A judge from the Detention Review Tribunal issued a severe warning about the scope and severity of the phenomenon of infiltration into Israel.
In a recent decision by Judge Assaf Noam from the Detention Review Tribunal regarding the case of an infiltrator from the country of Georgia, the judge the warning which he requested be relayed to the Director General of the Population and Immigration Authority. The warning comes as more and more infiltrators manage to make it into Israel and the ease with which it is carried out - including the forgery of identification documents, as well as the absence of any punishment for such offenses even in cases of repeat crimes, according to the judge.
The decision deals with an infiltrator from Georgia who paid smugglers $5,000 in order to infiltrate Israel through security holes at Ben Gurion Airport in 2017. After being arrested and deported from Israel in 2019, the infiltrator paid the smugglers another time, this time a total of $7,000, and infiltrated Israel in exactly the same way, just two months after being deported. After that, she even purchased two fake identity cards and used them to work in Israel.
After several years of staying in Israel illegally, the infiltrator happened to come to the Population Authority offices in order to submit an application to obtain status in Israel by virtue of marriage to an Israeli citizen, a ceremony which was performed via Zoom in a "Utah marriage." She was arrested by inspectors who took her into custody, after her request for family reunification was deemed invalid.
After her appeal against the decision of the Population Authority was rejected by the Court of Appeals, and the appeal against the decision of the court was rejected by the District Court, she hastened to file another appeal against the very order of removal to the District Court without having first exhausted procedures before the Court of Appeals. The appeal was finally rejected on the grounds that she must first exhaust procedures at the Court of Appeals, but District Judge Michal Agmon Gonen issued an interim order against her removal for 14 days after the ruling.
Despite the District Court’s interim order, Judge Assaf Noam stated that there is no objection to keeping her in custody for the duration of this period until proceedings are completed. In addition, the Judge asked to transfer the decision to the Director General of the Population Authority in view of the "extreme severity of the infiltration into Israel twice by the detainee."
However, beyond the individual case, the judge added a serious warning and another exception to this phenomenon in general.
"The serious conduct of the detainee – who views the laws of the State of Israel and its sovereignty as a doormat to trample on [...] should arouse great concern in respect to the ease of infiltrating Israel via Ben Gurion Airport, as has emerged in many recent cases seen by the court, as well as in respect to the lack of enforcement and prosecution of repeat infiltrators such as the detainee at hand," according to the judge.
Attorney Yonatan Jakubowicz, founder and director of affairs at the Center for Israeli Immigration Policy, said: "The court's warning should serve as a clear warning sign for the Israeli government and enforcement authorities. Years after we exposed the phenomenon and even though the State Comptroller issued a confidential report on the matter, infiltration into Israel through security breaches at Ben Gurion Airport continues. It is absolutely absurd that the State of Israel has invested billions to build a fence on the Egyptian border, while thousands simply infiltrate under its nose through an airport that is supposed to be one of the most secure in the world. In addition to the immigration issue, this is also a breach that can be used by agents of crime and terror, and which must be sorted immediately. Beyond that, as the judge pointed out, the decision exposes an equally serious phenomenon of immigrants and infiltrators who repeatedly violate all of Israel's immigration laws, and instead of sanctioning and prosecuting them, we buy them a plane ticket home at the expense of the Israeli taxpayer. We call for a change in policy and, in order to create deterrence, the infiltrator should be prosecuted and – only after she has finished serving her punishment – removed from Israel."
The loophole exposed in the Efi Neve case
The ease with which it is possible to infiltrate Israel without going through border control was more clearly revealed in the case of Efi Neve, when he left and re-entered Israel trying to smuggle his partner in through the border gate. Over the years, additional loopholes were exposed such as the use of other people's gate passes and even the involvement of airport employees in smuggling infiltrators. The data was handed over to the State Comptroller and in a report released in May 2023, it was determined that this is a "loophole that could allow foreign and Israeli crime elements and terrorists to enter and leave the country. This is a real loophole in border control."
Even though slight changes have been made to the entry gates since then, and already in the State Comptroller's report from 2020 it was reported that according to 2017-2019 police data, there was an increase of over 800% in the number of investigation files and indictments filed against Israelis for illegal entry into Israel and the illegal entry of foreigners to the law, the judge warns, and according to monitoring carried out by the Center for Israeli Immigration Policy, the rate of infiltration is only increasing.
First published: 12:44, 06.26.24