Interior Minister Eli Yishai denied on Sunday reports that he would recommend
that the government deport 800 children of foreign workers, as opposed to the
400 recommended by the inter-ministerial committee commissioned by Prime Minister
Binyamin Netanyahu.
Yishai said that he had yet to even receive the
committee’s recommendations and that whoever reported otherwise, was “extracting
information out of thin air.”
On Friday the committee, made up of
representatives of the ministries of education, welfare, interior,
finance and
justice, completed nearly a year of deliberations and recommended that
the state
allow 800 out of 1,200 children born to illegal foreign workers to
remain in the
country.
According to the committee’s recommendations all children who
were born in Israel, have resided in Israel for more than five years,
speak
Hebrew and are registered in Israeli schools, be granted permanent
resident
status along with their families.
If the criteria proposed by the
committee are approved, it would mean that roughly twothirds of the
children
will be allowed to stay.
Yishai’s denial followed media reports over that
weekend that Yishai planned to reject the panel’s recommendations and
offer a
more restrictive proposal, under which only those children who were
entering
first grade in September would be allowed to stay. This would mean only
400
children and their families would be granted permanent status.
In the
past, Yishai has been a staunch supporter of deporting the children.
Over the
last year he has given many interviews in which he made clear that he
favored
deportation out of concern for the demographic character of the
country.
Yishai’s denial didn’t prevent forces that support the
children’s remaining from attacking Yishai for his alleged proposal.
In
Sunday’s Likud ministers meeting, Education Minister Gideon Sa’ar, a
longtime
supporter of the cause, said that “the issue of the children’s status
was not
the sole prerogative of any single minister, but of the government as a
whole.”
Later, in the weekly cabinet meeting, Sa’ar said that it was
vital to discuss the committee’s recommendations as soon as possible, as
there
has been too much stalling and too many rumors circulating.
“The
committee’s recommendations are reasonable and balanced. Any deviation
from them
would cause excessive harm and unjustifiable injury,” said Welfare and
Social
Services Minister Yitzhak Herzog, another supporting of allowing the
children to
stay.
“If necessary we will take the issue up before the
cabinet.”
A statement issued by child advocacy group Israeli Children
called on Yishai to adopt the committee’s recommendations, and even take
them a
step further and grant permanent status to all 1,200 kids.
“The prime
minister established an interministerial committee that seriously
deliberated
the issue of the fate of migrant workers children. It is unacceptable
that
Interior Minister Eli Yishai bypass the committee’s authority and make
an
arbitrary and brutal decision on his own,” said the organization’s
director,
Rotem Ilan.
The public campaign to have the children remain in Israel has
been going on for the last year, ever since Netanyahu had announced a
plan to
deport the children and their families.
Facing public outcry, Netanyahu
in November delayed the decision until the end of the school year,
setting up
the panel and asking it to come up with its recommendations by then.
In
2006, Israel granted permanent residence to 900 children of foreign
workers in
what was then believed would be a one-time act. Many of the children who
are
being considered for permanent status now were too young to be included
in the
arrangement in 2006.
Yishai will be formally presented with the
committee’s recommendations next week, after which he will present them
to the
cabinet.