Africans Hold Mass Rally against ’Israeli’ Detention

Local Editor

Tens of thousands of African migrants, many holding banners against "Israeli" government , protested on Sunday in a main Tel Aviv square against a new open-ended detention law.

"We are all refugees" and "Yes to freedom, no to prison!" they chanted in English.
Human rights groups say more than 300 African have been arrested since the law, which allows the Zionist entity to detain migrants without valid visas, was passed by "Israel's" Knesset three weeks ago.

An "Israeli" police spokesperson estimated that 30,000 people participated in Sunday's rally.
Some 60,000 migrants, largely from Eritrea and Sudan, have crossed into occupied Palestine across a once-porous border with Egypt since 2006, "Israel" said.
"Israeli" Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu viewed the presence of the Africans as a threat to "Israel's" so-called "Jewish character".

When arrested many migrants are sent to what the government describes as an "open" prison in the southern desert.
The facility is similar to a half-way house, in which detainees can leave during the day but must report back by nightfall. Migrants can be held there without a time limit pending repatriation, implementation of deportation orders or resolution of their asylum requests.

Organizers handed out leaflets demanding that "Israel" "release all refugees from prison and stop this detention policy.
Police said the protesters had a license for a three-day demonstration at the site.
"Israeli" MP Eli Yishai, the hardline former interior minister who in 2012 led the government campaign to round up and deport tens of thousands of migrants, denounced the protest.

Yishai said that the "infiltrators," as authorities call them, were encouraged by "anti-Zionist human rights organizations."
Yishai told the website of Maariv daily that the demonstration was "a sharp and clear cry for "Israel" to apply all the means at their disposal to return the infiltrators to their countries."

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team