Cabinet approves deportation of 400 migrant children from Israel
According to inter-ministerial committee's recommendation, children of migrant workers must fit 5 criteria in order to remain in Israel; 400 do not.
By Barak Ravid and Dana Weiler-Polak Tags: Israel news migrant workers Israel immigrationPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet on Sunday recommendations by an inter-ministerial committee to deport 400 children of migrant workers within 21 days.
The vote won the approval of 13 ministers. Ten voted against the recommendations, and four abstained.
Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman had recommended the move, suggesting deporting children except those of migrant workers who have been in Israel for more than five years, and are either entering first grade or a higher school grade. The children who are allowed to stay must also speak Hebrew, and if they were not born in Israel, they must have arrived in Israel before the age of 13.
The agreement applies only to children whose parents entered Israel legally.
Whoever does not meet the criteria will be asked to leave the county within a month.
More than 1,200 children were up for deportation earlier this year, of which 800 children met the criteria and will be granted approval to remain here.
Shas ministers objected, as expected, but Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer and Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar unexpectedly objected as well, calling for keeping all the children in Israel and granting legal status to preschool children as well.
Social Affairs Minister Isaac Herzog unexpectedly abstained from the vote, despite his former declarations that he refused to vote with Interior Minister Eli Yishai (Shas ).
"I didn't vote in favor [of the proposal] because despite the improvements, which I supported, I could not accept deporting a group of 5-year-old children," Herzog said.
Ben-Eliezer voted against his party's position and persuaded Agriculture Minister Shalom Simhon to object as well.
"This is not the Jewish state I know, if it deports children," he shouted at the cabinet session.
 |
Children of migrant workers protesting in Jerusalem, April 17, 2010. |
| Photo by: Olivier Fitoussi / BauBau |
Just before the vote Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Interior Minister Eli Yishai, who were against easing the conditions for staying in Israel, argued with Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar and Welfare Minister Herzog, who favored easier criteria.
Netanyahu intervened and after private conversations with the ministers, they agreed that the children who did not meet the required criteria for staying in Israel, would be allowed to appeal to a committee on the basis of exceptional status.
Families with children who meet the criteria will be asked to submit a request, attached to documentation, to the Interior Ministry within 21 days, according to an interministerial committee's recommendations.
After aid groups claimed that 21 days is an unrealistically short period of time, the Interior Ministry added a clause giving those who meet the criteria an extra 21 days to produce documentation, if they are found to qualify for the status after their first request. At first, Netanyahu proposed appointing a special committee to deal with exceptional cases. But this proposal drew fire from all directions. Shas and Yisrael Beiteinu objected, as well as Ben-Eliezer, Sa'ar and Simhon.
Finally, the cabinet decided that Yishai would examine the borderline cases and consult with the interministerial committee that drafted the recommendations. The committee would provide a sort of supervision, the cabinet decided.
"This is a reasonable and balanced decision," Netanyahu said Sunday after deciding to deport hundreds of migrant workers' children. "It was influenced by two primary considerations - the humanitarian consideration and the Zionist consideration. We're looking for a way to absorb and adopt to our hearts children who were brought up and raised here as Israelis. On the other hand, we don't want to create an incentive that will lead to hundreds of thousands of illegal migrant workers flooding the country," he said.
Children who will be going to compulsory kindergarten this year, due to a psychological diagnosis stipulating they are not ready for first grade, will also receive legal status, on the basis of a Justice Ministry amendment.
Documents include the children's original birth certificates or legally notarized certificates, the passports with which the parents entered Israel, confirmations from schools they went to and others.
UNICEF Israel, the organization in charge of enforcing the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, protested the cabinet's decision, calling it a "blatant violation" of the convention, which Israel signed with 200 other states worldwide.
"Israel must formulate a humane immigration policy and stop the senseless revolving door policy, that wants to deport migrant workers and their children, on the one hand, and bring in new ones instead, on the other hand," UNICEF Israel said in a statement.
Why Facebook Connect?
Comment on Haaretz.com articles with your Facebook login, and share your thoughts on your own wall.
- Latest
- Most Viewed
- Most Rated
- Open all
When these children grow up what then? Are they really going to be accepted as Israelis? They have a different home culture, they have a different religion, they look different; they will be a sad minority. What is so humane about that? You only have to look at the UK. The Pakistanis, the Indians, the West Indians ... many are third and fourth generation - as British as you can get. Right? Wrong! Look how little intermarriage there is. And how much racial tension there is beneath the surface. Look at France. Have you so quickly forgotten the violence and destruction only a short time again when Muslims went on the rampage in Paris at some imagined slight? Better for Israel to deal with a few hundred kids now than have the enormous problem that Europe is pretending doesn't exist.
Government has forgotten to witch people we belong! Disgusting and shame. We should expell the racists from our country, Emanuel's haredi community, Neturei Karta. Now we must not cry if jewish is expelled from foreign countries.
The parents came knowing they were only there to work and kids would not be accepted. A work visa is a work visa. A child isn't an anchor.
As, in, residency status for some fixed period of time, and then return to the country of citizenship? What do the children have to do with all this? Children go with their parents in every society.
What's wrong with the lot of you.Who gave you the moral right in Israel to deport the children. Who ? .............................. Too many foolish,& silly people,both in the government & the Knesset.,,A terrible message to the majority of the people in Israel. People will only harden their hearts & one day you will be in the receiving end....... Go back on this immoral decision !
Of course the parents will be sent home too! Remember the parents were not supposed to stay. They were here illegally and knowingly had children in the hopes they could get round the law. But why should they? People travel all over the world for work, children are born abroad. Eventually they return home. The children no doubt speak their native tongue with their parents in the home - actually we are seeing them on tv doing just that - so when they return to their country of origin and family they will not be complete strangers. They haven't adopted Judaism - they retain their own customs and way of life at home. So stop worrying! These kids will survive. And with all this worrying about the trauma to the kids has anyone thought ... So many of us came to Israel with children who did not speak the language at all, knew nothing of the country! We brought them "home" and they adjusted! You can't have it both ways. If it is inhuman to uproot these children then making aliyah with Jewish children must stop!
"They haven't adopted Judaism - they retain their own customs and way of life at home." The Europeans used to make the same complaint about us, when we did not adopt Christianity. Fortunately some of these European nations were more tolerant than you appear to be. For shame.
You should not deport the children without sending the parents with them. That would not be humane. It is okay not to have migrant workers if that is the way you want to run your economy (I personally think that is a good idea for Israel--see my other posts), but it is not humane to separate the children from their parents. Remember what that did to your people during the Holocaust. Did you like it when you were treated that way?
The holocaust? Every country sets rules and deals with illegal immigration and there are over 100,000 illegal immigrants in Israel. We accept those that are here for a long time and got attached to the society and culture, but we have to think of the state and classes are filled with children
thanks leviticus! The stranger that sojourneth with you shall be unto you as the home-born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.
poor kids.
First a fight with Turkey tilting it towards Iran. Then another fight with the Reform and Conservative Jewish majority in the Diaspora over conversions (and funding). And now a fight with children. How many fights can Israel sustain at one time?
The less goyim the better
You are a disgrace to the Jewish people.
i can't believe that a country build on and with immigrants will go so far... they are children! how cruel can we be. the foreign workers who do the jobs we don't want to do, are first of all human beings, with dreams and plans for life...not only work and sleep and earn the money and go away. life is developing and moving, always and not always in the planned direction. i am israeli and i am ashamed. what's next? the children of non jewish mothers should go too? what happend to us? when did we become so hard hearted?
There are over 100,000 illegals in Israel, some have children some don't. We need to make rules as every year more sneak inside the country, most via Sinai. Find comfort in the fact that this is an international problem all western states deal with, especially in europe and america
Let Israelis do their own dirty laundry.
What a tough subject. Affluent countries need cheap labor to make businessmen happy but the hidden costs must be borne by everyone. Mexicans in California, Indians in Dubai, North African immigrants in Italy and Malaysians in Israel are not welcomed by the majority of the host country when they put a strain on the budget in lean times. In most cases such matters can only be dealt with by a dictatorship. A democracy without the burden of a constitution can deal with the problem rationally based on demographic projections. Israel has the right to choose who will be citizens and who must go.
Those cute little children come with parents and one day they wont be so little anymore they will be adults. We need to decide who we are going to put first Israeli citizens or children. .. The same people who are against deporting children also complain about the fact the schools are under funded and class sizes to high .. get rid of the ILLEGALS and their kids and that money stretches further, once the adults are no longer on short term visas they will want real jobs, they will want access to medical treatment and many other things which strain the economy. The illegals bring alot of crime, whole areas like Tel Aviv bus station or Eilat ses front at night are hot beds for illegals. There are probably more illegals in Eilat that tourists. The illegals contaminate the jewish cultural make up of the country. These children & their families are the tip of the ice berg there are thousands more who have come into the country wither by sneaking into the country or came in with work permits and decided not to go home after the permit expired. To top that we now have the problem with the illegals from Africa and there are as many of them illegally sneaking in every year as jewish immigrants. We need to deport all of them and build ways to keep them out the country like fences and even landmines to keep people crossing the border illegals and terrorists, the legal worker we should make rules like they must report to the police station once a month and if they don't report in they will automatically be considered illegal and deported. Israeli employers there should be laws saying they employ somebody who is not in the country legally then they can be closed down, fined or sent to jail and spot checks done. Owners of properties should be banned from renting to people they are certain is in the country legally again spot checks done and punishment for property owner. Possibly not allowing the children of people in the country illegally to go to school instead when they try to enroll the school will inform immigration authorities who will arrest them and put them into some kind of deportation centre where they are kept until they can be deported. We need a multi pronged attack against the immigrants themsels, employers, property owners and public services to deal with the problem of illegal immigration because if we don't deal with it now the problem is only going to increase. THIS IS NOT ABOUT CHILDREN
In the U.S. the problem of illegal aliens has created the same financial problems as those which Israel is trying to avoid today. The issue is not race or children it is simply money. Unfortunately, I think it is revealing that a blogger who calls themselves “Zionist Forever” has publicly stated; “The illegals contaminate the jewish cultural make up of the country”. This is pure racism. Furthermore, our Zionist blogger associate admits that Israel’s growing Jewish population is also from outside of the country; “we now have the problem with the illegals from Africa and there are as many of them illegally sneaking in every year as jewish immigrants.” Perhaps the Zionist should not have ostracized and dispossessed their Palestinian countrymen. Imagine what Israel would be like today if it had a loyal Palestinians labor force absent of the animosity of having been victimized by the very Zionist that they would be expected to serve. Instead, Israel is now faced with a smaller version of the same question that Jews will forever condemn the Nazis for, “how do we rid ourselves of an unwanted race?” Irony can be cruel indeed.
He came in Israel after age 13
and that makes all the difference, haven't you understood it yet?
Last count was about 100,000 or more of them. Not the time to be PC whan the Jewish majority, crime, and terrorism are a clear and present danger.
Deport every last one of them. The U.S. will take them for sure...... they need to pay for services at minimum wage!!! Israel doesn't have the means to support thousands of non jews,!! Enough of the bleeding heart american jews. You adopt them?
Don't count on the U.S. taking any of them. We have had enough of that sort of problem. If the Feds won't do their job on the Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and California borders look for the American Militia to handle the matter. While they are at it they will probably handle the Federal Administration problems also.
The stranger that sojourneth with you shall be unto you as the home-born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.
Well said! How about the book chapter and verse next time--it lends authenticity to your words. However, this portion intends that the response to temporary inhabitants be hospitable and fair and that the Law of the land be applied equally to them as it is to all citizens of Israel. No special treatment or favoritism is indicated or implied. And, no tolerance of their heathen ways is permitted either. In other word, the gods of moab, phillistia, syria, arabia, etc. are not Israel's God and their ways are not your ways--do not accommodate them.
We want to kick out their parents who are here illegally they just happen to have children which makes lots of people feel sorry for these illegals. We are not just getting rid of 400 children we are getting rid of their parents as well. Also this is nothing like enough. There are tens of thousands of illegals in the country some with some without children and we need to stop feeling sorry for them and think about Israelis. On the children issue the schools are already under funded and class sizes to big get rid of the illegals and their children the school budget stretches further amongst Israeli children, areas like the Tel Aviv bus station & Eilats beach front at night are filled with illegals spoiling the area. There are probably more illegals coming to Eilat every year than there are tourists. We need to get rid of all of them and there is also now the growing African economic migrants who are coming to Israel in equal numbers of jews every year. Time to secure borders with barriers and even minefields to stop people coming in illegaly and for people who came into the country legally maybe there is some way to trace them prehaps make it a rule they must check in with the local police station once a month and if they dont check in their visa is automatically revoked and they are deported. We must though start deporting people with or without children because its only going make things worse for Israeli citizens long term economically, increased crime, cuturall contamiination ( more non jews ), we also need to remeber these cute little children eventually grow up and wanting jobs and they will have children of their own and the numbers steadily grow till these people make up a significant percentage of the population all because we were not wiling to do anything about illegals or deport a few cute children. We need to think about the future not the present.
Let YHWH be true and every man a liar.
Why bring God into this imbroglio ?
a most prosperous nation in the middle east.. You, siefried, still live in wishful thinking world... Come back to reality and reconcile with a thought that Jews of today not only have their own COUNTRY but also technologically more advance then majority of today's world..