This failure is not ours. It belongs to an entire system, which for the past 10 years has failed to handle the illegal migrant issue and liberate the south Tel Aviv neighborhoods from a foreign, brazen, violent and insolent occupation.
We chose to trust the government – both because we wanted to believe it and because we didn't have any other choice – which assured us that any solution proposed by the opposition and various aid organizations would necessitate giving residency status to tens of thousands of illegal migrants. Indeed, they turned our home into theirs and made it very clear to us, repeatedly, that we would be the ones to go and they would stay, because for all intents and purposes this was their country and we were just racist specks of dust to be swept away.
Today is a somber day for all of us. On the national level, it's sad to see the elected right-wing government fold in the face of external and internal pressure. On the local level, it's depressing to see the glimmer of hope in the people's eyes extinguished. It is also dispiriting to see the leftist and the New Israel Fund activists rejoice at temporarily defeating those whose decade-long struggle has left them broken down and depleted. What a "proud" moment of triumph over the beleaguered, impoverished, elderly residents of Neve Shaanan and Hatikvah neighborhoods.
The deal presented to us at the Prime Minister's Office consists of two parts: The United Nations, within a five-year period, will transfer 16,250 illegal migrants to Western countries, and in exchange Israel will absorb an identical number of illegal migrants and give them temporary residency status. Because in Israel nothing is temporary, this status will become permanent over time. Some 6,000 people still remain outside the deal's parameters and decisions on them still need to be made. All the children, at least 10,000, aren't even being counted. In the second part of the deal, the state will establish an administration to rehabilitate south Tel Aviv and the money saved from canceling the deportation will be reinvested in the neighborhoods.
We did not get answers to a bevy of questions: What about the children? Where will those designated for deportation live over the next five years? Where will those staying here be relocated to exactly? How will they be prevented from crowding together in development towns? How will they be kept from returning to south Tel Aviv? Where will they find work in the periphery? What will happen when the aid organizations begin appealing for family unification? What will happen when they begin appealing against freedom of movement and employment restrictions? What will happen when the rumor reaches Africa that Israel offers a revolving door to Canada?
Most importantly, we didn't get an answer to the question: Why should we believe you again?
Having said all that, we must keep in mind that without the threat of deportation, the U.N. would not have agreed to take those 16,000 people. Without the threat of deportation, none of the bleeding hearts would have stood up and shouted their "support for south Tel Aviv."
Now the burden of proof is on them. You wanted dispersal over deportation? By all means. Don't wait for the government you detest so much. Get started tomorrow morning.
