חוק הכניסה לישראל (תיקון מס' 26), התשע"ו-2016Law on Entry into Israel (Amendment No. 26), 2016 · automatic translation · suggest a correction

Official summary of the law (Knesset)

The Entry into Israel Law (Amendment No. 26), 2016, was passed in its second and third readings on 14 March 2016. The Law establishes increased penalties for offenses of harboring and employing illegal residents, and also establishes new punitive and administrative tools against those who harbor illegal residents: 1. As a temporary provision for two years, the Law sets minimum fines. 2. Offenses of harboring and transporting under aggravating circumstances are established, for which the maximum prison sentence will be four years instead of two years, and the maximum fine will be 226,000 NIS instead of 75,000 NIS. The aggravating circumstances are harboring or employing more than one illegal resident, harboring or employing an illegal resident for a period of two consecutive days or more, and harboring an illegal resident with the intent to employ them. 3. Police district commanders are authorized to issue a use-restriction order for a place for which they had reasonable grounds to believe is used for committing an offense of harboring or employing an illegal resident, and reasonable grounds to believe the place will continue to be used for such an offense if its use is not restricted, for a period of up to 30 days. An application for reconsideration may be filed against such an order, which must be answered within 72 hours. 4. Courts may issue additional use-restriction orders for the place for additional periods of up to 60 days, and after an indictment is filed, courts may issue use-restriction orders until the end of proceedings. 5. Courts will also be granted the authority to issue orders suspending the business license of a person suspected of committing an offense of harboring or employing an illegal resident, if there are reasonable grounds for concern that continuing the business poses a danger to public peace or security, or may facilitate the commission of a similar offense. The validity of such an order, before an indictment is filed, shall not exceed 30 days, and after an indictment is filed, the court may extend the order until the end of proceedings or an earlier date it sets. In addition, the court may also, in addition to any penalty imposed, impose a penalty of suspending a business license or permit for a period of up to six months. An additional tightening applies to both the harboring and employment offenses, and the offense of transporting illegal residents. If a person is convicted of one of these offenses, the Law requires the court to order forfeiture of profits from committing the offense. In addition, the Law clarifies that for purposes of the employment offense, the definition of employer also includes an actual employer, a manpower broker, and a manpower contractor. Another amendment to the Law concerns the offense of transporting illegal residents, established as a temporary provision, and the Law extends it for an additional two years, until 31 March 2018.

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Sponsors

Mordhay Yogev, Yakov Margi, Nissan Slomiansky, Shuli Moalem-Refaeli

What was said in the plenum

The bill increases the punishment for Israelis who employ, harbor or transport Palestinian residents staying in Israel illegally, and extends a temporary provision concerning their transportation, while granting new powers to the police and courts such as closing workplaces and forfeiting profits. The debate revolves around whether increasing punishment will indeed help combat terrorism and prevent the employment of illegal residents, versus claims that this is a harmful, disproportionate and ineffective law that harms families and does not address the roots of the problem.

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An automatic summary of the plenum transcripts: the debate on the bill at every reading it was voted on. Arguments are given as the speakers made them; this is not an assessment. The list of speakers comes from the transcript, without a model. Transcripts of the sittings: 1, 2

Reservations to the second reading

41 reservations were filed: proposed changes to the text the committee brought to the second and third reading.

The reservations are intended to soften, narrow or delete punitive provisions, oversight powers and restriction orders in the bill, to change commencement dates and various restriction periods, and to add exceptions to protect family members from the law's restrictions.

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By faction

• Joint List opposition · 30 reservations · 13 members
• Meretz opposition · 8 reservations · 5 members
• Zionist Union opposition · 5 reservations · 24 members

A joint reservation counts for every faction whose members filed it.

Asked to speak: Mordhay Yogev (Jewish Home), Uri Maklev (United Torah Judaism)

Proposers and reservation numbers are extracted automatically from the committee version, and the count is checked against the numbers printed in it. The descriptions are an automatic summary. Committee version for the second and third reading (PDF)