"There are judges in Jerusalem, but they truly don't care about south Tel Aviv," a resident of south Tel Aviv said on Tuesday after the High Court of Justice issued a ruling to limit the amount of time illegal migrants can be held in detention facilities. Following the ruling, south Tel Aviv residents organized a spontaneous protest rally on Tuesday night. Demonstrators held signs reading, "The High Court is spilling our blood" and "Infiltrators out." Shimi Alankawe, a south Tel Aviv resident, said angrily, "This ruling shouldn't surprise anyone. Have they [the judges] ever visited the area and seen what has been going on here? Are they raising children who are afraid to leave their homes? Have they ever witnessed a drug den or street fights near their homes- "They are sitting in Jerusalem without the slightest idea of what is going on here. This is an unimaginable imperviousness. This is summer vacation and our kids don't go out to play, our daughters don't spend time with their friends, because they are afraid. But they [the judges] just don't care." South Tel Aviv resident Orit Nagar said, "The High Court is sentencing us to live in fear. The process of removing [illegal migrants from south Tel Aviv] had already gotten underway, but now the High Court wants to return them to south Tel Aviv. I want to see these judges allow these infiltrators to live in Herzliya Pituach or north Tel Aviv -- they would never allow it, but we, in south Tel Aviv, mean nothing to them." Deputy Tel Aviv Mayor Arnon Giladi said, "The High Court ruling completely neuters the content of the Anti-Infiltration Law and reduces the motivation of illegal migrants to return voluntary to their homelands. "It is outrageous that Supreme Court President Miriam Naor doesn't feel the same compassion for south Tel Aviv residents as she does for illegal migrants. [South Tel Aviv residents] have been struggling daily with the harsh reality that has been imposed on them over the past decade." Israeli immigration Policy Center spokesman Yonatan Yakobovich called the High Court ruling "a death blow to the hopes of residents of south Tel Aviv and other cities of regaining their lost sense of security and community life." "The rise in the flow of illegal migrants in recent months proves that the fence alone is not enough to prevent infiltrations into Israel and taking down the legal fence represented by the Anti-Infiltration Law leaves Israel's borders completely breached," he said. "This is a sad historic decision, because it will result, in just a few years, in an irreversible settling of tens of thousands of infiltrators and the creation of a permanent ethnic minority that does not identify with the State of Israel and its values."
