High Court Nullifies Migrant Deposit Law

Israel’s judges overrode its legislators on Thursday as the High Court struck down a law requiring companies to deposit 20 percent of asylum seekers’ salaries into a special fund that they can only access upon leaving the country.

The law was designed as an incentive for illegal migrants to return to their country of origin.

The Court held that the mandatory deposit system is illegal, causing “clear, tangible and significant damage to the property rights of workers” who generally receive low salaries.

The ruling was followed by a heated response from the Yamina party:

“Unbelievable. The High Court again and again [thwarts] every tool the state tries to use to enforce its immigration policies and safeguard the Jewish majority in the Jewish state.” Transportation Minister Betzalel Smotrich tweeted, referring to previous instances of judicial intervention which forced the Knesset to revise laws pertaining to the migrants.

MK Ayelet Shaked cited the Court action as proof that reform must come to reassert the authority of the Knesset.

“Only the override clause will put an end to this,” she said on Twitter, referring to proposed legislation to empower the Knesset to overturn High Court rulings with a majority vote.