Jewish Home reintroduces Supreme Court override bill to deport migrants

The Jewish Home party introduces legislation aimed at preventing the High Court of Justice from striking down plans to deport thousands of African asylum seekers.

The bill, proposed by Jewish Home Knesset faction chairwoman MK Shuli Moalem-Refaeli, seeks to amend Israel’s Basic Law so as to allow African migrants to be deported under the Prevention of Infiltration Law, overriding High Court rulings that have struck down the plan as unconstitutional.

The top legal body has blocked previous government deportation plans carried out within the framework of the so-called Infiltrators Law that have either included indefinite detention of migrants or their deportation to countries deemed unsafe.

The new bill marks a less sweeping version of the supercession clause, long advocated by the some on the Israeli right that would effectively downgrade High Court decisions on the unconstitutionality of Knesset legislation to mere recommendations.

— Raoul Wootliff