Photos: Oren Ziv/Activestills.org, Yotam Ronen/Activestills.org

Text: Haggai Matar

Approximately 2,000 African asylum seekers and Israeli activists marched from Levinsky Park in south Tel Aviv to Rothschild Boulevard Saturday night to protest the arrests that took place during two “freedom marches” earlier this week. They blocked major intersections in the heart of the city while chanting “freedom!” At least three protesters were arrested.

Earlier this week, a group of approximately 150 asylum seekers went on a two-day “freedom march” from the Holot “open prison” in Israel’s south to the Knesset in Jerusalem. Upon their arrival, the group was arrested, placed on buses and sent to a closed facility in the Negev. Just one day later, another 130 asylum seekers left Holot, this time in the direction of Tel Aviv. That time, immigration officers stopped the march shortly after it began.