The Daily Beast, July 3, 2012 While Israel’s current campaign to deport some 700-1500 South Sudanese asylum seekers made headlines around the world, the mainstream media has neglected another ongoing expulsion. Since March of 2011, the state has been arresting and deporting the Israeli-born children of migrant laborers along with their parents. In the past …
Tablet, June 3, 2011 It was one of the wordiest, most sophisticated protest placards I’ve ever seen a child hold. The pink sign, gripped by two Filipino-Israeli boys, read in Hebrew: “Prime minister, how long will children, innocent of crime, pay the price for the situation you created with your own hands?” There were the …
Counterpunch, April 22, 2011 Several weeks ago, Israeli authorities arrested M, a pregnant woman, along with her three-year-old, Israeli-born son. The young family—sans the father, who had been deported several months before—was briefly detained then expelled from the country. But don’t break out those Palestinian flags just yet. This was a family of migrant workers. …
The Jerusalem Post, August 20, 2010 As Shabbat drew to a close Saturday, more than 2000 protestors marched against the deportation of migrant workers’ children. On August 1, the Israeli cabinet adopted criteria that will make 800 children eligible for naturalization, subjecting another 400 to deportation. Observers have pointed out that many minors who seem …
The Jerusalem Post, August 13, 2010 Despite the imminent deportation of 400 migrant workers’ children, South Tel Aviv’s black market kindergartens are still up and running. Sometimes referred to as “pirate kindergartens” or “babysitters,” this is where most of the kids who face expulsion spend their days. Many of the older children who meet the …
Al Jazeera English, July 17, 2010 For most children summer is a carefree time. But for the children of Israel’s undocumented migrant workers, deportation looms on the horizon. It has been a hotly contested issue since last July, when the Oz Unit, a strong arm of the interior ministry’s population and immigration authority, first hit …
Tablet, June 11, 2010 A small country intent on preserving its demographic balance, Israel is a Petri dish for globalization’s conflicts, including those being fought in Arizona. Arizona’s controversial Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act, also referred to as SB1070, takes effect in July. Proposed by Republican State Senator Russell Pearce, a staunch …
Palestine Note, May 27, 2010 More than 6000 demonstrators gathered in the Tel Aviv Museum courtyard Tuesday night to protest the planned deportation of approximately 1200 children of illegal migrant laborers. The event came in the wake of the news that the governmental committee, convened to determine the children’s fate, had decided to recommend permanent …
The Jerusalem Post, May 28, 2010 Like many of Israel’s migrant laborers, Usha, 26, lives with exploitation. Hired as a caregiver, she is used as a full-time servant instead. “I take care of seven people and a baby,” she says. “I clean the house. I take the kids to school.” Her employer’s demands are unreasonable, …