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 …
Al Jazeera English, March 7, 2011 Last week, as Israeli president Shimon Peres was calling a South Tel Aviv school to congratulate it for its role in Oscar-winning documentary, the state was preparing to expel 120 of the school’s students, including a twelve-year-old girl who starred in the film. “Strangers No More” was produced and …
Mondoweiss, February 28, 2011 The Huffington Post, February 28, 2011 It’s big news here in Israel that “Strangers No More“– a documentary film that focuses on a South Tel Aviv school attended by zarim, Hebrew for foreigners or strangers–has won an Oscar. “Thank you most of all to the exceptional immigrant and refugee children from …
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 Guardian, July 20, 2010 Michelle is the 14-year-old daughter of undocumented migrant laborers from the Philippines. In fluent Hebrew, she sums up the inhumanity of Israel’s plans to deport children of foreign workers. “It’s like they’re taking sheep and packing them,” she says, comparing the expulsion to herding animals. While Michelle will probably be naturalized, …
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 …