Two weeks after all the detainees in the Saharonim facility for illegal migrants had been finally released—when Uganda reneged on its deal with the Israeli government to absorb them, the state on Tuesday informed the High Court of Justice that all deportation orders to a third country have been canceled.
“At this stage, the possibility of deportation to a third country is no longer on the agenda,” the state wrote.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement Tuesday evening, “Following the refusal of third countries to accept the infiltrators under the conditions demanded by Israel, I agreed with Interior Minister Aryeh Deri to immediately prepare for the reopening of the detention facilities for infiltrators, to advance the override bill to enable us to proceed and promote additional ways to solve this problem.”
Recently, attorney Itai Mac filed a petition with the High Court of Justice for contempt of court, arguing that despite its report to the High Court that an agreement is yet to be signed with a third country, the state continued issuing deportation orders to infiltrators.
In Tuesday’s hearing, the State submitted its response, saying, “The state has stopped conducting hearings in accordance with the deportation procedure, and accordingly no additional decisions will be made at this time regarding removal to a third country.”
The state further clarified that the expulsion decisions made so far have been canceled.
“Infiltrators whose permit to stay until their date of deportation to a third country has run out, will continue to renew their permit every 60 days, as was customary prior to the application of the deportation procedure,” the state wrote, adding begrudgingly, “It should be made clear that the state will continue to act on the issue of infiltrators, including by encouraging the voluntary departure of the infiltrators, willingly or via involuntary removal, in accordance with what is permitted by law.”
The South Tel Aviv residents’ resistance headquarters issued a reaction to the announcement calling on the state to reopen the Holot detention facility.
“The state has long since lost its ability to govern and its credibility,” they stated, noting that “all the previous solutions have been casually canceled by the High Court of Justice and the residents of southern Tel Aviv continue to wallow in the terrible reality created by the infiltrators in the southern neighborhoods of the city.”