After controversial ruling, video depicts Israel's chief justice as Nazi

One day after the High Court of Justice issued a ruling preventing the state from holding illegal infiltrators in detention for longer than one year, a video depicting Chief Justice Miriam Naor dressed in an S.S. uniform and appearing to speak in German was posted on YouTube.

In the video, in which Naor is referred to as "Kapo dictator," she appears to say, "The elections in the concentration camp Israel are just for show -- it is the High Court of Justice that is really in charge."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said in a number of closed meetings that his office will enact legal measures against people who post such inciting messages online. The State Prosecutor's Office already authorized a criminal investigation against an Internet user who recently uploaded similar videos depicting the prime minister and the president of Israel as Nazis.

Police investigators are looking into the likelihood that the same user who uploaded the videos of the prime minister and the president also uploaded the most recent video of the chief justice. The Israel Police are coordinating their investigation with American law enforcement agencies as the suspect lives in the U.S.

MK Tzipi Livni said she received the video featuring Naor in a private message.

"The video of Miriam Naor in a Nazi uniform is shocking," she said. "More hate, more incitement, and it is all part of that same ill wind that is permitted by elected officials. Ministers in the government need to understand that they have a responsibility and that every video they upload and every remark they make has ramifications."

As a result of Tuesday's High Court ruling, around 1,000 illegal infiltrators, mainly from African countries, will be released from detention in the coming weeks. Israeli residents of neighborhoods where there are already high concentrations of African migrants, many of whom are unemployed and some of whom turn to crime, fear that the ruling will further threaten their quality of life.

The High Court ruled that under the so-called infiltrators' law, the state is within its right to keep illegal migrants in custody, subject to proceedings of identification verification, while it explores potential deportation proceedings. But it ruled that the maximum period of detention must be reduced from 20 months to one year. Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked has begun working toward implementing this law fully, and has been examining the possibility of issuing indictments against infiltrators.

Culture and Sport Minister Miri Regev said Wednesday, "Keep in mind that our main objective is to treat the infiltration problem. We will do so in the legal system by appointing judges and an attorney general who don't practice judicial activism."

Former Likud minister Gideon Sa'ar said that "the High Court made another mistake when, for the third consecutive time in less than two years, it insisted on striking down Knesset legislation designed to confront the infiltration phenomenon. For the State of Israel, this is a strategic issue."

Education Minister Naftali Bennett also criticized the High Court, saying, "This intervention by the court is inappropriate. It ties our hands while we wage such an important battle. However, we must respect the ruling."

In the meantime, in the Holot detention facility where the bulk of the infiltrators are held, inmates were very pleased with the court's ruling.

"In two weeks we will be free and begin a new life," said Tagaho from Eritrea, who crossed the border into Israel from Egypt and has been held at Holot for over a year.

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