Category: Migrant workers

The Jerusalem Post, November 20, 2009

Halo-halo, the Filipino dessert of American-style shaved ice, Spanish dulce de leche, and Asian mung beans is an edible example of the Philippines’ unique layering of cultures. On the weekends, you’ll find halo-halo at impromptu stands in Tel Aviv’s Tachana Merkazit—and if you take a stroll through the surrounding neighborhood, you’ll see a similar stacking of flavors in the eateries that cater to Israel’s foreign workers and African refugees.

Pinoy-Namaste, with its blended Filipino-Nepali name, seems a good place to start. Anchoring a corner of the Central Bus Station, this restaurant and party hall serves favorites from the Philippines like kare-kare and lechon kawali. Kare-kare is a thick, peanut-based stew, peppered with beef, oxtail, and vegetables. Depending on the cook’s home region, this heavy soup is sometimes punched up with chili and mouth-puckering calamansi lime juice.

Lechon kawali is made from small cubes of pork belly. Fatty and soft, the bits are boiled in water spiked with garlic and salt. Next, the meat is deep fried to a golden brown. Under the guidance of owner Ruby Sukjai, Pinoy-Namaste dishes up lechon as juicy and crisp as it is in the Philippines.

Continue reading “A taste of home”

The Jerusalem Post, November 6, 2009

The pulse of drums pounded through Levinsky Park Saturday evening, kicking off the opening of The Garden Library for Migrant Communities in Tel Aviv. The project was initiated by Arteam, an Israeli nonprofit organization, in an attempt to address the intellectual and cultural needs of the many foreign workers and African refugees who now call Israel their home.

Designed by architect Yoav Meiri, a member of Arteam, the open air library consists of two wood and metal bookcases—one lined with children’s books; the other filled with books for adults. Reading materials are available in a variety of languages including Tagalog, Bengali, Hindi, Spanish, French, Arabic, Thai, Mandarin Chinese, Romanian, English, and Amharic. Only children’s books come in Hebrew.

Continue reading “Starting a new chapter”

 Big trouble in little China

The Jerusalem Post, July 31, 2009

As the sky darkens over the sagging cement buildings of South Tel Aviv, Chinese workers gather on the sidewalk outside of Kav LaOved. Inside, the translators that volunteer their time to Kav LaOved every Monday night prepare. “It’s like a party out there,” one comments about the waiting crowd.

But no one is celebrating. Chinese workers comprise one of the smallest groups of foreign workers in Israel—numbering roughly 20,000 of the estimated 300,000 migrant workers in the country—but they pay the largest amount of money to enter Israel. An Indian worker who obtains work in Israel typically scrambles together 10,000 US dollars in loans to pay the fee; the going rate for a Chinese worker to secure employment and a visa is now a whopping 31,000 US dollars. Though this “entry fee”—paid to employment agencies who arrange for jobs and visas—is illegal, foreign workers pay it overseas, far from the prying eyes of the Israeli government.

Continue reading “Big trouble in little China”

 “I went home with nothing,” Rosemarie Cote, a former client of Fokara’s, says.

During a phone interview from her home in the Philippines, Cote recounts her experience with Fokara. She had been working in Israel without a visa for eight years – sending her money back to the Philippines to support her seven children – when she met Fokara. According to Cote, Fokara promised her a new employer and a new visa.

“He took my money – all my savings – and he didn’t do anything,” she says.

That is, besides giving her a piece of paper.

“He told me that it would protect me for 33 months, he told me I was safe,” Cote says.

But Cote was picked up two months later by Immigration Police. She was deported just days after Christmas.

Read the full story: Fokara’s law.

 

On March 10, Haaretz reported that Muhammad Fokara, an Israeli-Arab attorney, would be suing the state of Israel for over 800 million shekels on behalf of the Gazan family, Al Samooni. On March 11, however, Haaretz ran a second article stating that the Al Samooni family had only heard about the lawsuit from the media. Does the lawsuit exist? The Misrad HaMishpatim (Ministry of Justice) told Metro, “the case hasn’t yet been received by the attorney’s office.”

Read the full story: Fokara’s law.

 Fokara’s law

The Jerusalem Post, March 27, 2009

Pinto Baptist, an Indian worker currently living in Tel Aviv, was desperate for help in December of 2008. In India, he’d borrowed $9,000 from friends and family to pay the agency fees it cost to come to Israel to work. But when he arrived here, in July of 2007, Baptist found that no employment awaited him – he had been victimized by the flying visa scam.

Despite the fact that the job he’d come to Israel for didn’t exist, Baptist decided to remain here. He thought that finding work in Israel, where wages are higher than those in India, was the best way to pay back his deep debt, which was rapidly accumulating interest. He was also responsible for his wife and child in India – if he didn’t find a source of income, he explained, his family might become homeless.

“If I go back to my house with empty hands, what answer can I give my child and wife?” Baptist says.

He needed nothing short of a miracle – and when Baptist, a Christian, met attorney Muhammad Fokara just before Christmas in 2008, he thought he’d found one.

According to Baptist, Fokara said he could recover the $9,000 Baptist had lost. Baptist alleges that Fokara promised him he would be able to stay in Israel for five years.

“He also promised justice,” Baptist adds.

Continue reading “Fokara’s law”

 

Repeated requests to interview a representative of the Indian embassy in Tel Aviv about the problems facing Indian foreign workers in Israel were declined. Sharad Srivastava, First Secretary (Culture, Consular, and Publicity), offered the brief explanation that the Indian embassy in Israel has little to do with foreign workers. He said “we’re not like the Filipino embassy” which is large and has employees that deal specifically with helping Filipino foreign workers.

Read the full story: Stranded mid-aviv.

Stranded Mid-Aviv

Outlook India, March 16-23, 2009 print edition

Lily Devi paid 8000 dollars to make the journey from India to Egypt so that she could pass into Israel illegally via the southern border. The Indian man she paid had promised that work would await her on the other side. Instead, he abandoned her in the desert town of Eilat—leaving Lily, who doesn’t speak English or Hebrew, alone.

Lily recently appeared at the Tel Aviv office of the Migrant Workers’ Hotline, a NGO that assists foreign workers in the multitude of problems they face in Israel. She was accompanied by an Indian man, Yahm, who served as a translator for her. But Yahm and Lily were greeted with the news that there was little the NGO could do to help her—she didn’t know the full name of the agent who dropped her in Israel, and she didn’t know what employment agency, if any, he worked for. Lily disappeared back into the masses of foreign workers which are currently estimated to number well over 300,000—a majority of which are illegal.

Yahm says that Lily, deep in debt, wants to remain in Israel so that she can find work and repay her 8000 dollar loan. According to Yahm, Lily is hiding from Immigration Police in a friend’s apartment in hopes of avoiding deportation. He explains that he doesn’t know how to contact her—Lily is someone he met in passing at the Tachana Merkazit, Tel Aviv’s Central Bus Station.

Continue reading “Stranded Mid-Aviv”

According to Interior Ministry spokesperson Sabine Hadad, “There is no recognized Hindu community in Israel and there are rules for building temples; one of them is having land and building permits.”

The Interior Ministry also said that the matter of alleged forged documents falls under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Labor, but numerous telephone calls to the Ministry of Labor went unanswered.

Read the full story: Gambling on Israel.

Gambling on Israel

The Jerusalem Post, July 4, 2008

Colorful Bollywood movie posters and richly-hued spices in red-lidded jars crowd the small storefront of Om Indian Store – The Taste of India, located on Lewinsky Street at Tel Aviv’s Central Bus Station. It’s a warm Shabbat in early summer and the glass door is propped open. Business is brisk and a steady stream of Indian and Nepali customers passes through the store to purchase the ingredients for dishes that are a link to home.

On their way in and out, they pass a sign that goes, for the most part, unnoticed. Printed on a plain piece of white paper and scotch-taped to the door, it seems unremarkable. But when you stop and look at it, you understand it’s a clear indication of a fragile, struggling community far from home. A sacred Om symbol, flanked by images of Israeli and Indian flags, crowns the sign, which announces the formation of the Om Shakti Singh Indian Community and states that its primary purpose is to help our Indian brothers and sisters in their difficulties here in Israel. The sign also mentions the group’s hope of providing a place to pray for all Indians. It concludes with a request: We would like all our brothers and sisters here in Israel to come forward and register their name in our community.

Continue reading “Gambling on Israel”