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| Israel cancels UN deal to resettle African migrants | Israel cancels UN deal to resettle African migrants |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he is cancelling yesterday's agreement with the UN to relocate thousands of African asylum seekers to Western countries. | |
| “I have listened carefully to the many comments on the agreement. As a result, and after I again weighed the advantages and disadvantages, I decided to cancel the deal,” Mr Netanyahu said in a statement issued by his office on Tuesday. | |
| Israel has faced intense criticism over new plans to make 37,000 African migrants and asylum seekers choose between deportation to either Rwanda or Uganda, or face an unspecified amount of jail time. | |
| The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) stepped in on Monday with an offer to resettle around half of the immigrants, who are mostly Sudanese and Eritrean. The other half were to be allowed to stay in Israel. | |
| While no states were named, the prime minister suggested Germany, Canada and Italy were destinations. | |
| Right wing factions in Mr Netanyahu's ruling coalition, including from his own Likud party, immediately called on the prime minister to overturn the agreement. | |
| Despite initially praising the deal at a news conference in Jerusalem, the prime minister announced he was suspending its implementation a few hours later. The UN has urged the Israeli government to reconsider the U-turn. | |
| The fate of Israel's African asylum seekers has created a moral dilemma in a state founded as a safe haven for Jewish people persecuted during World War II. | |
| The previous deportation plans were met with protests and legal challenges from the Israeli left and international rights groups. | |
| Benjamin Netanyahu, now in his fourth term, is under investigation in three separate corruption cases and linked to a fourth. He needs the support of right wing blocs in Israeli's Knesset to remain in office. | |
| He denies all allegations of wrong doing. | |
| More follows… | More follows… |