Four days after the cabinet voted to deport 400 children of foreign workers, Defense Minister Ehud Barak askedPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reverse the decision and allow the children to remain in Israel, Ynet learned Wednesday.
Barak, who was abroad during the vote, said, "The State of Israel cannot expel hundreds of children. It is not Jewish or humane and will leave Israeli society scarred."
Also on Wednesday, Knesset Member Orit Noked sent a letter to Labor chairman Barak demanding a second vote on the status of foreign workers' children.
Noked, a Labor member and a representative of the Kibbutzim district, is opposed to the government's decision to deport 400 children who do not meet the criteria set for remaining in Israel. The Kibbutz Movement volunteered to adopt the children in an effort to keep them in the country.
Another Labor member, Welfare and Social Services Minister Isaac Herzog, called the cabinet's decision "reasonable."
"It may not be a perfect decision and it may not be the epitome of humanness, but it was the best we could achieve at this point in time," he said.
Herzog, who abstained from the vote, added, "In retrospect, I should have withdrawn my reservations and supported the proposal."