Flattening the Curve, Constitutional Crisis and Immigrants’ Rights Protections: The Case of Israel

The paper looks at the way Israel managed migration to in in the spring of 2020, amidst its constitutional crisis and the third election cycle, and during the pandemic outbreak. The pandemic management did not focus on immigration, but inevitably touched it in ways that build on the existing approach to the different categories of migrants. Arrival or even expression of desire to arrive of Jewish migrants was celebrated, even though some of those arriving were sick or on the brink of destitution. The treatment of non-Jewish migrants was impacted by the government through a different sort of calculus, with a focus on the immediate utility to the Israeli employers and economy. Migrant workers were required not to leave the nursing homes they work in, in an effort to prevent spread of the virus, but without sufficient thought to the psychological impact of such restriction. Palestinian workers were required to almost immediately make a decision to stay in Israel in order to continue their work, but no adequate thought was given to their safety or health situation, or to the issue of their need for housing. At the same time, the pandemic also altered some fundamentals of the Israeli immigration regimes. In its shadow, the Court felt confident enough to strike down the unconstitutional “deposit law”, which also violated asylum seekers rights under international law. At the same time, the pandemic brought a historic change to the employment patterns of Palestinians in Israel, turning frontier workers to migrant workers.









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