Asylum seekers march in Tel Aviv. 'Not a matter of racism'
Photo: Yaron Brener
Infiltrators are existential problem for Israel
Op-ed: As a country constantly struggling for survival, Israel cannot take in the tens of thousands of Africans who cross our borders
There is no need to stress that the infiltrators from Africa pose a critical and extremely complicated problem, for which it's hard to find any rational and acceptable solution. Nonetheless, Israel
must find such a solution because it's clear to everyone that the current situation cannot go on. The problem is only increasing every day.
The fact that thousands of infiltrators can hold a protest rally in Tel Aviv
proves beyond any doubt that Israel is a democratic and liberal country – perhaps the only one of its kind. In other countries the different types of infiltrators wouldn't dare protest, and in any case the authorities wouldn't let them do so. Israel is also the only country which has paid – and is willing to pay more – a lot of money to different countries in Africa so that they would take in infiltrators who agree to leave voluntarily.
Since its foundation, Israel has been struggling for its survival against hundreds of millions of its neighbors-enemies and their supporters around the world, and it cannot take in tens of thousands – and in the future even hundreds of thousands – of infiltrators. Every sensible person understands that this is not a problem of racism, but of existence.
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And different countries or bleeding hearts should not come along and accuse us of racism. Let them turn to bigger and stronger countries than Israel, those which prove on a daily basis how non-liberal and even inhumane they are in their "treatment" of those Africans.
I know, there was also a case in which several clerks referred to infiltrators as numbers. I have already stated how disgusted I am by this move and how much I oppose it. They certainly don't represent Israel. But it's safe to assume that they're not racist, they're just stupid.
In order to give a complete picture, I would also like to highlight the unfortunate phenomenon – which I also find outrageous – of those institutions, restaurants, cafés and different businesses that employ infiltrators who of course don’t have a work permit, and pay them the minimum of the minimum wage. They are not only violating the law, but also encouraging the arrival of additional infiltrators.
For a long time we didn't have a defined policy towards the problem, but we must set both norms and a plan of action in order to find the possible suitable solution, for us and for them.
