i24 News – A Tel Aviv District Court judge on Monday ordered Israel’s Population and Immigration Authority to give Ukrainian refugees facing deportation 48 hours to stay in the country and appeal the decision.
District Court Judge Michal Agmon-Gonen’s rule is effective immediately, and accused the Population Authority of trying to avoid judicial oversight, Haaretz reported.
It is the first decision of its kind since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
The case was appealed to the district court after the Population Authority refused a 14-year-old boy and his 18-year-old sister – whose mother is in Israel illegally – to enter.
During Monday’s hearing, Agmon-Gonen halted the expulsion of the siblings until their case was heard on its merits.
While appealing their case, the siblings’ legal counsel cited Haaretz data showing that many of those facing deportations are unaware that they can appeal the decision or request asylum in Israel.
The judge ordered the Population Authority to inform Ukrainians subject to expulsions of their right to legal counsel and their right to appeal.
“If we would only remember the commandment regarding treatment of the oppressed on the Passover holiday, the festival of freedom,” Agmon-Gonen said in her decision, quoting the Book of Exodus, Haaretz reported.
The number of new immigrants to reach Israel since the start of the Ukraine-Russia war marked 10,000 on Monday, with more than two-thirds being from Ukraine.
Israeli officials have estimated that tens of thousands more people from Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus will immigrate to Israel in the coming weeks and months due to the war.
Many of them are not Yidden. Some are Nazis.