After expulsions, immigration cops hounded by rights activists

Over the past two days, the heads of the illegal immigration task force say they have been threatened and harassed by telephone, apparently by protesters opposed to state action against foreign workers and illegal residents.

"On Sunday around 11:30 P.M. a woman phoned and said 'Why are you expelling people?' She went on attacking me until I asked who she was, and then she hung up," the head of the enforcement unit, Tziki Sela, told Haaretz. Sela added that another caller said: "you've forgotten what it's like to be a persecuted minority."

Later that night and yesterday Sela said he and other senior members of the unit received about eight text messages. According to Sela, one message read: "Coordinators of flights to hell, you'll get there, too." Established by a 2008 cabinet decision, the task force, which goes by the Hebrew name "Oz" (courage), is the enforcement body of the Population Authority that comes under the aegis of the Interior Ministry, and replaced the immigration police. The unit has 200 inspectors, who have policing powers only with regard to foreigners.

"We don't get upset. We are public servants doing our work in a practical and humane way and taking care of people, even to the extent of buying them food out of our own pockets," Sela said, referring to the calls.

The anonymous calls came in the wake of the unit's recent actions to identify foreign workers and refugees at Levinsky Park in Tel Aviv, to check documents in order to locate illegal residents.

The calls by protesters seem to signal a change in the tactics of activists, after a demonstration Saturday night in Tel Aviv against the enforcement of the Population Authority's policy. They were apparently the result of a recent mass e-mail that included the phone numbers of the unit's heads and information about the bus company that rents vehicles for use by the unit.

The e-mail, in Hebrew and using the feminine form of address, also said: "We can't all come out three times a day, or even once a day to try to physically stop the operations to expel the female refugees and labor immigrants ... Here is a way of action for those who don't have time, emotional resources or physical access to the other activities. Attached are the phone numbers of the Oz unit's senior officials, who coordinate the expulsion operations that began a few days ago. Please call them and tell them what you think of the expulsion..."

The Hotline for Migrant Workers, one of the initiators of Saturday night's protest, responded: "Our people did not make those calls, since this is not one of the many means of struggle we adopt against the cruel expulsion. This is apparently a small group of private people who were shocked by the sight of manhunts in the streets and decided to act."

A statement by the task force said: "The Oz unit acts according to the law ... while protecting human dignity and humanely enforcing the laws of the state. We are sure Israel's citizens will support us in carrying out this essential task."