Israel approves prison without trial for illegals

The Israeli parliament approved hard new laws focusing on unlawful immigration early on today, giving police powers to detain migrants for up to 3 years without charge.

The laws, an modification to a 1954 law originally designed to deal with people attempting to infiltrate the Jewish state, was approved by 37 votes to 8.

The laws is part of the government’s attempts to control a big influx of people coming across Israel’s desert border with Egypt, most of them financial migrants from Africa.

A posting on Pm Benjamin Netanyahu’s Facebook web page boasted: “I too voted for the law.”

A few weeks ago, the cabinet issued 630 million shekels ($167 million, 124 million euros) for latest actions to handle illegal immigration, which Netanyahu has named “a national calamity.”