Abuse of Foreign Workers Israeli Style

The 50th anniversary of the founding of Israel on April 30 prompted many
articles about Jewish immigration.

Israel has almost six million residents, 4.8 million Jews; 900,000 Muslims;
150,000 Christians (half of the Christians in Israel are Arabs); and
100,000 Druze.

Israel's population is growing by about 130,000 or 2.2 percent a year,
primarily because of immigration.  There are about 120,000 Jewish births a
year, and 32,000 Arab births.

Israel has absorbed 630,000 Russians and 50,000 Ethiopians since the late
1980s -- the equivalent of the United States absorbing all of France. One
million so-called Russians are expected to migrate to Israel by 2000,
making one-sixth of Israel's population of Russian origin.  The Israeli
authorities use the term "Russian" to refer to those from all 15 former
Soviet republics.  Russians--who tend to be more educated and skilled than
native-born Israelis--have a lower unemployment rate.  They are also more
likely to be secular Jews, or not Jewish at all--about 25 percent are the
non-Jewish spouses and children of Jews.

Upon their arrival in Israel, Jewish immigrants receive identity cards, six
months' free medical insurance and, for retirees, social security checks.
Families receive about $540 in cash, the first of $10,000 worth of benefits
in the first year of life in Israel.

           Guest Workers

A Thai avocado harvester murdered an Israeli woman on a kibbutz in April,
setting off a new discussion of foreign workers.  Nearly 19,000 Thais are
employed in Israeli agriculture.

Labor Minister Eli Ishai said that foreign workers had "a deadly effect" on
Israeli society: "I'm acting to deport as many illegal workers as
possible."  Ishai promised to deport 2,000 illegal foreigners each month.
In 1997, Israel expelled 2,768 illegal immigrants, up from 953 in 1996. The
Israeli Human Rights Association said Ishai's tirade against the non-Jewish
immigrants brought in to replace Palestinian workers would "encourage
xenophobia."

About half of the 200,000 foreign workers in Israel are working illegally.
Most are from Romania, Thailand and the Philippines.  In some areas, they
are 10 percent of a village's population and do most of the farm work. Most
Israelis regard Thai workers as industrious, reliable and loyal.

The Israeli government has taken a tough line on foreigners who marry
Israelis, ordering some to leave the country despite marriage to Israelis.

More than 50,000 day-laborers from the Gaza Strip and West Bank now work in
Israel and the Defense Ministry says it expects this to rise to 70,000 over
coming months.  Unemployment among Israelis was eight percent in March
1998.

There are about eight million Palestinians world wide, including 1.7
million on the West Bank and one million in the Gaza strip.  There are also
2.2 million Palestinians in Jordan, and 500,000 in the Gulf region.

---

Doug Struck, "Joblessness, Slaying Stir Israeli Anger at Foreign Workers,"
Washington Post, April 27, 1998.

Lee Hockstader, "An Unstoppable Russian Deluge,"
Washington Post, April 26, 1998.

"Thai's arrest for murder sparks debate over foreign labor,"
South China Morning Post, April 25, 1998.

"Israeli minister accuses immigrant workers of spreading drugs,
prostitution," Agence France Presse, April 23, 1998.

Israel's Employment Service Director warns that if the country does not
reduce the number of legal and illegal foreign workers it will face a
situation similar to that of Europe with its guest workers.  He said, "If
there is no firm, courageous and clear policy, I fear that in another 10
years we'll see one million foreign workers in Israel.  They will bring
their wives and their children will be born here."

The Israeli interior minister said that foreign workers have been using
forged UN refugee documents bought for $700 in order to extend their stay
in the country.  Such letters on UN stationary say that "the subject's
request for refugee status is currently being examined by the Refugee
Commission in Geneva," and that the "subject should be permitted to remain
resident in Israel and be given all other relevant assistance."

The Washington Post reported on March 9 that Israeli immigration
authorities, faced with an increase in marriages between Jews and non-Jews,
are making it more difficult for non-Jewish spouses of Jews to enter or
remain in the country.  Civil rights advocates say that authorities have
ordered many non-Jewish foreign spouses to leave the country. The Israeli
government says that those ordered to leave were engaged in "convenience"
marriages to enable the foreigner to live in Israel.

Non-Jews in Israel on temporary visas who marry an Israeli must leave
Israel and apply in their country of origin for immigrant status.  There is
no civil marriage in Israel. Israelis marrying non-Jews, and even some
non-Orthodox Jewish couples, usually leave the country to marry or get a
legal marriage contract from the consulate of Paraguay in Tel Aviv.  In one
case, a Jewish women married a non-Jewish Russian.  Although the couple has
a daughter, the Israeli government refuses to recognize the marriage, has
declared her single and the daughter fatherless, and has ordered the
husband to leave the country.

Israeli Immigration Minister Yuli Edelstein said in March 1998 that Jewish
immigrants would have to be attracted to Israel during the next 50 years
for economic, religious, or cultural reasons, since: "there are no pogroms.
So if we want to keep the numbers high, and we do, we will have to attract
them Jewishly, economically, socially, culturally."  TASS reports that
Nativ, the Israeli government bureau responsible for Jews living in CIS
member countries, will encourage Jews to migrate to Israel.  Nativ has
attracted about 800,000 Jews from former Soviet republics to Israel since
1988.  One of six Israeli residents in 1998 is Russian-speaking.

Palestinians. The first Palestinian census found that there were 2.9
million Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem,
higher than Israeli estimates of two million.

---
Anatoly Kerzhentsev, "Israeli bureau to stop spying on CIS, focus on
immigration, TASS, March 17, 1998.

David Harris, "Hatred for foreign workers on the rise," Jerusalem Post,
March 17, 1998.

John Donnelly, "New generation will need a different kind of incentive,"
Miami Herald, March 22, 1998.

"Foreign laborers using forge UN papers to enter Israel," Agence France
Presse, March 10, 1998.

Doug Struck, "Israeli shift breaks up families; non-Jewish spouses told to
leave and apply for immigration," Washington Post, March 9, 1998.