Rabbinical edict
The rabbis have weighed in again, on a matter that seemingly should have nothing to do with them. Twenty-five Tel Aviv rabbis signed an edict forbidding the rental of apartments to so-called “infiltrators” and illegal foreign workers.
The rabbis announced that “in the wake of the severe pressure that the neighborhoods of south Tel Aviv face and their abandonment by the government, that begins with the Israeli-Egyptian border and ends with the lawlessness and violence that is taking over south Tel Aviv, the residents of the neighborhoods have decided that the present situation cannot continue.”
The illegal foreign workers and infiltrators are the refugees fleeing various African countries, who come into Israel through said Israeli-Egyptian border and make their way north, mostly to Tel Aviv. They do tend to settle in south Tel Aviv, where housing is cheaper, and where they have created communities around their very temporary living situation, given the ongoing battle to send the refugees back to their native lands. But it seems that the other long-term residents of these neighborhoods aren’t looking for any kind of African influence:
The authors of the petition added that “they will not let the neighborhoods in which they grew up to turn into Sudanese neighborhoods…after many attempts using acceptable legal means, the residents decided to have the rabbis sign an ‘Edict Forbidding the Rental of Apartments to Infiltrators,’ and hope that this will halt the deterioration of the neighborhoods.”
Several politicians weighed in on the edict, calling it racist and xenophobic, and calling for the attorney general to find out if any of the rabbis who signed the edict are on the government payroll. As if they’d get fired??
Let the children stay
Filed under: A New Reality, coexistence, General, Israeliness, Life, Politics
There hasn’t been a more sensitive issue on the Israeli table the last few months than that of children of foreign workers. Over 1,200 children of non-Israelis – mostly from Africa, who have been working in Israel for the last decade – are in danger of being deported by the government, despite the fact they were born here, speak Hebrew, and aside from the coveted identity card are as Israeli as anyone else.
The catch? They’re not Jewish.
This week, an interministerial committee was supposed to tackle the issue ahead of a November 1st deadline that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu had set to come up with a solution to their plight. Their decision – to enable the children to remain in Israel through the end of the school year, and then we’ll see.
The campaign to deport the children is being led by Interior Minister Eli Yishai, the leader of the Shas party. He’s been adamant that the children of foreign workers not be given residency or citizenship in Israel in order to preserve the Jewish nature of the country.
According to Ha’aretz, Yishai does not object to Monday’s decision to postpone deporting the children and their parents until the end of the school year, saying this was for “humanitarian reasons.” But he stressed that he will not agree to any further postponements and will vehemently oppose granting the children citizenship or residency.
Allowing these children to stay in Israel “is liable to damage the state’s Jewish identity, constitute a demographic threat and increase the danger of assimilation,” he said, adding that he would give up his ministry if the government decides to let the children stay.
On behalf of all forward looking people in Israel, let me say that we look forward to the day that happens.
Minister for Minority Affairs Avishay Braverman, representing the humane side of Israeli society, said he couldn’t envision Israel resorting to deporting the children, who want to stay here, serve in the army and be productive members of society.
According to Ynet, he referred in a speech to a precedent established by prime minister Menachem Begin in 1977, where he granted Israeli citizenship to 179 Vietnamese refugees who escaped their homeland on boats after a regime change occurred in Vietnam. No country agreed to take the refugees in after being pulled out of the sea by an Israeli cargo ship.
“The State of Israel will be blemished should those 1,200 children not be accepted as Israeli citizens. It is humanitarianly the right thing to do. The issue must be solved and we are obligated to acknowledge them equal citizens of the State of Israel,” said Braverman.
It’s clear what the right thing to do here is. And if I need to risk the possibility that one of my children might one day want to marry an Israeli who isn’t Jewish, it’s a small price to pay.
High holiday woes
Filed under: A New Reality, General, Holidays, Israeliness, Life
I’ve spent the last two weeks alternately pining for and cursing my husband, who like many educated Jewish men with good voices and/or rabbinical ordination, spent Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur in the U.S., making some useful U.S. dollars in exchange for — in his case — working as a shliach tzibbur for the high holidays in a small New Jersey congregation.
This year’s gig offer came late in the season, as a friend decided not to take the job because of personal reasons. We also have plenty of personal reasons, including my two stepdaughters and nearly year-old twins, as well as mothers, siblings, nieces and nephews, all of whom benefit when our family unit is intact. But the financial reasons ended up outweighing the personal ones, because it’s hard to argue with an influx of cash during ‘these troubling economic times.’
So I said goodbye to Daniel a few days before Rosh Hashana, and shored up my own preparations. We headed out to my brother’s for Rosh Hashana, loading up the car with a load of gear. When it came to Yom Kippur, I couldn’t face the same kind of trip, and decided to stay home.
But remembering something my mother used to do with me 40-odd years ago, I decided to find a babysitter for the boys on Yom Kippur, so that I could do some of my own praying. And get out of the house. Of course, that’s easier said than done in a city like Jerusalem, where most people are either going to be in shul, or bicycle riding down the empty city streets. Anyway, you can’t really ask a fellow Jew to stay home from shul on Yom Kippur, even if they’re not planning on praying.
Instead, I asked our two Sri Lankan cleaning ladies, Renuka and Hindu, if they’d be interested in helping me out for a few hours. Given that they play with my boys each week when they’re at our house, as well as have some five children between them, I knew they’d be fine babysitters. And they were.
The moment that gave me pause was when Renuka asked me where my husband was, given that it’s the holiday season. I explained that he was working in the States, making some extra money. As I was speaking, I thought to myself that Renuka must think we’re crazy, to want extra money when we clearly live comfortably, in a lovely home, and affording babysitters and cleaners. And then, I thought again, and realized that no, she absolutely gets it, given that as foreign workers, she and Hindu have both left children, husbands and parents in Sri Lanka for more than three years. They know what it is to separate in order to make a living. Albeit, of a different standard.
So instead of feeling put upon when Daniel finally does return, I’ll try not to. Can’t promise, but given that he’s only been gone two weeks, and not two years, I can grin and bear it for one more day.
Foto Friday – Israel Thai Style
Filed under: A New Reality, Art, Foto Friday, General, Life
Asaf Friedman is a professional photographer who, for the past two years, has been documenting the lives of Thai guest workers in Israel. The project is now a powerful exhibit, entitled “Israel Thai Style.”
Friedman trained his lens on the workers’ private lives and, in particular, how they spend their leisure time. Theirs is an invisible community that most Israelis not only never see, but don’t even know exists — though it literally touches the lives of Israelis every day through the fruits and vegetables put on the table.
“I always see them at the town squares as they wait for their employers to pick them up, riding their bikes in the middle of the road, caring for the unfortunate, working in agriculture and construction, and doing the work that not one aside from them is willing to do. When a troop of Thai workers crossed the field across from my house to pick potatoes for several months; that was the first time I really saw them. Questions began to arise – who are these ‘foreign workers’? What other identities do they have, aside from that of a laborer? What do they do when they go ‘home’? What do their lives look like and to what extent does their foreignness characterize them?”
To answer his questions, Freidman got to know some Thai workers who brought him into their private sphere. In gaining access to the caravan neighborhoods scattered throughout the country, Friedman was amazed to discover a world that, without his knowing it, had existed right under his nose.
“My interest is to document, through the camera lens, a collection of rituals and situations from the everyday private live of the Thai migrant workers in order to expose the cultural and social capital they bring with them. Although the exhibit doesn’t directly or explicitly relate to the fundamental significances of the presence of migrant workers in Israel, it could open a small window through which we might think about, reflect on and discuss them.”
Freidman looked at the seamy side of celebration as well, including cock-fighting, pig slaugtering, gambling, and amateur beauty contests for both genders. “Cock-fights in an enlightened country like Israel seems very brutal and in fact goes against a lot of conventions in a progressive society. It’s important for me to emphasize that this is a very popular sport in Southeast Asia, and Thailand specifically.”
Although not overtly political, Freidman does intend for his work to be a statement. “Israel’s migrant workers represent a component, albeit a transparent one, within Israeli society. The significance of the migrant workers presence affects not only the structure and organization of the labor market in Israel, but also exposes other basic aspects of social and political life in Israel.”
“Israel Thai Style,” is on till December 30 at the Dizengoff Center in Tel Aviv and can also be accessed online at Friedman’s website.
Foto Friday – Ilan Spira’s Unseen Israel
Filed under: Art, Foto Friday, General, Immigrant Moments, Life, Politics, Profiles
Each year, thousands of guest workers enter Israel legally, illegally and semi-legally to work in everything from home healthcare to agriculture, construction to restaurant kitchens, and other menial tasks. Seven years ago, while he was still a student, photographer Ilan Spira began documenting the community that had sprung up near the old Tel Aviv Central Bus Station. His work exposed, for the first time, people that had, in his words, “been invisible to Israelis before that”.
“Seven years ago, people didn’t know that foreign workers had children or families It started with good things. I began photographing the kids at their school, and through them I met the parents. I was the only Israelis photographing their events and I became a sort of house photographer.”
Franklin Wedding – Photo by Ilan Spira
Guest laborers work on Sundays in Israel, so each Saturday, Spira happened by the churches on Lewanda St. in south Tel Aviv. “One week I’d take pictures, the next week I’d sell the pictures for NIS 1 profit. My friends would make fun of me but I’d say, ‘I made enough money to buy myself a humus and pita that afternoon’. My profit was the photo negative and the possibility of getting to know the people. I’d visit their houses and see the pictures on the wall, or on the bedroom mirror, and I was so happy to part of their lives.”
Outside Church – Photo by Ilan Spira
Things turned serious in 2003, after a suicide bomber hit the old Central Bus Station — “A foreign worker was killed, and some of my friends were hurt” — and Spira’s relationship with the community deepened even further about four years ago, when the government began cracking down and deporting foreign workers. Spira began visiting hospitals and jails, documenting cases of police brutality. Eventually, he presented those photos as evidence before the Knesset Committee for Foreign Workers – “I wanted to do my part, as an Israel citizen, in bringing about justice.”
Children in the Park With a Dog – Photo by Ilan Spira
These days, Spira is getting ready for a trip to the Philippines to find the friends who were deported from Israel. He did the same two years ago when he visited Ghana and actually located the children in the above photo. “For children, petting a dog is more attractive than a wedding. Those children today are about 10 and 11. The older sister in the background is about 14. Today, because of a change in the law, those kids would be Israeli citizens – they were born in Israel and [would have] lived here for more than 10 years.”
Why does he feel the need to follow-up? “I wanted to get to know the foreign worker issue from the other side: why do they leave their countries, why come to Israel, what can they find here that they don’t they have there? Plus, they don’t know it but they are a big part of who I am today as a photographer and as a person.”
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