and trash left behind (see picture on the bottom), as many of the street and other cleaning jobs are left to the migrants.

“We have fled persecution, dictatorships, civil wars and genocides,” Dawud, an Eritrean asylum-seeker at the protest, told Agence France-Presse. “The Israeli government must study our requests for asylum and treat us like human beings." 

Images from AFP, and Hotline for refugees and migrants Israel twitter.