Hundreds of refugees and Israeli activists hold Passover Seder outside prison

An African asylum seeker holding matzah and an alternative Passover Haggadah outside the Holot detention center (Photo: Ziv Oren)

Israeli activists and African asylum seekers 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 symbolic Passover Seder, a festive meal to be held by Jews around the world Monday night, was organized to draw attention to the plight of Israel’s migrants, who themselves fled persecution and conflict, yet face detention under the country’s “infiltrators law.”

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Outside the Holot detention center, migrants sat with Israeli activists amid the dust of the vast desert and listened to speeches about the lessons of the weeklong Passover holiday: the meaning of freedom and the importance of showing hospitality to strangers. They ate matzah, the unleavened bread meant to commemorate the Jews’ hastened flight from Egypt, when they did not have time to wait for their bread to rise. There was no wine, a main fixture of the holiday, out of respect for Muslim migrants who refrain from drinking alcohol. “Every single person in this country who sits down to a Passover Seder has to say to themselves, ‘Am I taking care of the stranger among us right now?'” said Susan Silverman, a rabbi who delivered a speech to the migrants Friday. “Everyone’s got to look around and see what we are doing with the strangers in our own country.” Two other Seder meals were held in support of the migrants this week in Tel Aviv, on Saturday night, and Washington. Recent months have seen migrants stage protests that have drawn thousands to demand greater rights and recognition as refugees. Hundreds of migrants streamed out of Holot in a December protest march to Jerusalem, where police ultimately broke up their demonstration.

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