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Israel's Right Wing Embarrasses Itself Over Court Ruling

The overreaction of the Israeli right to the supreme court decision on illegal immigrants reflects its self-perception as a persecuted opposition, not as the party in power.
Children cross the street as residents of south Tel Aviv carry Israeli flags during a protest against African migrants living in their neighbourhoods May 30, 2012. Last week a similar protest held by residents of the low-income neighbourhoods where many of the border-jumpers from Eritrea, Sudan and South Sudan live led to violence, including a rampage that an Israeli broadcaster dubbed a "pogrom". Fleeing poverty, fighting and authoritarian rule, some 60, 000 Africans have crossed illegally into Israel thro
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The Israeli High Court of Justice has a not entirely justified image as an institution which often intervenes in matters that are none of its business. Not entirely justified, but not unfounded, either, as nine of its justices proved this week [Sept.16] when they ruled unanimously to overturn the amendment to the anti-infiltration bill. The Knesset passed the amendment, with the support of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in 2012. It enabled the state to jail infiltrators without trial for three years, a period which the court described as “disproportionate.”

Israel’s court system provides three accepted tests of proportionality: compatibility between the measures adopted by the authorities and their purpose; the existence of less damaging measures serving the same purpose; and, that the benefits far outweigh the damage caused by violating the rights of those affected. Of course, even when using these tests, proportionality remains a relative term.

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