Naor: Migrants issue was resolved with UN, but Netanyahu caved

Supreme Court President Esther Hayut and Acting Justice Minister Amir Ohana’s battle over the future of the judicial system escalated on Tuesday with both slamming the other.

Speaking at the Israel Bar Association conference in Airport City, Hayut did not mention Ohana by name, but made clear reference to a recent article he wrote in which he described why he lost faith in the judicial establishment.

Hayut accused Ohana of mischaracterizing judges as a group as being inhuman and lacking compassion, whereas the opposite was true.

She explained that often judges’ compassion for the weak and resistance to populist policies by those in power is what has led to recent governments’ anger at the judiciary.

Ohana returned fire that it was not he who was creating the crisis. Rather, he said that judicial decisions have alienated the public and lost its faith, and that his goal in criticizing the courts was to enact reforms so as to restore that faith.

Earlier at the conference, former Supreme Court president Miriam Naor said that the African migrant issue could have been solved in April 2018 by a deal which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reached with the UN. But the PM caved to political pressure and scrapped the deal.

Naor said that the deal “was a good deal,” adding that it was unfortunate that political pressures led him to backtrack from resolving a more-than-decadelong dilemma.

Her comments were part of pushing back against attacks on the Supreme Court for allegedly preventing the Knesset from resolving the African migrant issue.

In April 2018, Netanyahu made a dramatic announcement that after 12 years of debate, a resolution had been found to the migrants’ dilemma.

In a televised speech, he said that of Israel’s 35,000 plus remaining illegal migrants (down from a high of around 60,000), about 16,000 would be sent to Western countries in an orderly manner over five years, while all or most of the remaining 20,000 would stay.

The 16,000 figure always raised questions. But the announcement that around 20,000 migrants would finally be integrated into society seemed like a major turning point.

It seemed to end the 12-year fight between the government, the migrants, the courts, the UN and human rights groups.

At least for a few hours. Then-Bayit Yehudi leader Naftali Bennett attacked Netanyahu for being weak on the migrants issue. Interior Minister Arye Deri let it be known that he had not been consulted and did not approve of the policy. As suddenly as he announced the deal, Netanyahu dropped it.

The domestic political attacks may not have been the only cause.

Some of the Western countries, whom the UN and human rights groups had promised would absorb the 16,000 migrants, came out publicly against accepting them.

After years of criticizing Israel, when the government finally seemed ready to take a “fair share” of migrants if others assisted, it seemed there was no shortage of mixed-messaging.

This supported the arguments of Israeli officials who all along had said that many countries were no more willing than Israel to take African migrants permanently.

Naor was also asked about whether the Supreme Court can veto a Basic Law, such as the Jewish-Nation State Law, which has been pending before the court. She said that it was a complex question with no simple answer, and that she would leave it to the current court to decide.