The High Court of Justice on Thursday issued a temporary injunction prohibiting the deportation of African asylum-seekers from Israel to a third-party country that has agreed to absorb them.
The state now has until March 26 to detail the entirety of its legal case in support of deportation.
The injunction does not apply to illegal migrants who agree to leave the country voluntarily, the justices wrote in their ruling.
Over the last several months, as per government policy, the state has issued notices of imminent deportation to large segments of the African migrant community, numbering tens of thousands. The notices stated that the state will pay each migrant a sum of $3,500 and expect them to depart. Noncompliance would result in incarceration.
The petition to issue an injunction against the deportation, filed by attorney Avigdor Feldman, argues that the country must make every effort to absorb the illegal migrants and resettle them in areas other than south Tel Aviv, where most of them are currently concentrated.
The high number of African migrants in the south Tel Aviv neighborhoods has prompted an outcry by local residents who feel threatened by the migrant population.
Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely (Likud), a proponent of the deportation policy, harshly criticized the court.
"The High Court of Justice's ruling on illegal migrants undermines the right of a sovereign state to decide who enters its gates. To force [this] on the residents of south Tel Aviv, who live under the shadow of the illegal migrants, runs counter to common sense," she said.
Matan Peleg, director general of the right-wing Zionist organization Im Tirtzu, also assailed the court's ruling, accusing the court of assuming powers that it is not authorized to exercise.
"We are again witnessing the High Court of Justice putting itself above the democratically elected public officials," Peleg said.
Meanwhile, kibbutzim and moshavim from across the country were preparing to take in illegal migrants released from the Holot detention center in southern Israel.
"In the coming one to two weeks, we will absorb a mother and her two children, and I hope we will take in more," said Kibbutz Sasa's secretary general, Yoni Tzoren.
According to Tzoren, Sasa, which is located in the Upper Galilee region of northern Israel, will "allot [the family] a period of time to stay with us and the goal is to try to reach an appropriate and good solution."
Dr. Avi Ofer, who heads the Kibbutz Movement's task force for resettling asylum seekers, functions as the liaison between Sasa and other kibbutzim and aid organizations.
"Our Faces toward the Rising Sun" is another organization at the forefront of efforts to resettle asylum seekers across the country.
Yoel Marshak, the head of the organization, said illegal migrants had already been resettled in Moshav Yuvalim and Moshav Hayogev in northern Israel.
