Protest against deportation of foreign workers' children
Photo: Gil Yohanan
Noah Flug. Signed on letter
Photo: Sasson Tiram
Shoah survivors: Kids' deportation inhumane
In letter to Netanyahu, survivors say decision on foreign children goes against 'Jewish conscience'
Heads of the umbrella organization of Holocaust survivors in Israel sent a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday in which they demanded that he cancel the deportation of 400 children of illegal foreign workers.
In the letter, signed by Noah Flug and Alex Orly, the Holocaust survivors wrote that they, like the rest of the country's residents, were shocked and pained by the cabinet's decision to deport the kids.
Foreign Children
Uri Misgav
Op-ed: Decision to expel 400 foreign children shuns Jewish morality, basic common sense
"The look in the sad eyes of the children and their tears cannot leave us, survivors and children of the Holocaust, apathetic," they wrote to the prime minister.
They called the decision inhumane: "The State of Israel is a Jewish country founded on a Jewish heart and conscience. We are a nation with a history and Torah that instruct us on precisely how to behave towards a foreigner. It is unacceptable that a Jewish government will act in such an inhumane and unscrupulous manner."
The survivors mentioned that children were torn away from their parents during the Holocaust. "We who experienced the Holocaust were witnesses to the death camp selection and the separation between children and their parents," they wrote to Netanyahu. "We especially cannot see pictures of miserable children who are not responsible for their situation and remain indifferent. We are overcome by a sense of suffocation and shame."
'They must not pay the price'
In the letter, the survivors also raised other reasons why the children should not be deported from Israel. "These children were born here and study in public schools. They must not pay the price as part of an attempt to solve the problem of the unemployment."
In addition, the survivors said that should the issue of foreign workers need to be resolved, adult workers staying illegally in the country should be targeted.
"We believe that entry visas must be granted more stringently and that the country must start with the removal of workers remaining in Israel illegally. However, we must show compassion, heart, soul, and humanity towards the children who are not responsible for the fate that brought them to Israel," the letter reads.
"The Jewish State with a past such as ours must not fail in terms of humanity and morality. This would damage us as a merciful society with a Jewish soul. These children know only Israel; they speak our language; they dream in Hebrew, and aspire to take part in building Israel. We must not let a child who grew up here be uprooted merely because of his origin. This lesson is engraved in the flesh of the Jewish people.
"We believe that now more than ever it is fitting that the voice of the Holocaust survivors should be abided on this issue," they wrote to the prime minister.
"We must preserve the State of Israel's honor and remove this embarrassing chapter from our agenda as if it never happened."
- Follow Ynetnews on Facebook
