Kadima MK: Send human rights activists to prison camps

During House Committee debate on illegal African migrants, MK Shamalov Berkovich says some leftists would 'gladly transfer settlers, haredim and keep infiltrators here'

Omri Efraim|Published: 05.29.12 , 20:40

If given the opportunity, some Israeli human rights groups "would be the first to put haredim and settlers on buses and transfer them," Knesset Member Yulia Shamalov Berkovich said Tuesday during a heated House Committee debate of on the influx of foreign migrants into the country.

"Those hypocrites," the Kadima member said of human rights activists who are aiding foreign migrants, "I would imprison them all for incitement and for pitting Jews against Jews."

Shamalov Berkovich called the recent posting on Facebook of a doctored image of MK Miri Regev wearing a Nazi uniform and performing the Nazi salute "disgraceful."

"All human rights activists should be imprisoned and transported to camps we are building," she said, referring to detention facilities Israel is constructing in which African infiltrators will be held.

מבעירים פחי אשפה בהפגנה נגד הזרים בתל-אביב (צילום: ירון ברנר)

Violence during anti-migrant protest in south Tel Aviv (Photo: Yaron Brener)

During a recent demonstration in south Tel Aviv against the government's handling of the infiltration phenomenon, Regev described Sudanese migrants in Israel as a “cancer.”

Shamalov Berkovich later told Ynet, "I toured south Tel Aviv and witnessed the deplorable conditions in which the infiltrators live. It pains me a lot, and I ask – how did we reach a situation whereby in the Jewish State of Israel people (foreign migrants) are living like animals?

"There are MKs from the left who speak terribly of haredim and settlers. This is incitement and extreme self-hatred. They would gladly transfer ultra-Orthodox and settlers and keep the infiltrators here. I want to tell the human rights groups that most (of the infiltrators) are not refugees, they came here to seek work," she told Ynet.

According to Shamalov Berkovich, the human rights groups are forcing Israelis to "illegally employ infiltrators," adding that they are "compromising the security of the state and its citizens and should be locked up."

The MK said the solution was to conduct negotiations with the infiltrators' home countries and have them agree to absorb the migrants. She stressed that acts of violence against foreign migrants are a "horrible mistake."

Attorney Oded Feller from the Association for Civil Rights in Israel said after the meeting that MKs who are calling to deport infiltrators are "deceiving" the public because "they know that most of those seeking asylum in Israel are Eritreans and Sudanese who cannot be expelled."