In a meeting with coalition party leaders on Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he would support the promotion of an exception clause that applied to issues beyond the status of illegal migrants inside Israel.
On Sunday, coalition heads will convene for yet another meeting to promote the expedited legislation of such a clause. According to the proposed model, the Knesset would be the sole body authorized to cancel laws affected by the clause. Should the High Court of Justice find such a law in violation of a basic law, the Knesset would need to deliberate the law but would not be obligated to amend it.
Under Israeli law, a basic law may include an exception clause allowing the Knesset to pass regular laws that essentially contradict the benchmark legislation for a limited amount of time, usually no longer than four years. The move, does, however, require a majority vote of at least 61 MKs.
During Wednesday's meeting, Education Minister Naftali Bennett called for the Ministerial Committee on Legislation to convene that afternoon to authorize the cessation clause.
Netanyahu, however, said alternative options should first be examined.
Associates of Netanyahu later noted that the coalition party heads had all agreed with Netanyahu's proposal.
An associate of Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon, who was not present at the meeting, said the minister had spoken with Netanyahu's Chief of Staff Yoav Horowitz ahead of Wednesday's meeting and reiterated his Kulanu party would support a cessation clause that would urgently address the infiltrator issue.
Israel is finalizing a deal to deport thousands of African migrants to Uganda after agreements with Rwanda and the U.N.'s refugee agency to find homes for those expelled fell through.
About 4,000 migrants have left Israel for Rwanda and Uganda since 2013 under a voluntary program, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has come under pressure from his right-wing voter base to expel thousands more.
In January, Israel started handing out notices to male migrants from Eritrea and Sudan, giving them three months to take the voluntary deal with a plane ticket and $3,500 or risk being thrown in jail.
The government said that from April it would start forced deportations, but rights groups challenged the move and the Supreme Court has issued a temporary injunction to give more time for the petitioners to argue against the plan.
Government representatives told the court on Tuesday that an envoy was in an African country finalizing a deportation deal. The representatives did not name the country in court sessions open to the public, though Israeli lawmakers have previously said the plan was to deport migrants to Rwanda and Uganda.
Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely also identified the countries it was seeking to strike new deportation deals with as Uganda and Rwanda in closed-door comments leaked to Army Radio.
After the Rwanda deal fell through, the government struck an agreement with the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees to relocate 16,250 migrants to Western countries, but Netanyahu scrapped it after an outcry from right-wing politicians furious that thousands more would be allowed to stay in Israel.
African migrants imprisoned in Israel [Illustrative] Moshe Shai
Israeli rights groups say the country should absorb the estimated 37,000 migrants still there or find them safe destinations such as those agreed under the defunct UNHCR deal.
While the government refers to the migrants as "infiltrators" who it says have come to find work, migrants and rights groups say they are asylum seekers fleeing persecution.
The UNHRC and rights groups are also concerned because many of the Africans who left previously for Rwanda and Uganda voluntarily did not get the protection they were promised and some ended up back on the migration trail.
Both countries have denied having any deals with Israel to resettle migrants. Uganda, a key Western ally in the fight against Islamist militants in East Africa, also denied there were discussions about accepting deportees under the new scheme.
"We are not aware of any Israeli envoy here. Let Israelis tell you who that envoy here is going to sign an agreement with, sign with who? With the foreign affairs, with the president, minister of internal affairs, with who? On what date are they signing?" Okello Oryem, Uganda's junior foreign affairs minister asked on Wednesday.
At the Supreme Court hearing in Jerusalem, one of the three judges asked the state representatives why Uganda was denying the deal, if indeed there was one. The state said it would provide the court with an explanation in a closed session.
In the past few months, UNHCR has also documented at least 80 cases of Eritreans who found none of the protection promised upon their departure from Israel, prompting them to go on a perilous trail through conflict zones to reach Europe.
