16-year-old Diana Cusaspud, originally from Ecuador, will receive permanent residency status and eventually be eligible for citizenship after the government's decision on Sunday. (Alon Ron)
The government on Sunday approved a plan by Interior Minister Roni Bar-On to grant permanent residency status to the children of migrant workers.
The plan, which passed by a majority of 18 votes to five, grants permanent residency to children who have been living in Israel for at least six years and who arrived in the country aged 14 or younger.
The children will be eligible for full citizenship upon the completion of military service.
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In response to the government's decision, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Labor and Social Welfare, Eli Yishai, said that the "decision was the beginning of the end of the Jewish State."
"The decision is a financial, social and religious bombshell. We are at the end of a slippery slope which will lead to a loss of identity," Yishai warned.
National Religious party head, Zevulun Orlev, said "the decision to facilitate the naturalization of foreign workers' children is a populist step that will be regretted for generations."
In order to win support for his proposal, Bar-On succumbed to pressure to change the original bill, which was to include the children of workers who had arrived in Israel illegally. But another clause, which dropped the age threshhold from 10 to six years, remained part of the bill.
The exclusion of the first clause rules out permanent residency status for some 3,500 Palestinians whose parents entered Israel illegally. This number (taken from a position paper presented to the government by the head of the Population Administration) includes more than half of the illegal migrant workers who stood to receive residency under the original plan.
The move comes almost exactly one year after cabinet decision 3807 was passed, setting criteria for naturalizing the children of foreign workers, as a one-time arrangement. This decision stated that a child born in Israel, who was 10 by last December and whose parents initially entered Israel legally, would be entitled to citizenship following military service.
The child's parents and younger siblings would gradually become permanent residents. Those who did not meet the criteria set by the previous cabinet could expect to be deported.
To prevent this, the High Court issued an interim injunction six months ago, in a petition by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel and Moked - Hotline for Migrant Workers, banning the deportation of foreign workers' children who were not born here, if they have spent at least 10 years in Israel.
The lengthy struggle by these foreign workers' children, who attend state schools, speak Hebrew and try to integrate into Israeli society, was also mentioned in Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's speech last month.
In presenting his cabinet to the Knesset, Olmert announced that Israel would lose its moral bearing if it evaded its responsibility to the weaker segments of society, including "the children of the foreign workers who live in our midst, love our country and want to be part of it."
'The government has guaranteed me a future' "The government law approved on Sunday makes me and my friends really happy," said 16-year-old Diana Cuasapud, an 11th grader at Rogozin High School in Tel Aviv and a counselor at the Eitan scouts branch for foreign workers' children.
"My parents and I will be able to realize a dream - to fly to Ecuador to visit our family," Diana added.
Diana emigrated to Israel from Ecuador with her parents, Lu and Lejilla, when she was four years old. Thanks to the government decision, Diana will receive permanent residence status after 12 years in Israel. Her 8-year-old sister, Sarit, was born in Israel.
The Cuasapud family has not been able to visit Ecuador since coming to Israel to work because their illegal status would have made reentry impossible.
"The government has guaranteed me a future," said Diana. "I'll be able to enlist in the army, become a citizen like all the sabras [native Israelis] and afterwards study in university and make a living."
"Without legal status in Israel, almost nobody will hire the children of foreign workers, and the lucky ones who find work earn very little.
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