Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Strangers No More - Action Alert

The following Action Alert came in from the New Israel Fund (NIF)

Last week, the documentary film “Strangers No More” won the Oscar. It featured the children of migrant workers who attend Bialik-Rogozin School in South Tel Aviv, where Jews, Muslims and Christians from many nations learn together and become Israelis, who look forward to their army service and their lives in their adopted land.

Attention to the issue of children of migrant workers and refugees in Israel could not come at a more important time. Currently, 400 children who know no other home than Israel may soon be deported from the country. You can help to prevent this.

Please let Israel’s Interior Minister Eli Yishai, the architect of the deportation decision, hear from you and thousands of others that deporting these children would be at odds with Jewish history, Jewish values and our dedication to an egalitarian and just Israel.

This past weekend, NIF organizations protested the deportation ruling at a demonstration, one of many over the last year. Through our support for the Hotline for Migrant Workers, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, the African Refugee Development Center, Physicians for Human Rights and Bina, and through your support for NIF, you have already made a difference in the fierce legal and social fight for these children’s welfare.

Now, time is almost up. The government has already opened a detention facility for the families of these children at Ben-Gurion Airport. And the ultra-nationalists and ultra-religious who claim Israel should be a country for Jews alone will have won another round, at the expense of those too young and too marginalized to fight back.

Please give these children a fighting chance. Make your voice heard. Contact the Interior Ministry today, and tell him to allow these children to stay at least while the larger issues are being debated. Thank you for taking action and with the New Israel Fund as we work for a sane and fair immigration policy, and for an Israel that values everyone who is dedicated to its well-being and its future.

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