Silvan Shalom
Silvan ShalomHadas Parush/Flash 90

Interior Minister Silvan Shalom (Likud) clarified on Monday morning that illegal immigrants who are to be released from the Holot detention facility according to a Supreme Court ruling will be jailed in the Saharonim detention facility if they return to Tel Aviv or Eilat.

Two weeks ago the Supreme Court ordered the release of infiltrators held for over a year at Holot in the south, and in doing so effectively cancelled the infiltration law passed by the Knesset, marking one of many times the Supreme Court has overruled Knesset laws on the matter.

A full 1,200 infiltrators are set to be freed, but Shalom made clear they won't be allowed back in Tel Aviv or Eilat, where illegal immigrants have been present in large numbers and responsible for a serious hike in violent crime. The Tel Aviv region just recently witnessed the shocking gang rape of a Jewish woman by infiltrators.

"We are trying to remove them to a third country according to the Supreme Court ruling and the decisions of the legal system," Shalom told Army Radio. "The legal system is acting slowly, it is irritating at times, and isn't allowing us to carry out what must be done."

Shalom warned that the influx of infiltrators into Israel is growing larger due to the Supreme Court ruling.

"They see that they have the possibility of staying here because we're releasing them. The organizations are petitioning to the Supreme Court and in the end are canceling the laws."

Fury at the Supreme Court's ruling broke out into a large protest last Wednesday, during which concerned residents in southern Tel Aviv demonstrated against the way in which the unelected court is overruling laws passed by the democratically-elected Knesset.

Former MK Dr. Michael Ben-Ari, head of Otzma Yehudit and one of the leaders of the protest, told Arutz Sheva"we came to say that the victims of the infiltrators are residents of the state of Israel - south Tel Aviv, Rishon Letzion, Ashdod and everywhere. This is an occupation of the state of Israel."

Official statistics in Israel have revealed the vast majority of infiltrators - most of whom hail from Eritrea - are economic migrants and not refugees as claimed by leftist groups, in an assessment that echoes findings of other countries.