Jerusalem, August 16: The Israeli prime minister’s wife said begged her husband’s administration on Sunday to not go through with a decision to deport around 400 children out of Israel in an effort to combat illegal immigration in the country, the Guardian reported.
Sara Netanyahu wrote a letter to Eli Yishai, a hardline cabinet member in charge of the deportation programme, pleading for the release of the children. The controversial decision by Yishai and others is backed by her husband.
“I appeal to you as a mother of two young boys and a psychologist in the public service,” Mrs. Netanyahu wrote. “I am asking you, from the bottom of my heart, to […] allow the vast majority of the 400 remaining children to stay in Israel.”
The Israeli cabinet voted around two weeks ago to deport the children, saying that while people may feel humanitarian concerns, “there are Zionist considerations and ensuring the Jewish character of the state of Israel.” The cabinet further said they didn’t want to incentivize thousands of migrant workers.
Following the decision, defence minister Ehud Barak, who was not present during the vote, publically derailed the decision. “The state of Israel cannot expel hundreds of children,” he said. “It is not Jewish or humane and will scar the entire Israeli society.” Additionally, an umbrella organization consisting of Holocaust survivors also condemned the decision in a letter to the prime minister. “We who experienced the Holocaust were witnesses to the death camp selection and the separation between children and their parents,” the letter said. “We are overcome by a sense of suffocation and shame.”
Demonstrations erupted in Tel Aviv to protest the decision, prompting thousands to show up over the weekend. The children are expected to be deported at the end of the month.
———–Agencies