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In dramatic ruling, High Courtrejects Israel’s policies on illegalmigrantsInterior minister says he ‘can’t accept’ decision which overturns state’shandling of African migrants, since ‘it would mean the end of Israel asa Jewish, democratic state’
BY MARISSA NEWMAN September 22, 2014, 9:18 pm 83
TweetTweet 72 5 Email Print Share
African migrants protest outside Holot detention center in southern Israel. February 17, 2014. (photo credit:
FLASH90)
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Minister of Interior Gideon Sa’ar holds a pressconference on September 17, 2014, announcing he will
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n a landmark ruling, the High Court of Justice knocked down the
Knesset’s “infiltrator law” on Monday, declared that the practice ofholding African migrants in facilities in southern Israel for up to a
year was illegal, and ordered the state to shutter the contested Holot
center within 90 days.
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Interior Minister Gideon Sa’ar said he could “not accept the verdict of theHigh Court,” which, if implemented, would mean “we won’t have aJewish democratic state because our borders will be overrun… withillegal infiltrators.” He said the court had “made a mistake” and that theKnesset would now have to pass legislation preventing the High Court
from intervening on the issue.
The dramatic decision
was also
bitterly opposed by
several right-wing
Knesset members,
who maintained that
the infiltrator law had
been critical in
preventing further vast
numbers of migrants
entering Israel from
countries such as as
Ethiopia, Eritrea and
Sudan, and said the
judiciary was tying the hands of the Knesset.
A special panel of nine High Court justices voted on the two measures,
with the appeal to limit the detention of migrants receiving a 6-3 majority,
while the decision to close Holot was approved by seven of the nine
justices.
The decision to annul the “infiltrator law” reinstated the earlier illegalmigrant legislation, under which migrants can be held for up to 60 days.
The court decision adopted the position of human rights groups and shot
down an appeal submitted on behalf of the residents of southern Tel
Aviv, where many migrants live and where veteran residents claim they
fear for their safety. The court maintained that the extended detention of
migrants was a violation of their rights.
“Infiltrators do not lose their right to their full dignity in coming to thiscountry by any means necessary,” the decision read. “They do not shedtheir [right to] dignity when they enter custody or the holding facilities, and
their right to dignity fully stands even if their arrival to the country was
through illegal immigration.”
Likud minister Sa’ar, in a Channel 2 interview, countered that “Israelishave rights, too,” and claimed that the court decision, if implemented,would dramatically change the basic nature of Israel. “The state cannotaccept a situation where it has no tools to deal with illegal infiltrators.”
The state has argued that most of tens of thousands of migrants already
in Israel, and hundreds of thousands potentially poised to come, are
looking for economic benefits, rights groups contend that the migrants
are actually asylum-seekers. The court decision stated that while
economic incentives may have played a role in their decision to come to
Israel, the significant dangers posed to their well-being in their home
countries — including Eritrea and Sudan — could not be ignored.
African migrants gather during a protest in Levinsky Park in Tel Aviv on January 07,
2014. (photo credit: Gideon Markowicz/Flash90)
The decision also noted that as of June 30, 2014, there were 48,212
migrants in Israel, but that the steady flow had dropped significantly in
2013.
In response, Sa’ar, who is set to leave the government and take a breakfrom politics in October, proposed a government amendment to the
constitutional Basic Law on human dignity which would anchor the issue
in Israeli law and would make it untouchable by the High Court. The
Interior Ministry said it would evaluate all the legal possibilities to
outflank Monday’s ruling.
The interior minister
noted that since the
infiltration law was
passed by the Knesset
in 2013, allowing the
prolonged detention of
migrants, the number
of migrants leaving the
country had tripled –underlining the
effectiveness of the
law.
Sa’ar phoned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to inform him of thedecision as soon as the court issued it, and called for an emergency
discussion on the subject.
Housing Minister Uri Ariel, of the Orthodox-nationalist Jewish Home
party, said the High Court “broke a new record today on turning its backon the state of Israel.”
“It’s hard to believe the High Court would harm Israel’s ability to protectitself from the phenomenon of infiltration,” Uriel said. “What use is theborder fence when every infiltrator knows that the High Court is tying the
hands of the state, and it won’t be able to do anything.”
“This is a dark day for the rule of law in Israel,” he added.
Fellow Jewish Home MK Ayelet Shaked, who heads the Knesset caucus
on migrants, declared: “Today the lives of hundreds of thousands ofIsraelis were destroyed.”
“The High Court [effectively] called on all the citizens of Africa to come toIsrael. It harmed the security of the state, and the security of the
residents of southern Tel Aviv, and trampled on the legislative branch.”
Like Sa’ar, Shaked pledged to revise the Basic Law on human dignity,thus cutting off the High Court’s jurisdiction on the matter.
The petitioners of the issue — the Association of Civil Rights in Israel,the Hotline for Refugees and Migrants, Assaf – Aid Organization forRefugees and Asylum Seekers in Israel, Kav LaOved, Physicians for
Human RightsIsrael and Amnesty InternationalIsrael — hailed thedecision and called on the government to reform the existing
infrastructure and health services in the areas where the asylum-
seekers live, and encourage the hiring of migrants.
“The Court made it clear today, once more, in a categorical andunequivocal manner, that the policy toward asylum-seekers cannot be
solely based on mass detention of innocent people or complete
disregard of the issue,” the NGOs said in a joint statement.
A protest against the High Court ruling was scheduled for 9 p.m. in Tel
Aviv.
A statement from the Israeli Immigration Policy Center maintained the
decision “put an end to the hopes of the residents of south Tel Aviv, andto any process of removing the infiltrators.”
It called on the government to “act quickly to forge an alternative to thelaw, which will reach its legal objectives: the removal of the labor
infiltrators while assisting and evaluating the requests of the asylum
seekers, a minority within the infiltrators, who are eligible.”
The infiltrator law, approved by the Knesset in December 2013, was the
latest in a series of measures aimed at cracking down on Africans
entering the country illegally, which Israel says poses a threat to the
state’s Jewish character.
Last year, Israel launched a crackdown on what it said were 60,000
illegal African immigrants, rounding up and deporting 3,920 by the end of
the year, and building a hi-tech fence along the border with Egypt.
Human rights groups as well as the migrants themselves have staged
several large protests, opposing the Israeli policy to hold migrants for up
to a year in the Holot facility and protesting the conditions of the migrants
there. In January, tens of thousands of migrants and activists marched in
Tel Aviv for several days to protest the government policy.
Holot, which opened last year as a facility to hold the migrants pending
their deportation, houses 2,400 people. Migrants are sent there by order
of the Interior Ministry.
AFP contributed to this report.
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David Jackson · Top Commenter · University of British Columbia
Progressive Israel is speaking! A healthy democracy respects human rights.
Reply · Like · · 6 hours ago1
Gail Garsia · Top Commenter · Petah Tiqwa, Hamerkaz, Israel
no, it doesnt. they'll still be locked up in a closed prison without a trial for two months.
Reply · Like · 4 hours ago
Delia Lina Huss · Top Commenter · Paris, France
"healthy democracy." Love your weasel words. A healthy democracy doesn't degrade itssociety by opening it up to those from the most uncivilized peoples on the planet. Takea look at Sweden and tell me that the Swedish people have some how benefited fromtheir becoming the world's toilet.
Reply · Like · · 2 hours ago1
Finally Free · Top Commenter · Works at Underground in New Class Central
Apparently the judges were moved by the plight of Israel's construction and restaurant industries,which cannot face having to work without sources of cheap foreign labor... ;)
Reply · Like · · 9 hours ago3
Finally Free · Top Commenter · Works at Underground in New Class Central
Kritarchy = "rule by judges".
Reply · Like · 10 hours ago
Jennifer Boral · Top Commenter · Razorfish
Europe, Australia,and every other country doesn't want these fake refugees either, but only Israelgets shit about it. The country the size of a pea.
Reply · Like · · 13 hours ago
View 2 more
4
Daniel L. Remler · Top Commenter · UC Berkeley
you are completely correct jennifer. israel is so small. people judge it as if it were theusa. see my comments all the way at the bottom...
Reply · Like · 13 hours ago
Jennifer Boral · Top Commenter · Razorfish
Daniel L. Remler Yes, Israel is what..the size of NJ? LOL. Australia even put's them ona separate Island, and Australia is an enormous country that could host them all.
Reply · Like · 12 hours ago
Jj Kingsley · Top Commenter · IIT Chennai
There is nothing wrong in being an economic refugee or being an immigrant lookingfor a better life. All living beings migrate. Let us just get out of the way. How smartly cancountries do to make the countries and the immigrants better is worth thinking aboutwithout getting any emotional crap in the way. In US talking all day about legalimmigration, the folks forget there is literally no legal way for someone who can dosimple hard labor (for whom there is heavy demand in US) to apply and get visa underany legal system. As a result folks who come here to do such work are labelled asillegal. There is a void in the law. One can fill the void with a humanitarian perspectiveor on a labor need view point. But to simply ignore it based on hate, fear etc is likeshooting ones own foot. If done right there is no need for all the Americans to bestruggling to get their chores done etc. the problem is the past, and unfounded worryabout the future. Folks should look and interact with humans as humans. Not to useterms like slaves etc like cavemen going backwards.
Reply · Like · · 12 hours ago2
Ben Afra · Top Commenter
I think Israel should act as a facilitator and move these refugees to a safe third country like whatTurkey is doing right now
Reply · Like · 14 hours ago
Jennifer Boral · Top Commenter · Razorfish
They are trying, even offering $ to those willing to go to another country.
Reply · Like · · 13 hours ago2
Jim Newsham · Top Commenter · St Cuthbert's Society, Durham
Incredible -only in Israel could the Interior Minister get away with stating that he was going toignore the ruling of the High Court and bring about legislation to ensure that the High Court did nothave a say in the matter! Even more frightening: most people on here agree with the Minister! Iknow that Times of Israel is right-wing but the Minister, the majority of the Knesset & many of thepeople on here are not just fascist -they are truly Hitleresque! What has happened to Israel?Where is your humanity? Are you just a brutal state with brutal poliicies determined to destroyanyone who stands in your way. You are not living! You are wandering around in a wildernessdevoid of any human feelings for your fellow human beings. You are so, so lost!
Reply · Like · 15 hours ago
View 10 more
Avrahom Rothenberg · Top Commenter · Brooklyn College
You just called the majority of Israelis "Hitleresque", why do you think I read yourstatement to the end?
Reply · Like · · 14 hours ago1
Jj Kingsley · Top Commenter · IIT Chennai
Abraham Rothenberg is it not true that any syndrome like Stockholm and others thathappens by oppression and suppression would last only through that generation andnot go to the next via genes? May be that theory is wrong. In the case of Israel it seemsto be taught and transferred (the fear of being considered equal to others) throughgenerations as well leading to the phobias,
Reply · Like · · 14 hours ago1
jeffrey.marlowe (signed in using yahoo)
You have the temerity to come on to the site of a foreign country with which you have noconnection and lecture ,insult and pontificate to us. You might throw your weight aroundin the bars of Durham ,but it don't cut it here . You are an offensive little creep with toomuch time on your hands living off Mummy and Daddy or the state.Now slink back intoyour bedsit and advise the Russians ,Chinese ,Muslims see if they listen to you. Whenyou grow up you may understand .how stupid you are.
Reply · Like · · 13 hours ago3
Rusty L Shelton
Well, it looks like the U.S. and Israel have something in common: liberals want to DESTROY bothcountries. And after that, well... just 'hope for the best'.
Reply · Like · · 16 hours ago1
Jj Kingsley · Top Commenter · IIT Chennai
Actually, it is the conservative hate mongers that are ruining US and they seem to gethate training from Israel and by the Jewish radio talk show hosts in US like Mark Levin,savage, Larson, etc who are trying to push the US backward by 100 years through hateand fear.
Reply · Like · 15 hours ago
Finally Free · Top Commenter · Works at Underground in New Class Central
Jj Kingsley OK, I get the idea. Clearly you understand b*gger all about either the USA orIsrael (except for self-serving propaganda from those countries's New Classes) yet feelfree to lecture us. (Hits mute button.)
Reply · Like · 9 hours ago
brenrod· Top Commenter (signed in using yahoo)
looks like the high court is just a leftist front
Reply · Like · 16 hours ago
Annex the west bank· Top Commenter (signed in using Hotmail)
Activist leftist courts will do thing's like this because they can, Its simply a game of who has thebiggest stick.
The Knesset simply needs to specify that the illegal immigrants do not have the protection of thecourt as they are not citizen's and are in the country illegally.
Israel is again doing Europes dirty work for it as many of these illegal's are in long term transit toEurope any way.
As usual Israel gets not compensation for being Europe's free border guard only castigation.
Israel should play they game a different way and simply "Help" the illegals move on to Lebanonand Cyprus the next stepping stones in the journey to the EU.
Reply · Like · · 16 hours ago1
alotatanks (signed in using AOL)
Bottom Line. These lying African dogs have to go back to where they came from.
Reply · Like · 16 hours ago
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Home > Israel Inside
In dramatic ruling, High Courtrejects Israel’s policies on illegalmigrantsInterior minister says he ‘can’t accept’ decision which overturns state’shandling of African migrants, since ‘it would mean the end of Israel asa Jewish, democratic state’
BY MARISSA NEWMAN September 22, 2014, 9:18 pm 83
TweetTweet 72 5 Email Print Share
African migrants protest outside Holot detention center in southern Israel. February 17, 2014. (photo credit:
FLASH90)
WRITERS
Marissa Newman
Marissa Newman is a
breaking news editor at The
Times of Israel.
Follow or contact:
^ RSS
NEWSROOM
m Email the Newsroom
G Facebook
t Twitter
RELATEDTOPICS
AFRICAN MIGRANTS
AYELET SHAKED
HOLOT
I
Taking Statindrugs?
Research Study enrollingParticipants. Learn more here.
Minister of Interior Gideon Sa’ar holds a pressconference on September 17, 2014, announcing he will
resign from both the cabinet and the Knesset after the
Jewish holidays. (photo credit: Flash90)
Like us on Facebook Get our newsletter Follow us on Twitter
n a landmark ruling, the High Court of Justice knocked down the
Knesset’s “infiltrator law” on Monday, declared that the practice ofholding African migrants in facilities in southern Israel for up to a
year was illegal, and ordered the state to shutter the contested Holot
center within 90 days.
Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition by email
and never miss our top stories FREE SIGN UP!
Interior Minister Gideon Sa’ar said he could “not accept the verdict of theHigh Court,” which, if implemented, would mean “we won’t have aJewish democratic state because our borders will be overrun… withillegal infiltrators.” He said the court had “made a mistake” and that theKnesset would now have to pass legislation preventing the High Court
from intervening on the issue.
The dramatic decision
was also
bitterly opposed by
several right-wing
Knesset members,
who maintained that
the infiltrator law had
been critical in
preventing further vast
numbers of migrants
entering Israel from
countries such as as
Ethiopia, Eritrea and
Sudan, and said the
judiciary was tying the hands of the Knesset.
A special panel of nine High Court justices voted on the two measures,
with the appeal to limit the detention of migrants receiving a 6-3 majority,
while the decision to close Holot was approved by seven of the nine
justices.
The decision to annul the “infiltrator law” reinstated the earlier illegalmigrant legislation, under which migrants can be held for up to 60 days.
The court decision adopted the position of human rights groups and shot
down an appeal submitted on behalf of the residents of southern Tel
Aviv, where many migrants live and where veteran residents claim they
fear for their safety. The court maintained that the extended detention of
migrants was a violation of their rights.
“Infiltrators do not lose their right to their full dignity in coming to thiscountry by any means necessary,” the decision read. “They do not shedtheir [right to] dignity when they enter custody or the holding facilities, and
their right to dignity fully stands even if their arrival to the country was
through illegal immigration.”
Likud minister Sa’ar, in a Channel 2 interview, countered that “Israelishave rights, too,” and claimed that the court decision, if implemented,would dramatically change the basic nature of Israel. “The state cannotaccept a situation where it has no tools to deal with illegal infiltrators.”
The state has argued that most of tens of thousands of migrants already
in Israel, and hundreds of thousands potentially poised to come, are
looking for economic benefits, rights groups contend that the migrants
are actually asylum-seekers. The court decision stated that while
economic incentives may have played a role in their decision to come to
Israel, the significant dangers posed to their well-being in their home
countries — including Eritrea and Sudan — could not be ignored.
African migrants gather during a protest in Levinsky Park in Tel Aviv on January 07,
2014. (photo credit: Gideon Markowicz/Flash90)
The decision also noted that as of June 30, 2014, there were 48,212
migrants in Israel, but that the steady flow had dropped significantly in
2013.
In response, Sa’ar, who is set to leave the government and take a breakfrom politics in October, proposed a government amendment to the
constitutional Basic Law on human dignity which would anchor the issue
in Israeli law and would make it untouchable by the High Court. The
Interior Ministry said it would evaluate all the legal possibilities to
outflank Monday’s ruling.
The interior minister
noted that since the
infiltration law was
passed by the Knesset
in 2013, allowing the
prolonged detention of
migrants, the number
of migrants leaving the
country had tripled –underlining the
effectiveness of the
law.
Sa’ar phoned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to inform him of thedecision as soon as the court issued it, and called for an emergency
discussion on the subject.
Housing Minister Uri Ariel, of the Orthodox-nationalist Jewish Home
party, said the High Court “broke a new record today on turning its backon the state of Israel.”
“It’s hard to believe the High Court would harm Israel’s ability to protectitself from the phenomenon of infiltration,” Uriel said. “What use is theborder fence when every infiltrator knows that the High Court is tying the
hands of the state, and it won’t be able to do anything.”
“This is a dark day for the rule of law in Israel,” he added.
Fellow Jewish Home MK Ayelet Shaked, who heads the Knesset caucus
on migrants, declared: “Today the lives of hundreds of thousands ofIsraelis were destroyed.”
“The High Court [effectively] called on all the citizens of Africa to come toIsrael. It harmed the security of the state, and the security of the
residents of southern Tel Aviv, and trampled on the legislative branch.”
Like Sa’ar, Shaked pledged to revise the Basic Law on human dignity,thus cutting off the High Court’s jurisdiction on the matter.
The petitioners of the issue — the Association of Civil Rights in Israel,the Hotline for Refugees and Migrants, Assaf – Aid Organization forRefugees and Asylum Seekers in Israel, Kav LaOved, Physicians for
Human RightsIsrael and Amnesty InternationalIsrael — hailed thedecision and called on the government to reform the existing
infrastructure and health services in the areas where the asylum-
seekers live, and encourage the hiring of migrants.
“The Court made it clear today, once more, in a categorical andunequivocal manner, that the policy toward asylum-seekers cannot be
solely based on mass detention of innocent people or complete
disregard of the issue,” the NGOs said in a joint statement.
A protest against the High Court ruling was scheduled for 9 p.m. in Tel
Aviv.
A statement from the Israeli Immigration Policy Center maintained the
decision “put an end to the hopes of the residents of south Tel Aviv, andto any process of removing the infiltrators.”
It called on the government to “act quickly to forge an alternative to thelaw, which will reach its legal objectives: the removal of the labor
infiltrators while assisting and evaluating the requests of the asylum
seekers, a minority within the infiltrators, who are eligible.”
The infiltrator law, approved by the Knesset in December 2013, was the
latest in a series of measures aimed at cracking down on Africans
entering the country illegally, which Israel says poses a threat to the
state’s Jewish character.
Last year, Israel launched a crackdown on what it said were 60,000
illegal African immigrants, rounding up and deporting 3,920 by the end of
the year, and building a hi-tech fence along the border with Egypt.
Human rights groups as well as the migrants themselves have staged
several large protests, opposing the Israeli policy to hold migrants for up
to a year in the Holot facility and protesting the conditions of the migrants
there. In January, tens of thousands of migrants and activists marched in
Tel Aviv for several days to protest the government policy.
Holot, which opened last year as a facility to hold the migrants pending
their deportation, houses 2,400 people. Migrants are sent there by order
of the Interior Ministry.
AFP contributed to this report.
TweetTweet 72 5
READ MORE ON: African migrants, Ayelet Shaked, Holot, Gideon Sa'ar, Interior Ministry, Uri Ariel, Eritrea, Sudan,
High Court of Justice
Report inappropriate commentsCOMMENTS ON THIS ARTICLE
Get this amazing deal
Jerusalem Clock withHebrew DigitsList Price $30.00
Your Price $18.95
Palestinians to return toCairo talks after balkingover killingsBY SPENCER HO
Suspects behind murder of 3 teens killedduring capture attempt
Families, politicians praise killing ofkidnapping suspects
Senior MK calls to swap suspects’ bodies forIDF soldiers’ remains
IDF shoots down Syrianfighter plane over Golan
BY SPENCER HO AND ILAN BEN
ZION
Erdogan rebuffs anti-Semiteclaims but lashes Israel for‘massacre’BY RAPHAEL AHREN
US targets Nusra, Khorasanterror groups in Syria
BY AFP AND TIMES OF ISRAEL
STAFF
Obama talks Islamic State,Syria with US rabbis
BY REBECCA SHIMONI STOIL
THE TIMES OFISRAEL
CURRENT TOP STORIES
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David Jackson · Top Commenter · University of British Columbia
Progressive Israel is speaking! A healthy democracy respects human rights.
Reply · Like · · 6 hours ago1
Gail Garsia · Top Commenter · Petah Tiqwa, Hamerkaz, Israel
no, it doesnt. they'll still be locked up in a closed prison without a trial for two months.
Reply · Like · 4 hours ago
Delia Lina Huss · Top Commenter · Paris, France
"healthy democracy." Love your weasel words. A healthy democracy doesn't degrade itssociety by opening it up to those from the most uncivilized peoples on the planet. Takea look at Sweden and tell me that the Swedish people have some how benefited fromtheir becoming the world's toilet.
Reply · Like · · 2 hours ago1
Finally Free · Top Commenter · Works at Underground in New Class Central
Apparently the judges were moved by the plight of Israel's construction and restaurant industries,which cannot face having to work without sources of cheap foreign labor... ;)
Reply · Like · · 9 hours ago3
Finally Free · Top Commenter · Works at Underground in New Class Central
Kritarchy = "rule by judges".
Reply · Like · 10 hours ago
Jennifer Boral · Top Commenter · Razorfish
Europe, Australia,and every other country doesn't want these fake refugees either, but only Israelgets shit about it. The country the size of a pea.
Reply · Like · · 13 hours ago
View 2 more
4
Daniel L. Remler · Top Commenter · UC Berkeley
you are completely correct jennifer. israel is so small. people judge it as if it were theusa. see my comments all the way at the bottom...
Reply · Like · 13 hours ago
Jennifer Boral · Top Commenter · Razorfish
Daniel L. Remler Yes, Israel is what..the size of NJ? LOL. Australia even put's them ona separate Island, and Australia is an enormous country that could host them all.
Reply · Like · 12 hours ago
Jj Kingsley · Top Commenter · IIT Chennai
There is nothing wrong in being an economic refugee or being an immigrant lookingfor a better life. All living beings migrate. Let us just get out of the way. How smartly cancountries do to make the countries and the immigrants better is worth thinking aboutwithout getting any emotional crap in the way. In US talking all day about legalimmigration, the folks forget there is literally no legal way for someone who can dosimple hard labor (for whom there is heavy demand in US) to apply and get visa underany legal system. As a result folks who come here to do such work are labelled asillegal. There is a void in the law. One can fill the void with a humanitarian perspectiveor on a labor need view point. But to simply ignore it based on hate, fear etc is likeshooting ones own foot. If done right there is no need for all the Americans to bestruggling to get their chores done etc. the problem is the past, and unfounded worryabout the future. Folks should look and interact with humans as humans. Not to useterms like slaves etc like cavemen going backwards.
Reply · Like · · 12 hours ago2
Ben Afra · Top Commenter
I think Israel should act as a facilitator and move these refugees to a safe third country like whatTurkey is doing right now
Reply · Like · 14 hours ago
Jennifer Boral · Top Commenter · Razorfish
They are trying, even offering $ to those willing to go to another country.
Reply · Like · · 13 hours ago2
Jim Newsham · Top Commenter · St Cuthbert's Society, Durham
Incredible -only in Israel could the Interior Minister get away with stating that he was going toignore the ruling of the High Court and bring about legislation to ensure that the High Court did nothave a say in the matter! Even more frightening: most people on here agree with the Minister! Iknow that Times of Israel is right-wing but the Minister, the majority of the Knesset & many of thepeople on here are not just fascist -they are truly Hitleresque! What has happened to Israel?Where is your humanity? Are you just a brutal state with brutal poliicies determined to destroyanyone who stands in your way. You are not living! You are wandering around in a wildernessdevoid of any human feelings for your fellow human beings. You are so, so lost!
Reply · Like · 15 hours ago
View 10 more
Avrahom Rothenberg · Top Commenter · Brooklyn College
You just called the majority of Israelis "Hitleresque", why do you think I read yourstatement to the end?
Reply · Like · · 14 hours ago1
Jj Kingsley · Top Commenter · IIT Chennai
Abraham Rothenberg is it not true that any syndrome like Stockholm and others thathappens by oppression and suppression would last only through that generation andnot go to the next via genes? May be that theory is wrong. In the case of Israel it seemsto be taught and transferred (the fear of being considered equal to others) throughgenerations as well leading to the phobias,
Reply · Like · · 14 hours ago1
jeffrey.marlowe (signed in using yahoo)
You have the temerity to come on to the site of a foreign country with which you have noconnection and lecture ,insult and pontificate to us. You might throw your weight aroundin the bars of Durham ,but it don't cut it here . You are an offensive little creep with toomuch time on your hands living off Mummy and Daddy or the state.Now slink back intoyour bedsit and advise the Russians ,Chinese ,Muslims see if they listen to you. Whenyou grow up you may understand .how stupid you are.
Reply · Like · · 13 hours ago3
Rusty L Shelton
Well, it looks like the U.S. and Israel have something in common: liberals want to DESTROY bothcountries. And after that, well... just 'hope for the best'.
Reply · Like · · 16 hours ago1
Jj Kingsley · Top Commenter · IIT Chennai
Actually, it is the conservative hate mongers that are ruining US and they seem to gethate training from Israel and by the Jewish radio talk show hosts in US like Mark Levin,savage, Larson, etc who are trying to push the US backward by 100 years through hateand fear.
Reply · Like · 15 hours ago
Finally Free · Top Commenter · Works at Underground in New Class Central
Jj Kingsley OK, I get the idea. Clearly you understand b*gger all about either the USA orIsrael (except for self-serving propaganda from those countries's New Classes) yet feelfree to lecture us. (Hits mute button.)
Reply · Like · 9 hours ago
brenrod· Top Commenter (signed in using yahoo)
looks like the high court is just a leftist front
Reply · Like · 16 hours ago
Annex the west bank· Top Commenter (signed in using Hotmail)
Activist leftist courts will do thing's like this because they can, Its simply a game of who has thebiggest stick.
The Knesset simply needs to specify that the illegal immigrants do not have the protection of thecourt as they are not citizen's and are in the country illegally.
Israel is again doing Europes dirty work for it as many of these illegal's are in long term transit toEurope any way.
As usual Israel gets not compensation for being Europe's free border guard only castigation.
Israel should play they game a different way and simply "Help" the illegals move on to Lebanonand Cyprus the next stepping stones in the journey to the EU.
Reply · Like · · 16 hours ago1
alotatanks (signed in using AOL)
Bottom Line. These lying African dogs have to go back to where they came from.
Reply · Like · 16 hours ago
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In dramatic ruling, High Courtrejects Israel’s policies on illegalmigrantsInterior minister says he ‘can’t accept’ decision which overturns state’shandling of African migrants, since ‘it would mean the end of Israel asa Jewish, democratic state’
BY MARISSA NEWMAN September 22, 2014, 9:18 pm 83
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African migrants protest outside Holot detention center in southern Israel. February 17, 2014. (photo credit:
FLASH90)
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Minister of Interior Gideon Sa’ar holds a pressconference on September 17, 2014, announcing he will
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n a landmark ruling, the High Court of Justice knocked down the
Knesset’s “infiltrator law” on Monday, declared that the practice ofholding African migrants in facilities in southern Israel for up to a
year was illegal, and ordered the state to shutter the contested Holot
center within 90 days.
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Interior Minister Gideon Sa’ar said he could “not accept the verdict of theHigh Court,” which, if implemented, would mean “we won’t have aJewish democratic state because our borders will be overrun… withillegal infiltrators.” He said the court had “made a mistake” and that theKnesset would now have to pass legislation preventing the High Court
from intervening on the issue.
The dramatic decision
was also
bitterly opposed by
several right-wing
Knesset members,
who maintained that
the infiltrator law had
been critical in
preventing further vast
numbers of migrants
entering Israel from
countries such as as
Ethiopia, Eritrea and
Sudan, and said the
judiciary was tying the hands of the Knesset.
A special panel of nine High Court justices voted on the two measures,
with the appeal to limit the detention of migrants receiving a 6-3 majority,
while the decision to close Holot was approved by seven of the nine
justices.
The decision to annul the “infiltrator law” reinstated the earlier illegalmigrant legislation, under which migrants can be held for up to 60 days.
The court decision adopted the position of human rights groups and shot
down an appeal submitted on behalf of the residents of southern Tel
Aviv, where many migrants live and where veteran residents claim they
fear for their safety. The court maintained that the extended detention of
migrants was a violation of their rights.
“Infiltrators do not lose their right to their full dignity in coming to thiscountry by any means necessary,” the decision read. “They do not shedtheir [right to] dignity when they enter custody or the holding facilities, and
their right to dignity fully stands even if their arrival to the country was
through illegal immigration.”
Likud minister Sa’ar, in a Channel 2 interview, countered that “Israelishave rights, too,” and claimed that the court decision, if implemented,would dramatically change the basic nature of Israel. “The state cannotaccept a situation where it has no tools to deal with illegal infiltrators.”
The state has argued that most of tens of thousands of migrants already
in Israel, and hundreds of thousands potentially poised to come, are
looking for economic benefits, rights groups contend that the migrants
are actually asylum-seekers. The court decision stated that while
economic incentives may have played a role in their decision to come to
Israel, the significant dangers posed to their well-being in their home
countries — including Eritrea and Sudan — could not be ignored.
African migrants gather during a protest in Levinsky Park in Tel Aviv on January 07,
2014. (photo credit: Gideon Markowicz/Flash90)
The decision also noted that as of June 30, 2014, there were 48,212
migrants in Israel, but that the steady flow had dropped significantly in
2013.
In response, Sa’ar, who is set to leave the government and take a breakfrom politics in October, proposed a government amendment to the
constitutional Basic Law on human dignity which would anchor the issue
in Israeli law and would make it untouchable by the High Court. The
Interior Ministry said it would evaluate all the legal possibilities to
outflank Monday’s ruling.
The interior minister
noted that since the
infiltration law was
passed by the Knesset
in 2013, allowing the
prolonged detention of
migrants, the number
of migrants leaving the
country had tripled –underlining the
effectiveness of the
law.
Sa’ar phoned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to inform him of thedecision as soon as the court issued it, and called for an emergency
discussion on the subject.
Housing Minister Uri Ariel, of the Orthodox-nationalist Jewish Home
party, said the High Court “broke a new record today on turning its backon the state of Israel.”
“It’s hard to believe the High Court would harm Israel’s ability to protectitself from the phenomenon of infiltration,” Uriel said. “What use is theborder fence when every infiltrator knows that the High Court is tying the
hands of the state, and it won’t be able to do anything.”
“This is a dark day for the rule of law in Israel,” he added.
Fellow Jewish Home MK Ayelet Shaked, who heads the Knesset caucus
on migrants, declared: “Today the lives of hundreds of thousands ofIsraelis were destroyed.”
“The High Court [effectively] called on all the citizens of Africa to come toIsrael. It harmed the security of the state, and the security of the
residents of southern Tel Aviv, and trampled on the legislative branch.”
Like Sa’ar, Shaked pledged to revise the Basic Law on human dignity,thus cutting off the High Court’s jurisdiction on the matter.
The petitioners of the issue — the Association of Civil Rights in Israel,the Hotline for Refugees and Migrants, Assaf – Aid Organization forRefugees and Asylum Seekers in Israel, Kav LaOved, Physicians for
Human RightsIsrael and Amnesty InternationalIsrael — hailed thedecision and called on the government to reform the existing
infrastructure and health services in the areas where the asylum-
seekers live, and encourage the hiring of migrants.
“The Court made it clear today, once more, in a categorical andunequivocal manner, that the policy toward asylum-seekers cannot be
solely based on mass detention of innocent people or complete
disregard of the issue,” the NGOs said in a joint statement.
A protest against the High Court ruling was scheduled for 9 p.m. in Tel
Aviv.
A statement from the Israeli Immigration Policy Center maintained the
decision “put an end to the hopes of the residents of south Tel Aviv, andto any process of removing the infiltrators.”
It called on the government to “act quickly to forge an alternative to thelaw, which will reach its legal objectives: the removal of the labor
infiltrators while assisting and evaluating the requests of the asylum
seekers, a minority within the infiltrators, who are eligible.”
The infiltrator law, approved by the Knesset in December 2013, was the
latest in a series of measures aimed at cracking down on Africans
entering the country illegally, which Israel says poses a threat to the
state’s Jewish character.
Last year, Israel launched a crackdown on what it said were 60,000
illegal African immigrants, rounding up and deporting 3,920 by the end of
the year, and building a hi-tech fence along the border with Egypt.
Human rights groups as well as the migrants themselves have staged
several large protests, opposing the Israeli policy to hold migrants for up
to a year in the Holot facility and protesting the conditions of the migrants
there. In January, tens of thousands of migrants and activists marched in
Tel Aviv for several days to protest the government policy.
Holot, which opened last year as a facility to hold the migrants pending
their deportation, houses 2,400 people. Migrants are sent there by order
of the Interior Ministry.
AFP contributed to this report.
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READ MORE ON: African migrants, Ayelet Shaked, Holot, Gideon Sa'ar, Interior Ministry, Uri Ariel, Eritrea, Sudan,
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1 The Mossad wants you!BY DEBRA KAMIN 41
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5 IDF shoots down Syrian fighter planeover GolanBY SPENCER HO AND ILAN BEN ZION 25
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David Jackson · Top Commenter · University of British Columbia
Progressive Israel is speaking! A healthy democracy respects human rights.
Reply · Like · · 6 hours ago1
Gail Garsia · Top Commenter · Petah Tiqwa, Hamerkaz, Israel
no, it doesnt. they'll still be locked up in a closed prison without a trial for two months.
Reply · Like · 4 hours ago
Delia Lina Huss · Top Commenter · Paris, France
"healthy democracy." Love your weasel words. A healthy democracy doesn't degrade itssociety by opening it up to those from the most uncivilized peoples on the planet. Takea look at Sweden and tell me that the Swedish people have some how benefited fromtheir becoming the world's toilet.
Reply · Like · · 2 hours ago1
Finally Free · Top Commenter · Works at Underground in New Class Central
Apparently the judges were moved by the plight of Israel's construction and restaurant industries,which cannot face having to work without sources of cheap foreign labor... ;)
Reply · Like · · 9 hours ago3
Finally Free · Top Commenter · Works at Underground in New Class Central
Kritarchy = "rule by judges".
Reply · Like · 10 hours ago
Jennifer Boral · Top Commenter · Razorfish
Europe, Australia,and every other country doesn't want these fake refugees either, but only Israelgets shit about it. The country the size of a pea.
Reply · Like · · 13 hours ago
View 2 more
4
Daniel L. Remler · Top Commenter · UC Berkeley
you are completely correct jennifer. israel is so small. people judge it as if it were theusa. see my comments all the way at the bottom...
Reply · Like · 13 hours ago
Jennifer Boral · Top Commenter · Razorfish
Daniel L. Remler Yes, Israel is what..the size of NJ? LOL. Australia even put's them ona separate Island, and Australia is an enormous country that could host them all.
Reply · Like · 12 hours ago
Jj Kingsley · Top Commenter · IIT Chennai
There is nothing wrong in being an economic refugee or being an immigrant lookingfor a better life. All living beings migrate. Let us just get out of the way. How smartly cancountries do to make the countries and the immigrants better is worth thinking aboutwithout getting any emotional crap in the way. In US talking all day about legalimmigration, the folks forget there is literally no legal way for someone who can dosimple hard labor (for whom there is heavy demand in US) to apply and get visa underany legal system. As a result folks who come here to do such work are labelled asillegal. There is a void in the law. One can fill the void with a humanitarian perspectiveor on a labor need view point. But to simply ignore it based on hate, fear etc is likeshooting ones own foot. If done right there is no need for all the Americans to bestruggling to get their chores done etc. the problem is the past, and unfounded worryabout the future. Folks should look and interact with humans as humans. Not to useterms like slaves etc like cavemen going backwards.
Reply · Like · · 12 hours ago2
Ben Afra · Top Commenter
I think Israel should act as a facilitator and move these refugees to a safe third country like whatTurkey is doing right now
Reply · Like · 14 hours ago
Jennifer Boral · Top Commenter · Razorfish
They are trying, even offering $ to those willing to go to another country.
Reply · Like · · 13 hours ago2
Jim Newsham · Top Commenter · St Cuthbert's Society, Durham
Incredible -only in Israel could the Interior Minister get away with stating that he was going toignore the ruling of the High Court and bring about legislation to ensure that the High Court did nothave a say in the matter! Even more frightening: most people on here agree with the Minister! Iknow that Times of Israel is right-wing but the Minister, the majority of the Knesset & many of thepeople on here are not just fascist -they are truly Hitleresque! What has happened to Israel?Where is your humanity? Are you just a brutal state with brutal poliicies determined to destroyanyone who stands in your way. You are not living! You are wandering around in a wildernessdevoid of any human feelings for your fellow human beings. You are so, so lost!
Reply · Like · 15 hours ago
View 10 more
Avrahom Rothenberg · Top Commenter · Brooklyn College
You just called the majority of Israelis "Hitleresque", why do you think I read yourstatement to the end?
Reply · Like · · 14 hours ago1
Jj Kingsley · Top Commenter · IIT Chennai
Abraham Rothenberg is it not true that any syndrome like Stockholm and others thathappens by oppression and suppression would last only through that generation andnot go to the next via genes? May be that theory is wrong. In the case of Israel it seemsto be taught and transferred (the fear of being considered equal to others) throughgenerations as well leading to the phobias,
Reply · Like · · 14 hours ago1
jeffrey.marlowe (signed in using yahoo)
You have the temerity to come on to the site of a foreign country with which you have noconnection and lecture ,insult and pontificate to us. You might throw your weight aroundin the bars of Durham ,but it don't cut it here . You are an offensive little creep with toomuch time on your hands living off Mummy and Daddy or the state.Now slink back intoyour bedsit and advise the Russians ,Chinese ,Muslims see if they listen to you. Whenyou grow up you may understand .how stupid you are.
Reply · Like · · 13 hours ago3
Rusty L Shelton
Well, it looks like the U.S. and Israel have something in common: liberals want to DESTROY bothcountries. And after that, well... just 'hope for the best'.
Reply · Like · · 16 hours ago1
Jj Kingsley · Top Commenter · IIT Chennai
Actually, it is the conservative hate mongers that are ruining US and they seem to gethate training from Israel and by the Jewish radio talk show hosts in US like Mark Levin,savage, Larson, etc who are trying to push the US backward by 100 years through hateand fear.
Reply · Like · 15 hours ago
Finally Free · Top Commenter · Works at Underground in New Class Central
Jj Kingsley OK, I get the idea. Clearly you understand b*gger all about either the USA orIsrael (except for self-serving propaganda from those countries's New Classes) yet feelfree to lecture us. (Hits mute button.)
Reply · Like · 9 hours ago
brenrod· Top Commenter (signed in using yahoo)
looks like the high court is just a leftist front
Reply · Like · 16 hours ago
Annex the west bank· Top Commenter (signed in using Hotmail)
Activist leftist courts will do thing's like this because they can, Its simply a game of who has thebiggest stick.
The Knesset simply needs to specify that the illegal immigrants do not have the protection of thecourt as they are not citizen's and are in the country illegally.
Israel is again doing Europes dirty work for it as many of these illegal's are in long term transit toEurope any way.
As usual Israel gets not compensation for being Europe's free border guard only castigation.
Israel should play they game a different way and simply "Help" the illegals move on to Lebanonand Cyprus the next stepping stones in the journey to the EU.
Reply · Like · · 16 hours ago1
alotatanks (signed in using AOL)
Bottom Line. These lying African dogs have to go back to where they came from.
Reply · Like · 16 hours ago
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In dramatic ruling, High Courtrejects Israel’s policies on illegalmigrantsInterior minister says he ‘can’t accept’ decision which overturns state’shandling of African migrants, since ‘it would mean the end of Israel asa Jewish, democratic state’
BY MARISSA NEWMAN September 22, 2014, 9:18 pm 83
TweetTweet 72 5 Email Print Share
African migrants protest outside Holot detention center in southern Israel. February 17, 2014. (photo credit:
FLASH90)
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Marissa Newman is a
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Minister of Interior Gideon Sa’ar holds a pressconference on September 17, 2014, announcing he will
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Jewish holidays. (photo credit: Flash90)
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n a landmark ruling, the High Court of Justice knocked down the
Knesset’s “infiltrator law” on Monday, declared that the practice ofholding African migrants in facilities in southern Israel for up to a
year was illegal, and ordered the state to shutter the contested Holot
center within 90 days.
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Interior Minister Gideon Sa’ar said he could “not accept the verdict of theHigh Court,” which, if implemented, would mean “we won’t have aJewish democratic state because our borders will be overrun… withillegal infiltrators.” He said the court had “made a mistake” and that theKnesset would now have to pass legislation preventing the High Court
from intervening on the issue.
The dramatic decision
was also
bitterly opposed by
several right-wing
Knesset members,
who maintained that
the infiltrator law had
been critical in
preventing further vast
numbers of migrants
entering Israel from
countries such as as
Ethiopia, Eritrea and
Sudan, and said the
judiciary was tying the hands of the Knesset.
A special panel of nine High Court justices voted on the two measures,
with the appeal to limit the detention of migrants receiving a 6-3 majority,
while the decision to close Holot was approved by seven of the nine
justices.
The decision to annul the “infiltrator law” reinstated the earlier illegalmigrant legislation, under which migrants can be held for up to 60 days.
The court decision adopted the position of human rights groups and shot
down an appeal submitted on behalf of the residents of southern Tel
Aviv, where many migrants live and where veteran residents claim they
fear for their safety. The court maintained that the extended detention of
migrants was a violation of their rights.
“Infiltrators do not lose their right to their full dignity in coming to thiscountry by any means necessary,” the decision read. “They do not shedtheir [right to] dignity when they enter custody or the holding facilities, and
their right to dignity fully stands even if their arrival to the country was
through illegal immigration.”
Likud minister Sa’ar, in a Channel 2 interview, countered that “Israelishave rights, too,” and claimed that the court decision, if implemented,would dramatically change the basic nature of Israel. “The state cannotaccept a situation where it has no tools to deal with illegal infiltrators.”
The state has argued that most of tens of thousands of migrants already
in Israel, and hundreds of thousands potentially poised to come, are
looking for economic benefits, rights groups contend that the migrants
are actually asylum-seekers. The court decision stated that while
economic incentives may have played a role in their decision to come to
Israel, the significant dangers posed to their well-being in their home
countries — including Eritrea and Sudan — could not be ignored.
African migrants gather during a protest in Levinsky Park in Tel Aviv on January 07,
2014. (photo credit: Gideon Markowicz/Flash90)
The decision also noted that as of June 30, 2014, there were 48,212
migrants in Israel, but that the steady flow had dropped significantly in
2013.
In response, Sa’ar, who is set to leave the government and take a breakfrom politics in October, proposed a government amendment to the
constitutional Basic Law on human dignity which would anchor the issue
in Israeli law and would make it untouchable by the High Court. The
Interior Ministry said it would evaluate all the legal possibilities to
outflank Monday’s ruling.
The interior minister
noted that since the
infiltration law was
passed by the Knesset
in 2013, allowing the
prolonged detention of
migrants, the number
of migrants leaving the
country had tripled –underlining the
effectiveness of the
law.
Sa’ar phoned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to inform him of thedecision as soon as the court issued it, and called for an emergency
discussion on the subject.
Housing Minister Uri Ariel, of the Orthodox-nationalist Jewish Home
party, said the High Court “broke a new record today on turning its backon the state of Israel.”
“It’s hard to believe the High Court would harm Israel’s ability to protectitself from the phenomenon of infiltration,” Uriel said. “What use is theborder fence when every infiltrator knows that the High Court is tying the
hands of the state, and it won’t be able to do anything.”
“This is a dark day for the rule of law in Israel,” he added.
Fellow Jewish Home MK Ayelet Shaked, who heads the Knesset caucus
on migrants, declared: “Today the lives of hundreds of thousands ofIsraelis were destroyed.”
“The High Court [effectively] called on all the citizens of Africa to come toIsrael. It harmed the security of the state, and the security of the
residents of southern Tel Aviv, and trampled on the legislative branch.”
Like Sa’ar, Shaked pledged to revise the Basic Law on human dignity,thus cutting off the High Court’s jurisdiction on the matter.
The petitioners of the issue — the Association of Civil Rights in Israel,the Hotline for Refugees and Migrants, Assaf – Aid Organization forRefugees and Asylum Seekers in Israel, Kav LaOved, Physicians for
Human RightsIsrael and Amnesty InternationalIsrael — hailed thedecision and called on the government to reform the existing
infrastructure and health services in the areas where the asylum-
seekers live, and encourage the hiring of migrants.
“The Court made it clear today, once more, in a categorical andunequivocal manner, that the policy toward asylum-seekers cannot be
solely based on mass detention of innocent people or complete
disregard of the issue,” the NGOs said in a joint statement.
A protest against the High Court ruling was scheduled for 9 p.m. in Tel
Aviv.
A statement from the Israeli Immigration Policy Center maintained the
decision “put an end to the hopes of the residents of south Tel Aviv, andto any process of removing the infiltrators.”
It called on the government to “act quickly to forge an alternative to thelaw, which will reach its legal objectives: the removal of the labor
infiltrators while assisting and evaluating the requests of the asylum
seekers, a minority within the infiltrators, who are eligible.”
The infiltrator law, approved by the Knesset in December 2013, was the
latest in a series of measures aimed at cracking down on Africans
entering the country illegally, which Israel says poses a threat to the
state’s Jewish character.
Last year, Israel launched a crackdown on what it said were 60,000
illegal African immigrants, rounding up and deporting 3,920 by the end of
the year, and building a hi-tech fence along the border with Egypt.
Human rights groups as well as the migrants themselves have staged
several large protests, opposing the Israeli policy to hold migrants for up
to a year in the Holot facility and protesting the conditions of the migrants
there. In January, tens of thousands of migrants and activists marched in
Tel Aviv for several days to protest the government policy.
Holot, which opened last year as a facility to hold the migrants pending
their deportation, houses 2,400 people. Migrants are sent there by order
of the Interior Ministry.
AFP contributed to this report.
TweetTweet 72 5
READ MORE ON: African migrants, Ayelet Shaked, Holot, Gideon Sa'ar, Interior Ministry, Uri Ariel, Eritrea, Sudan,
High Court of Justice
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David Jackson · Top Commenter · University of British Columbia
Progressive Israel is speaking! A healthy democracy respects human rights.
Reply · Like · · 6 hours ago1
Gail Garsia · Top Commenter · Petah Tiqwa, Hamerkaz, Israel
no, it doesnt. they'll still be locked up in a closed prison without a trial for two months.
Reply · Like · 4 hours ago
Delia Lina Huss · Top Commenter · Paris, France
"healthy democracy." Love your weasel words. A healthy democracy doesn't degrade itssociety by opening it up to those from the most uncivilized peoples on the planet. Takea look at Sweden and tell me that the Swedish people have some how benefited fromtheir becoming the world's toilet.
Reply · Like · · 2 hours ago1
Finally Free · Top Commenter · Works at Underground in New Class Central
Apparently the judges were moved by the plight of Israel's construction and restaurant industries,which cannot face having to work without sources of cheap foreign labor... ;)
Reply · Like · · 9 hours ago3
Finally Free · Top Commenter · Works at Underground in New Class Central
Kritarchy = "rule by judges".
Reply · Like · 10 hours ago
Jennifer Boral · Top Commenter · Razorfish
Europe, Australia,and every other country doesn't want these fake refugees either, but only Israelgets shit about it. The country the size of a pea.
Reply · Like · · 13 hours ago
View 2 more
4
Daniel L. Remler · Top Commenter · UC Berkeley
you are completely correct jennifer. israel is so small. people judge it as if it were theusa. see my comments all the way at the bottom...
Reply · Like · 13 hours ago
Jennifer Boral · Top Commenter · Razorfish
Daniel L. Remler Yes, Israel is what..the size of NJ? LOL. Australia even put's them ona separate Island, and Australia is an enormous country that could host them all.
Reply · Like · 12 hours ago
Jj Kingsley · Top Commenter · IIT Chennai
There is nothing wrong in being an economic refugee or being an immigrant lookingfor a better life. All living beings migrate. Let us just get out of the way. How smartly cancountries do to make the countries and the immigrants better is worth thinking aboutwithout getting any emotional crap in the way. In US talking all day about legalimmigration, the folks forget there is literally no legal way for someone who can dosimple hard labor (for whom there is heavy demand in US) to apply and get visa underany legal system. As a result folks who come here to do such work are labelled asillegal. There is a void in the law. One can fill the void with a humanitarian perspectiveor on a labor need view point. But to simply ignore it based on hate, fear etc is likeshooting ones own foot. If done right there is no need for all the Americans to bestruggling to get their chores done etc. the problem is the past, and unfounded worryabout the future. Folks should look and interact with humans as humans. Not to useterms like slaves etc like cavemen going backwards.
Reply · Like · · 12 hours ago2
Ben Afra · Top Commenter
I think Israel should act as a facilitator and move these refugees to a safe third country like whatTurkey is doing right now
Reply · Like · 14 hours ago
Jennifer Boral · Top Commenter · Razorfish
They are trying, even offering $ to those willing to go to another country.
Reply · Like · · 13 hours ago2
Jim Newsham · Top Commenter · St Cuthbert's Society, Durham
Incredible -only in Israel could the Interior Minister get away with stating that he was going toignore the ruling of the High Court and bring about legislation to ensure that the High Court did nothave a say in the matter! Even more frightening: most people on here agree with the Minister! Iknow that Times of Israel is right-wing but the Minister, the majority of the Knesset & many of thepeople on here are not just fascist -they are truly Hitleresque! What has happened to Israel?Where is your humanity? Are you just a brutal state with brutal poliicies determined to destroyanyone who stands in your way. You are not living! You are wandering around in a wildernessdevoid of any human feelings for your fellow human beings. You are so, so lost!
Reply · Like · 15 hours ago
View 10 more
Avrahom Rothenberg · Top Commenter · Brooklyn College
You just called the majority of Israelis "Hitleresque", why do you think I read yourstatement to the end?
Reply · Like · · 14 hours ago1
Jj Kingsley · Top Commenter · IIT Chennai
Abraham Rothenberg is it not true that any syndrome like Stockholm and others thathappens by oppression and suppression would last only through that generation andnot go to the next via genes? May be that theory is wrong. In the case of Israel it seemsto be taught and transferred (the fear of being considered equal to others) throughgenerations as well leading to the phobias,
Reply · Like · · 14 hours ago1
jeffrey.marlowe (signed in using yahoo)
You have the temerity to come on to the site of a foreign country with which you have noconnection and lecture ,insult and pontificate to us. You might throw your weight aroundin the bars of Durham ,but it don't cut it here . You are an offensive little creep with toomuch time on your hands living off Mummy and Daddy or the state.Now slink back intoyour bedsit and advise the Russians ,Chinese ,Muslims see if they listen to you. Whenyou grow up you may understand .how stupid you are.
Reply · Like · · 13 hours ago3
Rusty L Shelton
Well, it looks like the U.S. and Israel have something in common: liberals want to DESTROY bothcountries. And after that, well... just 'hope for the best'.
Reply · Like · · 16 hours ago1
Jj Kingsley · Top Commenter · IIT Chennai
Actually, it is the conservative hate mongers that are ruining US and they seem to gethate training from Israel and by the Jewish radio talk show hosts in US like Mark Levin,savage, Larson, etc who are trying to push the US backward by 100 years through hateand fear.
Reply · Like · 15 hours ago
Finally Free · Top Commenter · Works at Underground in New Class Central
Jj Kingsley OK, I get the idea. Clearly you understand b*gger all about either the USA orIsrael (except for self-serving propaganda from those countries's New Classes) yet feelfree to lecture us. (Hits mute button.)
Reply · Like · 9 hours ago
brenrod· Top Commenter (signed in using yahoo)
looks like the high court is just a leftist front
Reply · Like · 16 hours ago
Annex the west bank· Top Commenter (signed in using Hotmail)
Activist leftist courts will do thing's like this because they can, Its simply a game of who has thebiggest stick.
The Knesset simply needs to specify that the illegal immigrants do not have the protection of thecourt as they are not citizen's and are in the country illegally.
Israel is again doing Europes dirty work for it as many of these illegal's are in long term transit toEurope any way.
As usual Israel gets not compensation for being Europe's free border guard only castigation.
Israel should play they game a different way and simply "Help" the illegals move on to Lebanonand Cyprus the next stepping stones in the journey to the EU.
Reply · Like · · 16 hours ago1
alotatanks (signed in using AOL)
Bottom Line. These lying African dogs have to go back to where they came from.
Reply · Like · 16 hours ago
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Home > Israel Inside
In dramatic ruling, High Courtrejects Israel’s policies on illegalmigrantsInterior minister says he ‘can’t accept’ decision which overturns state’shandling of African migrants, since ‘it would mean the end of Israel asa Jewish, democratic state’
BY MARISSA NEWMAN September 22, 2014, 9:18 pm 83
TweetTweet 72 5 Email Print Share
African migrants protest outside Holot detention center in southern Israel. February 17, 2014. (photo credit:
FLASH90)
WRITERS
Marissa Newman
Marissa Newman is a
breaking news editor at The
Times of Israel.
Follow or contact:
^ RSS
NEWSROOM
m Email the Newsroom
G Facebook
t Twitter
RELATEDTOPICS
AFRICAN MIGRANTS
AYELET SHAKED
HOLOT
I
Taking Statindrugs?
Research Study enrollingParticipants. Learn more here.
Minister of Interior Gideon Sa’ar holds a pressconference on September 17, 2014, announcing he will
resign from both the cabinet and the Knesset after the
Jewish holidays. (photo credit: Flash90)
Like us on Facebook Get our newsletter Follow us on Twitter
n a landmark ruling, the High Court of Justice knocked down the
Knesset’s “infiltrator law” on Monday, declared that the practice ofholding African migrants in facilities in southern Israel for up to a
year was illegal, and ordered the state to shutter the contested Holot
center within 90 days.
Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition by email
and never miss our top stories FREE SIGN UP!
Interior Minister Gideon Sa’ar said he could “not accept the verdict of theHigh Court,” which, if implemented, would mean “we won’t have aJewish democratic state because our borders will be overrun… withillegal infiltrators.” He said the court had “made a mistake” and that theKnesset would now have to pass legislation preventing the High Court
from intervening on the issue.
The dramatic decision
was also
bitterly opposed by
several right-wing
Knesset members,
who maintained that
the infiltrator law had
been critical in
preventing further vast
numbers of migrants
entering Israel from
countries such as as
Ethiopia, Eritrea and
Sudan, and said the
judiciary was tying the hands of the Knesset.
A special panel of nine High Court justices voted on the two measures,
with the appeal to limit the detention of migrants receiving a 6-3 majority,
while the decision to close Holot was approved by seven of the nine
justices.
The decision to annul the “infiltrator law” reinstated the earlier illegalmigrant legislation, under which migrants can be held for up to 60 days.
The court decision adopted the position of human rights groups and shot
down an appeal submitted on behalf of the residents of southern Tel
Aviv, where many migrants live and where veteran residents claim they
fear for their safety. The court maintained that the extended detention of
migrants was a violation of their rights.
“Infiltrators do not lose their right to their full dignity in coming to thiscountry by any means necessary,” the decision read. “They do not shedtheir [right to] dignity when they enter custody or the holding facilities, and
their right to dignity fully stands even if their arrival to the country was
through illegal immigration.”
Likud minister Sa’ar, in a Channel 2 interview, countered that “Israelishave rights, too,” and claimed that the court decision, if implemented,would dramatically change the basic nature of Israel. “The state cannotaccept a situation where it has no tools to deal with illegal infiltrators.”
The state has argued that most of tens of thousands of migrants already
in Israel, and hundreds of thousands potentially poised to come, are
looking for economic benefits, rights groups contend that the migrants
are actually asylum-seekers. The court decision stated that while
economic incentives may have played a role in their decision to come to
Israel, the significant dangers posed to their well-being in their home
countries — including Eritrea and Sudan — could not be ignored.
African migrants gather during a protest in Levinsky Park in Tel Aviv on January 07,
2014. (photo credit: Gideon Markowicz/Flash90)
The decision also noted that as of June 30, 2014, there were 48,212
migrants in Israel, but that the steady flow had dropped significantly in
2013.
In response, Sa’ar, who is set to leave the government and take a breakfrom politics in October, proposed a government amendment to the
constitutional Basic Law on human dignity which would anchor the issue
in Israeli law and would make it untouchable by the High Court. The
Interior Ministry said it would evaluate all the legal possibilities to
outflank Monday’s ruling.
The interior minister
noted that since the
infiltration law was
passed by the Knesset
in 2013, allowing the
prolonged detention of
migrants, the number
of migrants leaving the
country had tripled –underlining the
effectiveness of the
law.
Sa’ar phoned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to inform him of thedecision as soon as the court issued it, and called for an emergency
discussion on the subject.
Housing Minister Uri Ariel, of the Orthodox-nationalist Jewish Home
party, said the High Court “broke a new record today on turning its backon the state of Israel.”
“It’s hard to believe the High Court would harm Israel’s ability to protectitself from the phenomenon of infiltration,” Uriel said. “What use is theborder fence when every infiltrator knows that the High Court is tying the
hands of the state, and it won’t be able to do anything.”
“This is a dark day for the rule of law in Israel,” he added.
Fellow Jewish Home MK Ayelet Shaked, who heads the Knesset caucus
on migrants, declared: “Today the lives of hundreds of thousands ofIsraelis were destroyed.”
“The High Court [effectively] called on all the citizens of Africa to come toIsrael. It harmed the security of the state, and the security of the
residents of southern Tel Aviv, and trampled on the legislative branch.”
Like Sa’ar, Shaked pledged to revise the Basic Law on human dignity,thus cutting off the High Court’s jurisdiction on the matter.
The petitioners of the issue — the Association of Civil Rights in Israel,the Hotline for Refugees and Migrants, Assaf – Aid Organization forRefugees and Asylum Seekers in Israel, Kav LaOved, Physicians for
Human RightsIsrael and Amnesty InternationalIsrael — hailed thedecision and called on the government to reform the existing
infrastructure and health services in the areas where the asylum-
seekers live, and encourage the hiring of migrants.
“The Court made it clear today, once more, in a categorical andunequivocal manner, that the policy toward asylum-seekers cannot be
solely based on mass detention of innocent people or complete
disregard of the issue,” the NGOs said in a joint statement.
A protest against the High Court ruling was scheduled for 9 p.m. in Tel
Aviv.
A statement from the Israeli Immigration Policy Center maintained the
decision “put an end to the hopes of the residents of south Tel Aviv, andto any process of removing the infiltrators.”
It called on the government to “act quickly to forge an alternative to thelaw, which will reach its legal objectives: the removal of the labor
infiltrators while assisting and evaluating the requests of the asylum
seekers, a minority within the infiltrators, who are eligible.”
The infiltrator law, approved by the Knesset in December 2013, was the
latest in a series of measures aimed at cracking down on Africans
entering the country illegally, which Israel says poses a threat to the
state’s Jewish character.
Last year, Israel launched a crackdown on what it said were 60,000
illegal African immigrants, rounding up and deporting 3,920 by the end of
the year, and building a hi-tech fence along the border with Egypt.
Human rights groups as well as the migrants themselves have staged
several large protests, opposing the Israeli policy to hold migrants for up
to a year in the Holot facility and protesting the conditions of the migrants
there. In January, tens of thousands of migrants and activists marched in
Tel Aviv for several days to protest the government policy.
Holot, which opened last year as a facility to hold the migrants pending
their deportation, houses 2,400 people. Migrants are sent there by order
of the Interior Ministry.
AFP contributed to this report.
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READ MORE ON: African migrants, Ayelet Shaked, Holot, Gideon Sa'ar, Interior Ministry, Uri Ariel, Eritrea, Sudan,
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David Jackson · Top Commenter · University of British Columbia
Progressive Israel is speaking! A healthy democracy respects human rights.
Reply · Like · · 6 hours ago1
Gail Garsia · Top Commenter · Petah Tiqwa, Hamerkaz, Israel
no, it doesnt. they'll still be locked up in a closed prison without a trial for two months.
Reply · Like · 4 hours ago
Delia Lina Huss · Top Commenter · Paris, France
"healthy democracy." Love your weasel words. A healthy democracy doesn't degrade itssociety by opening it up to those from the most uncivilized peoples on the planet. Takea look at Sweden and tell me that the Swedish people have some how benefited fromtheir becoming the world's toilet.
Reply · Like · · 2 hours ago1
Finally Free · Top Commenter · Works at Underground in New Class Central
Apparently the judges were moved by the plight of Israel's construction and restaurant industries,which cannot face having to work without sources of cheap foreign labor... ;)
Reply · Like · · 9 hours ago3
Finally Free · Top Commenter · Works at Underground in New Class Central
Kritarchy = "rule by judges".
Reply · Like · 10 hours ago
Jennifer Boral · Top Commenter · Razorfish
Europe, Australia,and every other country doesn't want these fake refugees either, but only Israelgets shit about it. The country the size of a pea.
Reply · Like · · 13 hours ago
View 2 more
4
Daniel L. Remler · Top Commenter · UC Berkeley
you are completely correct jennifer. israel is so small. people judge it as if it were theusa. see my comments all the way at the bottom...
Reply · Like · 13 hours ago
Jennifer Boral · Top Commenter · Razorfish
Daniel L. Remler Yes, Israel is what..the size of NJ? LOL. Australia even put's them ona separate Island, and Australia is an enormous country that could host them all.
Reply · Like · 12 hours ago
Jj Kingsley · Top Commenter · IIT Chennai
There is nothing wrong in being an economic refugee or being an immigrant lookingfor a better life. All living beings migrate. Let us just get out of the way. How smartly cancountries do to make the countries and the immigrants better is worth thinking aboutwithout getting any emotional crap in the way. In US talking all day about legalimmigration, the folks forget there is literally no legal way for someone who can dosimple hard labor (for whom there is heavy demand in US) to apply and get visa underany legal system. As a result folks who come here to do such work are labelled asillegal. There is a void in the law. One can fill the void with a humanitarian perspectiveor on a labor need view point. But to simply ignore it based on hate, fear etc is likeshooting ones own foot. If done right there is no need for all the Americans to bestruggling to get their chores done etc. the problem is the past, and unfounded worryabout the future. Folks should look and interact with humans as humans. Not to useterms like slaves etc like cavemen going backwards.
Reply · Like · · 12 hours ago2
Ben Afra · Top Commenter
I think Israel should act as a facilitator and move these refugees to a safe third country like whatTurkey is doing right now
Reply · Like · 14 hours ago
Jennifer Boral · Top Commenter · Razorfish
They are trying, even offering $ to those willing to go to another country.
Reply · Like · · 13 hours ago2
Jim Newsham · Top Commenter · St Cuthbert's Society, Durham
Incredible -only in Israel could the Interior Minister get away with stating that he was going toignore the ruling of the High Court and bring about legislation to ensure that the High Court did nothave a say in the matter! Even more frightening: most people on here agree with the Minister! Iknow that Times of Israel is right-wing but the Minister, the majority of the Knesset & many of thepeople on here are not just fascist -they are truly Hitleresque! What has happened to Israel?Where is your humanity? Are you just a brutal state with brutal poliicies determined to destroyanyone who stands in your way. You are not living! You are wandering around in a wildernessdevoid of any human feelings for your fellow human beings. You are so, so lost!
Reply · Like · 15 hours ago
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Avrahom Rothenberg · Top Commenter · Brooklyn College
You just called the majority of Israelis "Hitleresque", why do you think I read yourstatement to the end?
Reply · Like · · 14 hours ago1
Jj Kingsley · Top Commenter · IIT Chennai
Abraham Rothenberg is it not true that any syndrome like Stockholm and others thathappens by oppression and suppression would last only through that generation andnot go to the next via genes? May be that theory is wrong. In the case of Israel it seemsto be taught and transferred (the fear of being considered equal to others) throughgenerations as well leading to the phobias,
Reply · Like · · 14 hours ago1
jeffrey.marlowe (signed in using yahoo)
You have the temerity to come on to the site of a foreign country with which you have noconnection and lecture ,insult and pontificate to us. You might throw your weight aroundin the bars of Durham ,but it don't cut it here . You are an offensive little creep with toomuch time on your hands living off Mummy and Daddy or the state.Now slink back intoyour bedsit and advise the Russians ,Chinese ,Muslims see if they listen to you. Whenyou grow up you may understand .how stupid you are.
Reply · Like · · 13 hours ago3
Rusty L Shelton
Well, it looks like the U.S. and Israel have something in common: liberals want to DESTROY bothcountries. And after that, well... just 'hope for the best'.
Reply · Like · · 16 hours ago1
Jj Kingsley · Top Commenter · IIT Chennai
Actually, it is the conservative hate mongers that are ruining US and they seem to gethate training from Israel and by the Jewish radio talk show hosts in US like Mark Levin,savage, Larson, etc who are trying to push the US backward by 100 years through hateand fear.
Reply · Like · 15 hours ago
Finally Free · Top Commenter · Works at Underground in New Class Central
Jj Kingsley OK, I get the idea. Clearly you understand b*gger all about either the USA orIsrael (except for self-serving propaganda from those countries's New Classes) yet feelfree to lecture us. (Hits mute button.)
Reply · Like · 9 hours ago
brenrod· Top Commenter (signed in using yahoo)
looks like the high court is just a leftist front
Reply · Like · 16 hours ago
Annex the west bank· Top Commenter (signed in using Hotmail)
Activist leftist courts will do thing's like this because they can, Its simply a game of who has thebiggest stick.
The Knesset simply needs to specify that the illegal immigrants do not have the protection of thecourt as they are not citizen's and are in the country illegally.
Israel is again doing Europes dirty work for it as many of these illegal's are in long term transit toEurope any way.
As usual Israel gets not compensation for being Europe's free border guard only castigation.
Israel should play they game a different way and simply "Help" the illegals move on to Lebanonand Cyprus the next stepping stones in the journey to the EU.
Reply · Like · · 16 hours ago1
alotatanks (signed in using AOL)
Bottom Line. These lying African dogs have to go back to where they came from.
Reply · Like · 16 hours ago
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In dramatic ruling, High Courtrejects Israel’s policies on illegalmigrantsInterior minister says he ‘can’t accept’ decision which overturns state’shandling of African migrants, since ‘it would mean the end of Israel asa Jewish, democratic state’
BY MARISSA NEWMAN September 22, 2014, 9:18 pm 83
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African migrants protest outside Holot detention center in southern Israel. February 17, 2014. (photo credit:
FLASH90)
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Minister of Interior Gideon Sa’ar holds a pressconference on September 17, 2014, announcing he will
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n a landmark ruling, the High Court of Justice knocked down the
Knesset’s “infiltrator law” on Monday, declared that the practice ofholding African migrants in facilities in southern Israel for up to a
year was illegal, and ordered the state to shutter the contested Holot
center within 90 days.
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Interior Minister Gideon Sa’ar said he could “not accept the verdict of theHigh Court,” which, if implemented, would mean “we won’t have aJewish democratic state because our borders will be overrun… withillegal infiltrators.” He said the court had “made a mistake” and that theKnesset would now have to pass legislation preventing the High Court
from intervening on the issue.
The dramatic decision
was also
bitterly opposed by
several right-wing
Knesset members,
who maintained that
the infiltrator law had
been critical in
preventing further vast
numbers of migrants
entering Israel from
countries such as as
Ethiopia, Eritrea and
Sudan, and said the
judiciary was tying the hands of the Knesset.
A special panel of nine High Court justices voted on the two measures,
with the appeal to limit the detention of migrants receiving a 6-3 majority,
while the decision to close Holot was approved by seven of the nine
justices.
The decision to annul the “infiltrator law” reinstated the earlier illegalmigrant legislation, under which migrants can be held for up to 60 days.
The court decision adopted the position of human rights groups and shot
down an appeal submitted on behalf of the residents of southern Tel
Aviv, where many migrants live and where veteran residents claim they
fear for their safety. The court maintained that the extended detention of
migrants was a violation of their rights.
“Infiltrators do not lose their right to their full dignity in coming to thiscountry by any means necessary,” the decision read. “They do not shedtheir [right to] dignity when they enter custody or the holding facilities, and
their right to dignity fully stands even if their arrival to the country was
through illegal immigration.”
Likud minister Sa’ar, in a Channel 2 interview, countered that “Israelishave rights, too,” and claimed that the court decision, if implemented,would dramatically change the basic nature of Israel. “The state cannotaccept a situation where it has no tools to deal with illegal infiltrators.”
The state has argued that most of tens of thousands of migrants already
in Israel, and hundreds of thousands potentially poised to come, are
looking for economic benefits, rights groups contend that the migrants
are actually asylum-seekers. The court decision stated that while
economic incentives may have played a role in their decision to come to
Israel, the significant dangers posed to their well-being in their home
countries — including Eritrea and Sudan — could not be ignored.
African migrants gather during a protest in Levinsky Park in Tel Aviv on January 07,
2014. (photo credit: Gideon Markowicz/Flash90)
The decision also noted that as of June 30, 2014, there were 48,212
migrants in Israel, but that the steady flow had dropped significantly in
2013.
In response, Sa’ar, who is set to leave the government and take a breakfrom politics in October, proposed a government amendment to the
constitutional Basic Law on human dignity which would anchor the issue
in Israeli law and would make it untouchable by the High Court. The
Interior Ministry said it would evaluate all the legal possibilities to
outflank Monday’s ruling.
The interior minister
noted that since the
infiltration law was
passed by the Knesset
in 2013, allowing the
prolonged detention of
migrants, the number
of migrants leaving the
country had tripled –underlining the
effectiveness of the
law.
Sa’ar phoned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to inform him of thedecision as soon as the court issued it, and called for an emergency
discussion on the subject.
Housing Minister Uri Ariel, of the Orthodox-nationalist Jewish Home
party, said the High Court “broke a new record today on turning its backon the state of Israel.”
“It’s hard to believe the High Court would harm Israel’s ability to protectitself from the phenomenon of infiltration,” Uriel said. “What use is theborder fence when every infiltrator knows that the High Court is tying the
hands of the state, and it won’t be able to do anything.”
“This is a dark day for the rule of law in Israel,” he added.
Fellow Jewish Home MK Ayelet Shaked, who heads the Knesset caucus
on migrants, declared: “Today the lives of hundreds of thousands ofIsraelis were destroyed.”
“The High Court [effectively] called on all the citizens of Africa to come toIsrael. It harmed the security of the state, and the security of the
residents of southern Tel Aviv, and trampled on the legislative branch.”
Like Sa’ar, Shaked pledged to revise the Basic Law on human dignity,thus cutting off the High Court’s jurisdiction on the matter.
The petitioners of the issue — the Association of Civil Rights in Israel,the Hotline for Refugees and Migrants, Assaf – Aid Organization forRefugees and Asylum Seekers in Israel, Kav LaOved, Physicians for
Human RightsIsrael and Amnesty InternationalIsrael — hailed thedecision and called on the government to reform the existing
infrastructure and health services in the areas where the asylum-
seekers live, and encourage the hiring of migrants.
“The Court made it clear today, once more, in a categorical andunequivocal manner, that the policy toward asylum-seekers cannot be
solely based on mass detention of innocent people or complete
disregard of the issue,” the NGOs said in a joint statement.
A protest against the High Court ruling was scheduled for 9 p.m. in Tel
Aviv.
A statement from the Israeli Immigration Policy Center maintained the
decision “put an end to the hopes of the residents of south Tel Aviv, andto any process of removing the infiltrators.”
It called on the government to “act quickly to forge an alternative to thelaw, which will reach its legal objectives: the removal of the labor
infiltrators while assisting and evaluating the requests of the asylum
seekers, a minority within the infiltrators, who are eligible.”
The infiltrator law, approved by the Knesset in December 2013, was the
latest in a series of measures aimed at cracking down on Africans
entering the country illegally, which Israel says poses a threat to the
state’s Jewish character.
Last year, Israel launched a crackdown on what it said were 60,000
illegal African immigrants, rounding up and deporting 3,920 by the end of
the year, and building a hi-tech fence along the border with Egypt.
Human rights groups as well as the migrants themselves have staged
several large protests, opposing the Israeli policy to hold migrants for up
to a year in the Holot facility and protesting the conditions of the migrants
there. In January, tens of thousands of migrants and activists marched in
Tel Aviv for several days to protest the government policy.
Holot, which opened last year as a facility to hold the migrants pending
their deportation, houses 2,400 people. Migrants are sent there by order
of the Interior Ministry.
AFP contributed to this report.
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READ MORE ON: African migrants, Ayelet Shaked, Holot, Gideon Sa'ar, Interior Ministry, Uri Ariel, Eritrea, Sudan,
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MOSTREAD TALKED SHARED
PAST 24 HOURS PAST WEEK PAST MONTH
1 The Mossad wants you!BY DEBRA KAMIN 41
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3 What’s next for Shimon Peres?BY RENEE GHERT-ZAND 4
4 Reservists called up for next Hamasfrontline — US campusesBY AMANDA BORSCHEL-DAN 20
5 IDF shoots down Syrian fighter planeover GolanBY SPENCER HO AND ILAN BEN ZION 25
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David Jackson · Top Commenter · University of British Columbia
Progressive Israel is speaking! A healthy democracy respects human rights.
Reply · Like · · 6 hours ago1
Gail Garsia · Top Commenter · Petah Tiqwa, Hamerkaz, Israel
no, it doesnt. they'll still be locked up in a closed prison without a trial for two months.
Reply · Like · 4 hours ago
Delia Lina Huss · Top Commenter · Paris, France
"healthy democracy." Love your weasel words. A healthy democracy doesn't degrade itssociety by opening it up to those from the most uncivilized peoples on the planet. Takea look at Sweden and tell me that the Swedish people have some how benefited fromtheir becoming the world's toilet.
Reply · Like · · 2 hours ago1
Finally Free · Top Commenter · Works at Underground in New Class Central
Apparently the judges were moved by the plight of Israel's construction and restaurant industries,which cannot face having to work without sources of cheap foreign labor... ;)
Reply · Like · · 9 hours ago3
Finally Free · Top Commenter · Works at Underground in New Class Central
Kritarchy = "rule by judges".
Reply · Like · 10 hours ago
Jennifer Boral · Top Commenter · Razorfish
Europe, Australia,and every other country doesn't want these fake refugees either, but only Israelgets shit about it. The country the size of a pea.
Reply · Like · · 13 hours ago
View 2 more
4
Daniel L. Remler · Top Commenter · UC Berkeley
you are completely correct jennifer. israel is so small. people judge it as if it were theusa. see my comments all the way at the bottom...
Reply · Like · 13 hours ago
Jennifer Boral · Top Commenter · Razorfish
Daniel L. Remler Yes, Israel is what..the size of NJ? LOL. Australia even put's them ona separate Island, and Australia is an enormous country that could host them all.
Reply · Like · 12 hours ago
Jj Kingsley · Top Commenter · IIT Chennai
There is nothing wrong in being an economic refugee or being an immigrant lookingfor a better life. All living beings migrate. Let us just get out of the way. How smartly cancountries do to make the countries and the immigrants better is worth thinking aboutwithout getting any emotional crap in the way. In US talking all day about legalimmigration, the folks forget there is literally no legal way for someone who can dosimple hard labor (for whom there is heavy demand in US) to apply and get visa underany legal system. As a result folks who come here to do such work are labelled asillegal. There is a void in the law. One can fill the void with a humanitarian perspectiveor on a labor need view point. But to simply ignore it based on hate, fear etc is likeshooting ones own foot. If done right there is no need for all the Americans to bestruggling to get their chores done etc. the problem is the past, and unfounded worryabout the future. Folks should look and interact with humans as humans. Not to useterms like slaves etc like cavemen going backwards.
Reply · Like · · 12 hours ago2
Ben Afra · Top Commenter
I think Israel should act as a facilitator and move these refugees to a safe third country like whatTurkey is doing right now
Reply · Like · 14 hours ago
Jennifer Boral · Top Commenter · Razorfish
They are trying, even offering $ to those willing to go to another country.
Reply · Like · · 13 hours ago2
Jim Newsham · Top Commenter · St Cuthbert's Society, Durham
Incredible -only in Israel could the Interior Minister get away with stating that he was going toignore the ruling of the High Court and bring about legislation to ensure that the High Court did nothave a say in the matter! Even more frightening: most people on here agree with the Minister! Iknow that Times of Israel is right-wing but the Minister, the majority of the Knesset & many of thepeople on here are not just fascist -they are truly Hitleresque! What has happened to Israel?Where is your humanity? Are you just a brutal state with brutal poliicies determined to destroyanyone who stands in your way. You are not living! You are wandering around in a wildernessdevoid of any human feelings for your fellow human beings. You are so, so lost!
Reply · Like · 15 hours ago
View 10 more
Avrahom Rothenberg · Top Commenter · Brooklyn College
You just called the majority of Israelis "Hitleresque", why do you think I read yourstatement to the end?
Reply · Like · · 14 hours ago1
Jj Kingsley · Top Commenter · IIT Chennai
Abraham Rothenberg is it not true that any syndrome like Stockholm and others thathappens by oppression and suppression would last only through that generation andnot go to the next via genes? May be that theory is wrong. In the case of Israel it seemsto be taught and transferred (the fear of being considered equal to others) throughgenerations as well leading to the phobias,
Reply · Like · · 14 hours ago1
jeffrey.marlowe (signed in using yahoo)
You have the temerity to come on to the site of a foreign country with which you have noconnection and lecture ,insult and pontificate to us. You might throw your weight aroundin the bars of Durham ,but it don't cut it here . You are an offensive little creep with toomuch time on your hands living off Mummy and Daddy or the state.Now slink back intoyour bedsit and advise the Russians ,Chinese ,Muslims see if they listen to you. Whenyou grow up you may understand .how stupid you are.
Reply · Like · · 13 hours ago3
Rusty L Shelton
Well, it looks like the U.S. and Israel have something in common: liberals want to DESTROY bothcountries. And after that, well... just 'hope for the best'.
Reply · Like · · 16 hours ago1
Jj Kingsley · Top Commenter · IIT Chennai
Actually, it is the conservative hate mongers that are ruining US and they seem to gethate training from Israel and by the Jewish radio talk show hosts in US like Mark Levin,savage, Larson, etc who are trying to push the US backward by 100 years through hateand fear.
Reply · Like · 15 hours ago
Finally Free · Top Commenter · Works at Underground in New Class Central
Jj Kingsley OK, I get the idea. Clearly you understand b*gger all about either the USA orIsrael (except for self-serving propaganda from those countries's New Classes) yet feelfree to lecture us. (Hits mute button.)
Reply · Like · 9 hours ago
brenrod· Top Commenter (signed in using yahoo)
looks like the high court is just a leftist front
Reply · Like · 16 hours ago
Annex the west bank· Top Commenter (signed in using Hotmail)
Activist leftist courts will do thing's like this because they can, Its simply a game of who has thebiggest stick.
The Knesset simply needs to specify that the illegal immigrants do not have the protection of thecourt as they are not citizen's and are in the country illegally.
Israel is again doing Europes dirty work for it as many of these illegal's are in long term transit toEurope any way.
As usual Israel gets not compensation for being Europe's free border guard only castigation.
Israel should play they game a different way and simply "Help" the illegals move on to Lebanonand Cyprus the next stepping stones in the journey to the EU.
Reply · Like · · 16 hours ago1
alotatanks (signed in using AOL)
Bottom Line. These lying African dogs have to go back to where they came from.
Reply · Like · 16 hours ago
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In dramatic ruling, High Courtrejects Israel’s policies on illegalmigrantsInterior minister says he ‘can’t accept’ decision which overturns state’shandling of African migrants, since ‘it would mean the end of Israel asa Jewish, democratic state’
BY MARISSA NEWMAN September 22, 2014, 9:18 pm 83
TweetTweet 72 5 Email Print Share
African migrants protest outside Holot detention center in southern Israel. February 17, 2014. (photo credit:
FLASH90)
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Marissa Newman
Marissa Newman is a
breaking news editor at The
Times of Israel.
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AFRICAN MIGRANTS
AYELET SHAKED
HOLOT
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Research Study enrollingParticipants. Learn more here.
Minister of Interior Gideon Sa’ar holds a pressconference on September 17, 2014, announcing he will
resign from both the cabinet and the Knesset after the
Jewish holidays. (photo credit: Flash90)
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n a landmark ruling, the High Court of Justice knocked down the
Knesset’s “infiltrator law” on Monday, declared that the practice ofholding African migrants in facilities in southern Israel for up to a
year was illegal, and ordered the state to shutter the contested Holot
center within 90 days.
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Interior Minister Gideon Sa’ar said he could “not accept the verdict of theHigh Court,” which, if implemented, would mean “we won’t have aJewish democratic state because our borders will be overrun… withillegal infiltrators.” He said the court had “made a mistake” and that theKnesset would now have to pass legislation preventing the High Court
from intervening on the issue.
The dramatic decision
was also
bitterly opposed by
several right-wing
Knesset members,
who maintained that
the infiltrator law had
been critical in
preventing further vast
numbers of migrants
entering Israel from
countries such as as
Ethiopia, Eritrea and
Sudan, and said the
judiciary was tying the hands of the Knesset.
A special panel of nine High Court justices voted on the two measures,
with the appeal to limit the detention of migrants receiving a 6-3 majority,
while the decision to close Holot was approved by seven of the nine
justices.
The decision to annul the “infiltrator law” reinstated the earlier illegalmigrant legislation, under which migrants can be held for up to 60 days.
The court decision adopted the position of human rights groups and shot
down an appeal submitted on behalf of the residents of southern Tel
Aviv, where many migrants live and where veteran residents claim they
fear for their safety. The court maintained that the extended detention of
migrants was a violation of their rights.
“Infiltrators do not lose their right to their full dignity in coming to thiscountry by any means necessary,” the decision read. “They do not shedtheir [right to] dignity when they enter custody or the holding facilities, and
their right to dignity fully stands even if their arrival to the country was
through illegal immigration.”
Likud minister Sa’ar, in a Channel 2 interview, countered that “Israelishave rights, too,” and claimed that the court decision, if implemented,would dramatically change the basic nature of Israel. “The state cannotaccept a situation where it has no tools to deal with illegal infiltrators.”
The state has argued that most of tens of thousands of migrants already
in Israel, and hundreds of thousands potentially poised to come, are
looking for economic benefits, rights groups contend that the migrants
are actually asylum-seekers. The court decision stated that while
economic incentives may have played a role in their decision to come to
Israel, the significant dangers posed to their well-being in their home
countries — including Eritrea and Sudan — could not be ignored.
African migrants gather during a protest in Levinsky Park in Tel Aviv on January 07,
2014. (photo credit: Gideon Markowicz/Flash90)
The decision also noted that as of June 30, 2014, there were 48,212
migrants in Israel, but that the steady flow had dropped significantly in
2013.
In response, Sa’ar, who is set to leave the government and take a breakfrom politics in October, proposed a government amendment to the
constitutional Basic Law on human dignity which would anchor the issue
in Israeli law and would make it untouchable by the High Court. The
Interior Ministry said it would evaluate all the legal possibilities to
outflank Monday’s ruling.
The interior minister
noted that since the
infiltration law was
passed by the Knesset
in 2013, allowing the
prolonged detention of
migrants, the number
of migrants leaving the
country had tripled –underlining the
effectiveness of the
law.
Sa’ar phoned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to inform him of thedecision as soon as the court issued it, and called for an emergency
discussion on the subject.
Housing Minister Uri Ariel, of the Orthodox-nationalist Jewish Home
party, said the High Court “broke a new record today on turning its backon the state of Israel.”
“It’s hard to believe the High Court would harm Israel’s ability to protectitself from the phenomenon of infiltration,” Uriel said. “What use is theborder fence when every infiltrator knows that the High Court is tying the
hands of the state, and it won’t be able to do anything.”
“This is a dark day for the rule of law in Israel,” he added.
Fellow Jewish Home MK Ayelet Shaked, who heads the Knesset caucus
on migrants, declared: “Today the lives of hundreds of thousands ofIsraelis were destroyed.”
“The High Court [effectively] called on all the citizens of Africa to come toIsrael. It harmed the security of the state, and the security of the
residents of southern Tel Aviv, and trampled on the legislative branch.”
Like Sa’ar, Shaked pledged to revise the Basic Law on human dignity,thus cutting off the High Court’s jurisdiction on the matter.
The petitioners of the issue — the Association of Civil Rights in Israel,the Hotline for Refugees and Migrants, Assaf – Aid Organization forRefugees and Asylum Seekers in Israel, Kav LaOved, Physicians for
Human RightsIsrael and Amnesty InternationalIsrael — hailed thedecision and called on the government to reform the existing
infrastructure and health services in the areas where the asylum-
seekers live, and encourage the hiring of migrants.
“The Court made it clear today, once more, in a categorical andunequivocal manner, that the policy toward asylum-seekers cannot be
solely based on mass detention of innocent people or complete
disregard of the issue,” the NGOs said in a joint statement.
A protest against the High Court ruling was scheduled for 9 p.m. in Tel
Aviv.
A statement from the Israeli Immigration Policy Center maintained the
decision “put an end to the hopes of the residents of south Tel Aviv, andto any process of removing the infiltrators.”
It called on the government to “act quickly to forge an alternative to thelaw, which will reach its legal objectives: the removal of the labor
infiltrators while assisting and evaluating the requests of the asylum
seekers, a minority within the infiltrators, who are eligible.”
The infiltrator law, approved by the Knesset in December 2013, was the
latest in a series of measures aimed at cracking down on Africans
entering the country illegally, which Israel says poses a threat to the
state’s Jewish character.
Last year, Israel launched a crackdown on what it said were 60,000
illegal African immigrants, rounding up and deporting 3,920 by the end of
the year, and building a hi-tech fence along the border with Egypt.
Human rights groups as well as the migrants themselves have staged
several large protests, opposing the Israeli policy to hold migrants for up
to a year in the Holot facility and protesting the conditions of the migrants
there. In January, tens of thousands of migrants and activists marched in
Tel Aviv for several days to protest the government policy.
Holot, which opened last year as a facility to hold the migrants pending
their deportation, houses 2,400 people. Migrants are sent there by order
of the Interior Ministry.
AFP contributed to this report.
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READ MORE ON: African migrants, Ayelet Shaked, Holot, Gideon Sa'ar, Interior Ministry, Uri Ariel, Eritrea, Sudan,
High Court of Justice
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David Jackson · Top Commenter · University of British Columbia
Progressive Israel is speaking! A healthy democracy respects human rights.
Reply · Like · · 6 hours ago1
Gail Garsia · Top Commenter · Petah Tiqwa, Hamerkaz, Israel
no, it doesnt. they'll still be locked up in a closed prison without a trial for two months.
Reply · Like · 4 hours ago
Delia Lina Huss · Top Commenter · Paris, France
"healthy democracy." Love your weasel words. A healthy democracy doesn't degrade itssociety by opening it up to those from the most uncivilized peoples on the planet. Takea look at Sweden and tell me that the Swedish people have some how benefited fromtheir becoming the world's toilet.
Reply · Like · · 2 hours ago1
Finally Free · Top Commenter · Works at Underground in New Class Central
Apparently the judges were moved by the plight of Israel's construction and restaurant industries,which cannot face having to work without sources of cheap foreign labor... ;)
Reply · Like · · 9 hours ago3
Finally Free · Top Commenter · Works at Underground in New Class Central
Kritarchy = "rule by judges".
Reply · Like · 10 hours ago
Jennifer Boral · Top Commenter · Razorfish
Europe, Australia,and every other country doesn't want these fake refugees either, but only Israelgets shit about it. The country the size of a pea.
Reply · Like · · 13 hours ago
View 2 more
4
Daniel L. Remler · Top Commenter · UC Berkeley
you are completely correct jennifer. israel is so small. people judge it as if it were theusa. see my comments all the way at the bottom...
Reply · Like · 13 hours ago
Jennifer Boral · Top Commenter · Razorfish
Daniel L. Remler Yes, Israel is what..the size of NJ? LOL. Australia even put's them ona separate Island, and Australia is an enormous country that could host them all.
Reply · Like · 12 hours ago
Jj Kingsley · Top Commenter · IIT Chennai
There is nothing wrong in being an economic refugee or being an immigrant lookingfor a better life. All living beings migrate. Let us just get out of the way. How smartly cancountries do to make the countries and the immigrants better is worth thinking aboutwithout getting any emotional crap in the way. In US talking all day about legalimmigration, the folks forget there is literally no legal way for someone who can dosimple hard labor (for whom there is heavy demand in US) to apply and get visa underany legal system. As a result folks who come here to do such work are labelled asillegal. There is a void in the law. One can fill the void with a humanitarian perspectiveor on a labor need view point. But to simply ignore it based on hate, fear etc is likeshooting ones own foot. If done right there is no need for all the Americans to bestruggling to get their chores done etc. the problem is the past, and unfounded worryabout the future. Folks should look and interact with humans as humans. Not to useterms like slaves etc like cavemen going backwards.
Reply · Like · · 12 hours ago2
Ben Afra · Top Commenter
I think Israel should act as a facilitator and move these refugees to a safe third country like whatTurkey is doing right now
Reply · Like · 14 hours ago
Jennifer Boral · Top Commenter · Razorfish
They are trying, even offering $ to those willing to go to another country.
Reply · Like · · 13 hours ago2
Jim Newsham · Top Commenter · St Cuthbert's Society, Durham
Incredible -only in Israel could the Interior Minister get away with stating that he was going toignore the ruling of the High Court and bring about legislation to ensure that the High Court did nothave a say in the matter! Even more frightening: most people on here agree with the Minister! Iknow that Times of Israel is right-wing but the Minister, the majority of the Knesset & many of thepeople on here are not just fascist -they are truly Hitleresque! What has happened to Israel?Where is your humanity? Are you just a brutal state with brutal poliicies determined to destroyanyone who stands in your way. You are not living! You are wandering around in a wildernessdevoid of any human feelings for your fellow human beings. You are so, so lost!
Reply · Like · 15 hours ago
View 10 more
Avrahom Rothenberg · Top Commenter · Brooklyn College
You just called the majority of Israelis "Hitleresque", why do you think I read yourstatement to the end?
Reply · Like · · 14 hours ago1
Jj Kingsley · Top Commenter · IIT Chennai
Abraham Rothenberg is it not true that any syndrome like Stockholm and others thathappens by oppression and suppression would last only through that generation andnot go to the next via genes? May be that theory is wrong. In the case of Israel it seemsto be taught and transferred (the fear of being considered equal to others) throughgenerations as well leading to the phobias,
Reply · Like · · 14 hours ago1
jeffrey.marlowe (signed in using yahoo)
You have the temerity to come on to the site of a foreign country with which you have noconnection and lecture ,insult and pontificate to us. You might throw your weight aroundin the bars of Durham ,but it don't cut it here . You are an offensive little creep with toomuch time on your hands living off Mummy and Daddy or the state.Now slink back intoyour bedsit and advise the Russians ,Chinese ,Muslims see if they listen to you. Whenyou grow up you may understand .how stupid you are.
Reply · Like · · 13 hours ago3
Rusty L Shelton
Well, it looks like the U.S. and Israel have something in common: liberals want to DESTROY bothcountries. And after that, well... just 'hope for the best'.
Reply · Like · · 16 hours ago1
Jj Kingsley · Top Commenter · IIT Chennai
Actually, it is the conservative hate mongers that are ruining US and they seem to gethate training from Israel and by the Jewish radio talk show hosts in US like Mark Levin,savage, Larson, etc who are trying to push the US backward by 100 years through hateand fear.
Reply · Like · 15 hours ago
Finally Free · Top Commenter · Works at Underground in New Class Central
Jj Kingsley OK, I get the idea. Clearly you understand b*gger all about either the USA orIsrael (except for self-serving propaganda from those countries's New Classes) yet feelfree to lecture us. (Hits mute button.)
Reply · Like · 9 hours ago
brenrod· Top Commenter (signed in using yahoo)
looks like the high court is just a leftist front
Reply · Like · 16 hours ago
Annex the west bank· Top Commenter (signed in using Hotmail)
Activist leftist courts will do thing's like this because they can, Its simply a game of who has thebiggest stick.
The Knesset simply needs to specify that the illegal immigrants do not have the protection of thecourt as they are not citizen's and are in the country illegally.
Israel is again doing Europes dirty work for it as many of these illegal's are in long term transit toEurope any way.
As usual Israel gets not compensation for being Europe's free border guard only castigation.
Israel should play they game a different way and simply "Help" the illegals move on to Lebanonand Cyprus the next stepping stones in the journey to the EU.
Reply · Like · · 16 hours ago1
alotatanks (signed in using AOL)
Bottom Line. These lying African dogs have to go back to where they came from.
Reply · Like · 16 hours ago
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