Slippery Slope

Interior Minister Eli Yishai (Shas) said that the intention of aid organizations is to flood the Zionist state with non-Jews.

(Hebrew)

Tel Aviv Municipality announced plans to open a kindergarten in Hatikva neighborhood where children of migrant workers will not be admitted.

State Comptroller, Micha Lindenstrauss, states in his annual report that there are “significant deficiencies” in the way the State pays social security nursing benefits, and in the employment of work immigrants in the nursing field. In addition, the report states that house call health care services are not being provided equally nationwide, and there are deficiencies in the service operation.

In the Tel Aviv – Jaffa district of the Clalit Health Services, the rate of treatment of the elderly was 2.5 times greater than in the Southern district, and 1.5 times greater than in the Jerusalem District. In the Leumit Health Services, the treatment rate in the Jerusalem District was 3 times that of the Northern district, and almost 1.5 times greater than in the Southern district.

(Hebrew)

A street protest will be held tomorrow in the neighborhood of Neve Sha’anan in Tel-Aviv, against the presence of refugees and work immigrants. The protesters claim that their presence causes a rise in the number of violent incidents in the neighborhood.

(hebrew)

The Municipality of Bnei-Brak, a predominantly orthodox suburb of Tel-Aviv, is violating the Compulsory Education Law, and sets impossible conditions for admission of work immigrants into schools, says a report by the Ministry of Education.

Female Job Immigrants in Israel work in bad conditions, earn low wages, and have no social benefits, a new report by the “Kav La-Oved” (“an open line to the worker”) group says. Occasionally, they even suffer violence and sexual assoults. The workers, who in some cases work around the clock, and don’t speak Hebrew, are afraid to complain,

The detention facility for work immigrants and their children is expected to be opened next week. The facility was built secretly in the past months in Ben Gurion International Air Port. In it children of work immigrants along with their families, will be detained before their expulsion. In accordance with Minister of Interior Eli Yishay’s order, The Israeli INS’ OZ unit inspectors, will start a wave of detentions as soon as the facility opens.

(Hebrew)

The government asks the Knesset to approve a bill, which will create a special court for foreigners affairs, who will have the sole responsibility for judging non-citizens residing in Israel. ACRI has warned that “the government decided to create its own court, where it will sit in judgment on itself. The new court will be wholly under the authority and accountability of the Ministry of Justice, and will cancel in practice the principle of separation of powers. It will also prevent independent judicial criticism of the activity of the Ministry of the Interior, and will harm human rights”. (Hebrew)

Human rights organizations claim that lately, the activity of the OZ unit – the enforcement unit of the Population and Immigration Authority – has escalated, and that there are mounting complaints by foreign workers against enforcers who used violence and threats against them. Inter alia, a work immigrant suffered from a strain in his hand due to the way he was handcuffed, and a female worker was struck at her stomach and was hospitalized as a result. The Ashkelon police refused to accept the complaint against the enforcers, saying that workers complaining are suspect of violence themselves. The manager of OZ, Yehuda Ben Ezra, said he was “taking great care there would be no violence activity in the unit, and I think it’s humane and sensitive. People who sneak across the border and stay illegally, that’s a felony. They’re spitting at the law, so [why] should be deal with whether the enforcer raised his fist or not?” (Hebrew)