MK Tzipi Hotovely (Likud) expressed frustration Monday over the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn a 2012 law aimed at fighting illegal entry to Israel.
“Yet again, the Supreme Court is intervening and overturning laws aimed at protecting Israel’s security and its character, due to the Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty,” she said.
“The High Court’s verdict does not bring tidings of peace and quiet to residents of south Tel Aviv,” she added, referring to attacks on Israelis living in areas with a high population of illegal aliens.
Hotovely declared, “We need to change the Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty, in order to prevent further intervention that is harmful to Israeli citizens’ security, and to legislate in the matter of immigration accordingly.”
MK Ayelet Shaked of the Bayit Yehudi (Jewish Home) faction voiced similar sentiments.
“The High Court’s decision is an outrage, because it tears down the wall protecting us from illegal entry,” she told Arutz Sheva. Shaked, of Tel Aviv, added that the decision “abandons residents of weaker neighborhoods.”
The ruling “blatantly interferes in the Knesset’s legislation,” she accused. Shaked said that she would work with MK Yariv Levin (Likud) to rewrite the law against illegal entry – and to find ways to restrict the Supreme Court’s ability to overturn legislature, as well.
The ruling Monday put an end to a 2012 law that allowed police to jail illegal entrants for up to three years pending deportation. The law was used against 1,750 illegal entrants, who were held in special detention centers in southern Israel. The court ordered that the detainees’ cases be reviewed over the next 90 days; presumably most will now be released.
Another roughly 55,000 known illegal entrants live elsewhere in Israel.