T’ruah applauds the Israeli High Court for upholding both human rights and Jewish law today, preventing implementation of an amendment to Israel’s anti-infiltration law that would have continued to send asylum-seekers to prison.
This decision came just hours after a petition was filed by a group of Israeli human rights organizations to block the amendment.
By immediately issuing a temporary order against the amendment, the High Court has upheld the Torah’s exhortation that we must “not oppress the stranger, for [we] know the soul of the stranger, having [ourselves] been strangers in the land of Egypt” (Exodus 23:9).
Until further notice, the Ministry of the Interior will not be allowed to send asylum seekers to either the Holot or Sakharonim prisons.
ברוך הטוב והמטיב. ברוך מתיר אסורים.
Blessed is the one who is good and does good. Blessed is the one who frees the captives.
