The flip-flop of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the migrant agreement with the United Nations continues to send shock waves through Israeli politics. Perhaps in the end it will turn out that the decisions made by Netanyahu regarding illegal African immigrants — and the agreement's immediate cancellation — was actually a plan meant to advance the “notwithstanding clause,” an addition to one of the Basic Laws, which would allow the Knesset to override High Court of Justice decisions that nullify or limit laws passed by the parliament.
Netanyahu justified the agreement with the UN on April 2, according to which 16,000 of the 37,000 migrants would be absorbed in a Western country, in part by saying that the High Court had prevented the government from advancing other solutions that include prolonged incarceration and forced deportation of anyone who is not interested in leaving Israel of his own accord.
