How could the light among nations forget the foundations of a constitution and a sound immigration policy? Bravo to this Italian lady for highlighting this embarrassing oversight. Keep 'em coming, please.

you have many illegal immigrants in Israel who have settled in the cities and are making a go of it. Yes, set an immigration policy,yes, fence the border, construction humane transit facilities, in the meantime, offer the iillegals who are already here a pathway if they learn hebrew and then do some type of idf service. That will give the idf a division of african fighters who could be useful in fighting arabs.

Israel is NOT the only Western nation lacking an immigration policy. The UK and the US are two major democracies failing in the way they deal with immigration, using an antiquated policy which - like Israel - is not fit to deal with an onslaught of illegal, most economic, immigrants. This is a biased Op-Ed piece.

Since when?????????????

Factually speaking, Africans have been running in and out of Israel before Israel was even Israel, old habits are sometimes hard to break. Perhaps Israel with it's out reach programs and high tech should foster and sponsor development programs in the fields of construction and infrastructure of the respective countries of these illegals. The males especially in the more so underdeveloped countries will stay at home and work take pride in their labor building their own lands instead of flooding into Israel woman in tow.

The only policy that will not do harm to Israel on every level imaginable is a zero tolerance for illegal immigration. They must all be sent back or to either Arab and or Moslem countries.

Well, I live in the Netherlands and we actually DO have an immigration policy, for all the good it does, which it doesn't. It basically makes any application for citizenship lengthier, costlier, and still having the same outcome, were it not for the fact that 90 percent of all the asylumseekers convieniently faint just a moment before extradition, which requires us, under international law, to hospitalize them, keep them under surveillance for a given amount of time and, for some reason, review the whole application process, thus recommencing the whole circus described above. Not once, btw, but numerous times. These glorious affairs consequently result in a surplus of untransparent and legally unsolvable issues, which in turn result in a very unsavorably bunch of non-western, quat-munching, technically illegal immigrants roaming the streets, and not as block-captains, believe you me. But hey, aren't we a paragon of western liberal morality. Visit Rotterdam once (although, please don't) and you know what I mean. If Israelis have any inkling of sense, they'd do well not to augment the already existing fifth column with this bunch. It is a hard thing to say, I know, and the extradition must be executed humanely as possible, but it must be done. I have seen my country change over the last 20 years, and you do not want this to happen to you, really....Aid them in building their own countries instead of bringing them to your own. It is, by the way, also the most humane solution in the end.

For real refugees build detention centres so we can hold many tens of thousands at a time. Unless they are all in one place we don't stand a chance of ever getting rid of them even when it does become safe to go home because they would have started new lives here in Israel and don't want to be uprooted. Illegal economic migrants put them on the first plane home at their own expense. People who came on legitimate work permits but then decided they liked Israel so much they never wanted to go home once again deported at their own expense. Palestinians, its not our job the reunite families, they want a state next door then there is no need for them to settle in Israel because providing they obey the law and enter legally they can come visit and then go home at night. We do need new technologies such as digital ID cards which we can store information about the individual on and give the police portable card readers. We have a national database of everybody that entered the country on legal permits ( tourists not included ) that database will say who they are, where they came from and when they are due to go home and all this information can be stored on the digital ID card. If they are stopped in the street their card says their visa has expired they will be arrested & if they don't have an ID card they will be arrested and detained until they can produce one and if they don't have one then they will be deported providing they can prove they are a legitimate refugee. Special police forces designed solely for dealing with illegal immigration. We could actually use the haredi to provide alot of the manpower. The army doesn't need all the haredi because in recent years they have been trying to cutback in favour of technology to save money, all this talk about drafting the haredi is for politics not because the army want them. So lets create this special dedictaed immigration police force and haredi will form a large percentage of its numbers as a form of national service, also better for haredi lifestyle to have a form of national service. Get tough on companies that hire illegals with a three strikes and your out policy. First time its a warning and a fine Second time its a much bigger fine Third time its jail for the business owner, there can be no excuses of I didn't hire them an employee did you own a business the buck stops with the owner. All this can be dealt with by the special immigration police force. Its not going to come cheap but its a long term investment and if this can be used as haredi national service it will serve a dual purpose.

The author has a pleasure to bash Eli Ishai just because he is religious. Sorry but illegals are very well treated: Each leaving adult received 1,000 euros and each child 500 euros. I think it is outrageous to grant illegals such money on our back !! The author would be the first to cry out about haredim that are getting money from the bitouah leumi, but nothing about these illegals !!

i totally agree that Israel should have an immigration policy and it should be an Aliyah-based approach. A strong robust strategy of creating apecific localities for different diasporic jews religious secular french amrrican south american candian asutralian et cet, that would also give hem strong economic and housing incentives to move here, is the solution. Creating a Jewish state which hosts a creative healthy Jewish culture ( as opposed to secular religious otlrthodox refom sectorial narrow mindedness) will ensure that by the end of this century or even circa 2080s majority of jews, around 90-95 % of the world jewry, will be living in Israel.

Israel is a tiny country with almost no land reserves and a high population growth due to the Muslim, Bedouin and Haredi sectors. Israel's home grown messianic fanatics want to make sure Israel has even less land. The effect is unbearably high housing prices, just ask Dap Hne Le Ef and her fellow rioters. And despite this, no country has a more generous and logical immigration policy than Israel. Israel let's anyone who shares the local culture immigrate whether they are old or young, rich or poor and gives them generous financial, social and educational assistance. The real question is why the extreme Left wants to change this immigration policy.

Just take a look at the immigration problems of Western Europe!! Western Europe has millions of illegal immigrants, stateless "asylum seekers," migrant workers living in limbo, and 2nd, 3rd generation children of immigrants who are not citizens! In the US, illegals walk across the US-Mexico border with impunity, and Australians and Italians send refugee "boat people" to interim camps on remote islands in the sea! France and Itay stranded North African refugees/migrants on their borders to the point of revoking the Schengen agreement! All these countries have immigration departments and long standing policies, yet none have been able to deal with the question of immigrants, migrants, foreign workers and refugees! Israel does need a bureacracy to deal with migrants, but it should be focused on documenting and deporting them. period. as for foreign workers, care givers should be aged 40+ with families in their home countries, this would prevent them from creating roots here and wanting to stay. Another innovative idea, bring in gay refugees from other countries to work in Israel- they do not procreate and deserve protection from persecuting regimes and societies...

....juicy salaries that would need to be given to the "council", "committee", & "institute" members involved in writing the policy and writing the dissident opinions. And all these members want a.... "salary".

>> give the idf african fighters where oh where are all these western countries who have discovered african troops to be "trouble free, purity-of-arms" platoons? Howz about we let them patrol in YOUR neighborhood first?!?

Bnei Menashe, Pathan and Ethopian Communities Who have proven claims of a Jewish Heritage and Identity

So the writer only got it half-right. Would have been better to say that Israel closely follows Western democratic tradition.

It's the elite government and their journo-poodles which are always behind the curve... They focus on scooping their millions and billions and can only be bothered to stop for a few moments if chaos threatens...

There is nothing Western about Israel, including it's co called "democracy". Israel makes up his own lwas and system exclusive to it. Resembles more a arab country than any western democracy that exists in the world. In short, it's a sorry mess.