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Asylum seekers pawns in political power struggle

The Knesset and the government have a variety of ways to address the issue of African illegal immigrants short of jailing them without trial, but the right wing prefers to use them to attack the judiciary.
An African migrant walks outside the Holot open detention centre in Israel's southern Negev desert September 22, 2014. Israel's high court on Monday outlawed a detention centre where African migrants are held without trial and ordered some 2,000 inmates there released over the next three months. REUTERS/ Amir Cohen (ISRAEL - Tags: POLITICS SOCIETY IMMIGRATION) - RTR47A6X
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The Oct. 7 session of the Knesset’s Interior Affairs Committee started with a bang. The committee chairwoman, Knesset member Miri Regev, was a volcano waiting to erupt. She began with a clarification: “I am talking about labor migrants, not about the refugees. We will absorb refugees everywhere in the country — including the [upscale neighborhoods of] Rehavia and Kfar Shmaryahu, as well as the neighborhoods where the judges reside.” She then went on a personal, mocking tirade against Supreme Court Justice Uzi Fogelman, who headed the judicial panel that for the second time invalidated the anti-infiltration law. The legislation sanctioned the jailing of asylum seekers from Africa for one year at the Holot detention facility in the Negev.

“This ruling sent a message to tens of thousands of Africans: Come, cross the fence. … This is truly the land of milk and honey,” Regev said. She then turned to a resident of south Tel Aviv and asked him, “Do you have a partner? Go to Fogelman and ask him to help you find one. … All residents of south Tel Aviv, if you’re having trouble finding partners, go to the judge! The Supreme Court has become a matchmaker.” Regev was referring to one of the reasons the judges cited for rescinding the law: Prolonged internment prevents refugees from filling their lives with meaning and meeting a mate.

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