Israel Hopes To Ban African Remittances
Israel’s Justice Ministry on Sunday proposed an amendment to a bill that would prohibit African migrants from transferring money abroad to their families.
If the bill is passed, African migrants could face six months in jail, or a NIS 29,200 fine for transferring funds abroad. The sentence is even harsher for anyone who aids African migrants transfer money abroad – one year in jail, a NIS 29,200 fine, or twice the sum the person took out, or was planning to take out, from Israel.
“The proposed bill is meant to help deal with the infiltrator problem by criminalizing the transfer of money by African migrants outside of Israel,” the Justice Ministry statement read.
The ministry said that the bill aims to reduce the economic incentives of illegally entering Israel, and to encourage African migrants to leave the country.
According to the new law, it is estimated that, based in part on the findings of migrant interviews that are conducted by the Population and Migration Authority immediately upon their entry to Israel, many are labor migrants who come to Israel to work and send money to their families back home. Therefore, the law explains, reducing the economic incentive for migrants is a significant and effective tool in dealing with the influx of migrants.
For more, go to Haaretz.com
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
2X match on all Passover gifts!
Most Popular
- 1
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 2
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- 3
Fast Forward The NCAA men’s Final Four has 3 Jewish coaches
- 4
Culture How two Jewish names — Kohen and Mira — are dividing red and blue states
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward ‘Another Jewish warrior’: Fine wins special election for U.S. House seat
-
Fast Forward A Chicagoan wanted to protest Elon Musk — and put a swastika sticker on a Jewish man’s Tesla
-
Fast Forward NY attorney general orders car wash to stop ripping off Jews with antisemitic ‘Passover special’
-
Fast Forward Cory Booker proclaims, ‘Hineni’ — I am here — 19 hours into anti-Trump Senate speech
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.