Israel's Supreme Court cancels entry restrictions for Ukrainian citizens

According to the court's decision, citizens of Ukraine will be able to enter Israel for three months without the need to submit a special request - NEWSru.co.il. reports 

The court also ordered the defendants on behalf of the state to pay court costs in the amount of 20 thousand shekels. 

On March 12, 2022, the law office of Tomer Varsha, at the request of the Embassy of Ukraine in Israel, filed a lawsuit in court in connection with the fact that Ayelet Shaked, the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, established a quota for the reception of citizens of Ukraine in Israel - thus, according to the claimants, violating the visa-free agreement between countries.

Earlier, at the request of the court, the Israeli state provided an explanation as to why Ukrainian citizens are not exempted from applying for an entry visa to Israel during the war in Ukraine. 

"According to the state's response, citizens of Ukraine who now wish to enter Israel are not tourists, but refugees, and therefore are not subject to the visa-free regime,"- it is noted.

As lawyer Tomer Varsha explained to NEWSru.co.il, the agreement on the visa-free agreement signed by Israel and Ukraine in 2010 was approved by a government decision and entered into a legislative act, which can also be changed only by a government decision or a decision of the Minister of Internal Affairs after consultation with the Knesset Commission on Internal Affairs. According to Varsha, Shaked's decision really changed the visa-free agreement because of the quota and the inability to enter Israel without applying and obtaining permission in advance. That is, in practice, it cancels the visa-free regime, and cancels it illegally - without proper procedure. 

Instead, the court fully accepted the side of the claimants. The decision of the High Court of Justice states that the defendants' interpretation of the legislative act on the cancellation of visas for citizens of Ukraine does not coincide with what is stated in the legislative act, and that the decision to deprive Ukrainians of the opportunity to enter Israel without visas during the war is not legal.

"It should be noted that the visa-free regime does not mean automatic permission to enter the country. That is, at passport control when entering Israel, a citizen of a country with which there is a visa-free agreement may be refused entry. The reason for such a refusal is usually  suspicion that the tourist actually came to Israel to earn money.

It is also worth reminding that immediately after the start of the war in Ukraine, dozens of Ukrainian refugees were detained in this way at Ben-Gurion Airport and sent back to Europe," - NEWSru.co.il summed up.