By:  World Israel News Staff

Following widespread rioting by Eritrean illegal immigrants in Tel Aviv, MK Simcha Rothman (Religious Zionist Party) is proposing a new law which would ease the authorities’ ability to deport them.

On Saturday, clashes between supporters of the current Eritrean government and those opposed to it spilled over into violence, with bloody scenes of mass beatings, stabbings, and even a migrant brandishing a gun shocked the Israeli public.

Rothman, a legal scholar and one of the chief architects of the judicial reform legislation, has drafted a new bill, called the Basic Law: Entry, immigration, and status in Israel.

This measure would create strict guidelines for naturalization of residents of Israel who are not eligible to immigrate under the Law of Return, which automatically grants citizenship to Jews.

It provides a quota for the maximum number of people granted refugee status each year, and specifies that those who entered Israel illegally or overstayed the visas will be banned from ever receiving refugee status.

The law also states that people without legal status in Israel can no longer petition the local courts to rule on whether or not they should be granted residency. However, an Israeli citizen or resident may file such a suit on their behalf.

Because Rothman drafted the bill as a Basic Law, it would supersede all other legislation related to the topic. It’s unclear when and if the bill will be placed on the Knesset agenda for a vote.

The Eritrean rioters caused millions of shekels of property damage to nearby businesses, smashing their street-front facades and in some cases, looting the shops and restaurants.

Beyond clashing with their political rivals, the Eritreans also attacked police. One officer was severely wounded and underwent brain surgery after being struck in the head with a camping stove, pieces of which were embedded in his skull.

Police eventually were forced to use live fire to quell the protesters, marking the first time that security forces fired at demonstrators since 2000, and at least 11 Eritreans suffered gunshot wounds.

Earlier on Monday, WIN also reported that a policeman had to undergo surgery Saturday night after being bashed in the skull with a piece of a camping burner during an hours-long riot involving pro- and anti- Eritrean regime demonstrators in south Tel Aviv.

The officer said a whole group had attacked him and he did not remember anything after being struck in the head. His condition was upgraded to moderate after the operation.

Hundreds of Eritrean migrants dressed in red to show support for the Eritrean dictatorship who had planned to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the regime in Eritrea faced off against hundreds of other Eritrean migrants dressed in blue, who arrived to show their hatred of their homeland’s government.

Some 170 were hurt, including some 50 policemen, as the rioters hit each other and the authorities with rocks, wooden planks and metal objects. Some protestors were stabbed with knives in individual fights. Others were injured by gunfire, as the police resorted to live fire in places where they felt their lives were in danger and riot dispersal means such as stun grenades and tear gas weren’t working to quell the violence.

Hundreds of officers, including those on horseback, had been ordered to the scene to reinforce the local force and Border Police.

(WorldIsraelNews.com)