Скачать или смотреть African migrants and Israeli activists hold symbolic Passover meal to draw attention to migrants' pl

(11 Apr 2014) Hundreds of African migrants gathered in Israel's Negev desert on Friday to eat matzo and recall the Passover story of freedom from bondage - steps away from a detention facility where they are being held.
The symbolic Passover seder, a festive meal to be held by Jews around the world on Monday night, was organised to draw attention to the plight of Israel's migrants, many of whom say they came to the country via Egypt to flee persecution and conflict and yet face detention under Israel's infiltrators law.
Outside the Holot detention centre, migrants sat with Israeli activists and ate matzo, 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.
Wine, a main fixture of the holiday, was missing out of respect for many of the migrants who are Muslim and refrain from drinking alcohol.
Some 1,800 people are held at the Holot detention centre which is meant to be an "open" facility, where residents can come and go, but they must sign in several times a day and sleep there, making it impossible for them to stray far from the remote facility or hold down jobs.
Those who violate the rules, or reject what Israel calls "invitations" to report there, can be sent to a nearby prison.
Israel has struggled to deal with an influx of migrants from Africa, who number around 50,000 and come mostly from Sudan and Eritrea.
It has constructed a fence along its 130-mile (220-kilometre) border with Egypt, offered cash to incentivise migrants to return to their home countries, reached out to other countries to take in migrants and in many cases detained them.
Many Israelis believe that their nation, founded in part as a refuge for Holocaust survivors after World War II, has a responsibility to help the downtrodden, while others fear that taking in so many migrants will threaten the country's Jewish character.
Two other seder meals were held in support of the migrants this week in Tel Aviv and Washington.

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