Africans decry operation's dirty codename

African workers said they were "deeply offended" by the codename given to a new crackdown operation on migrant labor, entitled "naki u'misudar," meaning "clean and tidy" in English. The operation, headed by the Population, Immigration and Borders Authority along with the Interior Ministry's Oz Unit on immigration, will include increased raids and raising public awareness to the negative aspects of employing illegal workers.

"If this is a cleaning operation, then that makes us the dirt," Swaray Alusine, founder of the African Workers Union, told other community leaders at an emergency meeting in Tel Aviv this week. "It's outrageous. We are a law-abiding, productive element of Israeli society."

Attorney Oded Feller, who is affiliated with the Association of Civil Rights in Israel, called the name a disgrace. "If they want to clean out foreign workers, then they will end up with a lot of dirt on their hands - because Israelis don't like to work in cleaning," a meeting participant said.

"We regret to hear about the sentiments of the African nationals, but this is a distortion of terminology unconnected to the operation's objectives or the intentions of the authority's employees," Interior Ministry spokesperson, Sabine Hadad, told Anglo File.

"There was never any intention to insinuate... that the word 'clean' referred to people, and we regret this interpretation. It remains unclear to us why this group perceived it [this way], when the ministry clearly stated the operation targets employers of illegal workers." (Cnaan Liphshiz)