PM: Israel opposes illegal immigrants, not foreign workers
In Prague, Netanyahu clarifies official stance on African migrants one day after interior minister called to expel them
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Israel is not opposed to foreign workers, but rather to illegal immigrants, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday during an official visit to Prague.
“We would like to stop this flood,” Netanyahu was quoted by Israel Radio as saying. One way to do so, he said, was to erect a fence along the border with Egypt.
The prime minister reportedly added that while there are 60 or 70,000 illegal immigrants (termed infiltrators) in Israel today, that number could “easily reach 600,000” – an outcome the fence can prevent.
Netanyahu’s comments come on the heels of Interior Minister Eli Yishai’s Wednesday statement that African refugees, who constitute the majority of illegal immigrants to Israel, “should be put into holding cells or jails and then given a grant and sent back.”
On Tuesday, police arrested four Eritrean and Sudanese men on suspicion of raping a woman in south Tel Aviv.
South Tel Aviv has a high concentration of African migrants, most of whom entered the country illegally via the Sinai Desert.
Tensions between the migrants and city residents have run high in recent weeks, reaching a peak in two incidents in which firebombs were hurled at apartments rented to migrants in an apparent effort to get them to leave the neighborhood.
The Times of Israel Community.