'Grandparents want to see them.' Yishai
Photo: Gil Yohanan
Yishai: Put Migrant workers' kids on planes
During heated Knesset debate, interior minister defends his decision to support deportation of 400 children of foreign workers, calls fellow MKs 'hypocrites'. Meretz's Ghilon calls Yishai 'primitive racist'
During a heated Knesset debate Monday on the cabinet's decision to deport of 400 children of foreign migrants, Interior Minister Eli Yishai said thousands of children are being kept hidden from authorities so their parents may apply for permanent residency status in the future.
The Shas chairman defended his decision to support the deportation and accused his fellow Knesset members of hypocrisy, saying, "Everyone understands that the parents (foreign workers) are using their children. We have to tell the children, 'The trip is over'. Will any of them weep? Stop talking nonsense. I am not deporting lone children here.'
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"Their grandparents in their (countries of origin) want to see them," he said.
Knesset Member Ilan Ghilon of Meretz called Yishai a "primitive racist." The minister replied by urging the leftist lawmaker to "repent."
In his speech, Yishai said he does not differentiate between a child who came to Israel from Romania and a child who was born in Sudan, and warned that eventually there may be tens of thousands of children of foreign workers in Israel. He said the foreign workers may also try to bring their relatives to Israel.
"The difference between you and me is that I have to be the bad guy," the minister told the plenum. "I hold responsibility for the State of Israel's fate."
Yishai said between 500,000 and two million Sudanese were currently making their way to Israel. The infiltrations along Israel's southern border pose an existential threat to the Jewish state, he said.
"I believe they (foreign workers' children) should be put on planes and sent back to their home countries...The parents use the children as human shields and as an insurance policy," Yishai said.
