Labor party’s support of deportation, imprisonment of asylum seekers cheapens the Israeli opposition - Haaretz Editorial - Israel News | Haaretz.com
▻https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/editorial/1.824258
Under the leadership of new Labor Party Chairman Avi Gabbay, the MKs of the Zionist Union gave their support Monday to a disgraceful government bill for the deportation and imprisonment of asylum-seekers. If the draft law is passed, the Holot detention center would be shuttered and asylum-seekers given a choice: deportation to Rwanda or indefinite incarceration in Israel.
Any attempt to ignore Israel’s legal and moral obligations to refugees for the sake of solving a supposed conflict with the needs of long-time residents of south Tel Aviv or of Arab citizens is nothing but cheap demagoguery. Israel has no difficulty meeting its obligations without hurting its own disadvantaged communities; anyone who uses economic arguments to justify the failure to lend a hand to refugees is lying. The state wasted over 1 billion shekels ($284 million) on building and operating Holot; four years later, it is in effect admitting its error and closing the facility.