Author: Rachelle Kliger
Publication: The Media Line
Date: August 24, 2003
URL: http://www.themedialine.org/news/news_detail.asp?NewsID=2759
The Israeli Police and Border Control
recently apprehended ten Palestinians residing illegally near the Israeli
town of Lod. The ten were living in a scorching-hot caravan, nine feet
long by nine feet wide, in impossible living conditions. "I came here to
work," one of the Palestinians told a reporter who witnessed the clampdown.
"I have no choice, I will come back again." After a short interrogation
by the Shin Bet, Israel's security agency, the Palestinians were sent back
to their homes in the Palestinian territories.
Although considered a success story,
this case is a microscopic indication of a much wider trend in Israel.
Thousands of Palestinians are entering Israel illegally on a daily basis,
residing in the country and exploiting its welfare services. Those caught
by Israeli authorities are merely the tip of the iceberg.
Although there are no figures as
to the number of illegal Palestinians currently in Israel, estimates put
it at tens of thousands. Arnon Sofer, a professor of geography at Haifa
University, claims 170,000 Palestinians have entered east Jerusalem and
pre-1967 Israeli territories just since the beginning of 2003.
The Muslim Palestinian population
has an average birthrate of 3.5-4 percent per year, the highest birthrate
in the world. They will double in number within 20-23 years. In comparison,
the Jewish population in Israel has an average birthrate of 1%. Consequently,
Israel may be facing a predicament more severe and menacing than any conceivable
security threat: by the year 2020 Jews may be a minority in their own state.
The problem is by no means new,
nor is it unique to Israel. (To read a recent article on the subject of
undocumented immigration in Texas and Israel, click here). Palestinians
have been entering the country illegally from the West Bank and Gaza Strip
since Israel took control of these areas in 1967. Most of these Palestinians
do not pose a security threat. Rather, they want to circumvent the Israeli
law to obtain Israeli residency or citizenship and benefit from Israel's
welfare and employment system, medical care, national security and the
right to vote.
The controversial and much discussed
security fence currently being built around the West Bank and Jerusalem
to prevent infiltration of terrorists is not yet effective in keeping out
illegal Palestinians. If anything, its construction is an incentive for
Palestinians to get on the 'right side' of the fence before it is too late.
The ineffectiveness of the authorities
in clamping down on illegal dwellers may be due to the fact that no ministry
is quite sure who is supposed to be dealing with the issue. Illegal dwellers
are in fact under the jurisdiction of all security forces, but instead
of that resulting in a blanket effect, there is a lack of coordination
between the various forces, creating gaping holes.
Police spokesman Gil Kleiman told
The Media Line (TML) that Palestinians do enter Israel illegally, but the
purpose of the police is to guarantee security, therefore police forces
are "less perturbed" by Palestinians who enter Israel for motives other
than crime or terror. Only if there is reason to believe a Palestinian
is involved in such deeds will they be detained for interrogation. A file
may be opened against the Israeli employer who erred by hiring someone
illegally.
More often than not, those caught
are sent back to the Palestinian territories. Israel has neither money
nor space in its overcrowded prisons to hold all the illegal dwellers.
Many of those expelled will later return and try their luck once again.
These recidivists, if caught once more, may be detained, or may simply
be sent back yet again.
Israel's Border Control is deployed
across the Green Line dividing Israel and the West Bank and is also responsible
for apprehending illegal infiltrators. The Border Control spokeswoman told
TML they are neither authorized nor capable of estimating the extent of
illegal dwellers in Israel. However, she did mention that from January
to June 2003, the Border Control apprehended 143,000 illegal dwellers across
the line. Taking into account the gaping holes across the line, which lack
security forces and a fence, this figure provides a rough idea as to the
extent of the total number of Palestinians who actually succeeded in entering
Israel.
Entering pre-1967 Israel from the
West Bank can be accomplished with relative ease. Palestinians skim past
security personnel unseen and hook up with a relative or acquaintance within
the Green Line, often from eastern Jerusalem. These illegal dwellers will
sometimes live with another 30 people in a room and in appalling living
conditions.
Once within the Green Line, Palestinians
can easily find a job on the black market, frequently in construction or
agriculture. They are often employed by Israelis, not necessarily Arabs,
who pay them the legal minimum wage ($4.30 per hour), or even less. Both
parties gain from this arrangement - the employer is not obligated to provide
welfare benefits for his employees, he is not taxed for their work and
can maintain a cheap workforce with minimum expenditure. The Palestinian
employee will, in return, have bread on the table at the end of the day
while avoiding the Israeli authorities.
If the employee indeed succeeds
in dodging the authorities for long enough, he will finally settle down
somewhere within the Green Line, perhaps marry an Israeli citizen and might
himself become an official Israeli resident or citizen. His children will
be born in Israel and will automatically be Israeli citizens, thus tilting
the demographic line in favor of the Arab population in Israel.
A disturbing ramification of Palestinians
settling in Israel is that children of illegal Palestinian dwellers are
likely to be instilled with pro-Palestinian and perhaps anti-Israeli views.
In a way, by failing to contend with the issue of infiltration from the
territories, Israel is paradoxically harboring its own enemies.
The Bedouins, a nomadic Muslim Arab
minority residing in the Negev desert in southern Israel, also play an
important part in tilting the demographic make-up of the state in favor
of Arabs. Some Bedouins "import" girls from the West Bank, marry them and
acquire Israeli citizenship for them. The Israeli Hebrew daily Ma'ariv
recently reported that there are tens of thousands of such cases in the
Negev. Bedouins circumvent the Israeli law prohibiting polygamy by divorcing
officially through both the Israeli authorities and the Muslim court. The
allegedly divorced wife will then return to her former husband's house
and continue bearing his children while living off a single-mother state
allowance.
The exceedingly high birthrate among
Bedouins (approximately 5% per year) increases their demographic advantage
tremendously vis-a-vis the Jewish population. Some Bedouins have up to
ten wives and even 100 children. A governmental official told Ma'ariv that
Bedouins consider "importing" women from the Palestinian territories the
first step in implementing the right of return to Israel.
Once in Israel, Palestinian illegal
dwellers can make use of Israel's welfare systems, such as medical care,
even when the hospital is aware of their illegal status.
Both Sha'arei Tzedeq and Hadassah
hospitals in Jerusalem claim that if a person in need of medical care arrives
at the emergency room, whether an illegal Palestinian or a foreign worker,
the hospital is obligated to treat that person. However, they do not provide
these people with follow-ups or treat them in non-life- threatening situations.
A Sha'arei Tzedeq spokesperson said
the number of illegal Palestinians hospitalized there since January 2003
is over a dozen and the number of babies born in the hospital to at least
one Palestinian parent is similar. However, when asked about the number
of illegal Palestinians treated in the emergency room, she estimated the
number as being well over a hundred, adding there is no official documentation
of this.
Hadassah Ein Karem Hospital in Jerusalem
could give no numerical estimation, but said their policy was similar.
Exactly how many illegal Palestinians
are there in Israel? No-one quite knows.
Sofer estimates that 300,000 have
entered pre-1967 Israel since 1967, a figure that does not take offspring
into account. As to the incredible 170,000 he claims have entered Israel
since January 2003, he attributes this figure to "security sources."
There are a number of possible solutions
to the problem. One is the security fence currently being built between
Israel and the West Bank. The fence is expected to provide an effective
method of keeping out unwanted visitors, but according to Gil Kleiman,
even when its construction is complete, the fence will not entirely stop
infiltration of Palestinians into Israel and will definitely not replace
other methods of maintaining security, such as routine patrols.
The Israeli parliament (Knesset)
passed a law last month that will prohibit Palestinians (though not other
foreigners) from acquiring residency or citizenship in Israel through their
Israeli spouse. The law has been in effect de facto for a year already
and was characterized as "a war-time law," by Member of Knesset Yuri Stern.
This amendment clearly plays a role
in limiting the demographic upheaval bound to create an Arab majority in
the Jewish state.
The Palestinians have vocalized
strong opposition towards both the security fence and the new law amendment,
claiming they are both racist and discriminatory measures. However, Israeli
advocates of these measures defend them, not so much for their demographic
benefits, but rather because they are anti-terrorist measures.
The demographic aspect seems to
have been overlooked, perhaps because the potential disastrous results,
given adequate circumstances, will not be felt imminently, but only in
the long run.
Sofer's solution to the problem
is very much in line with the security fence. "Israel should build a wall
[between the Israelis and Palestinians] so high that eagles won't be able
to fly over it," says the professor.
Sofer has long been considered a
raging prophet in Israel, anticipating demographic catastrophes for over
ten years.
The demographic threat, Sofer argues,
is already starting to materialize, and more rapidly than anticipated.
"If a separation between Jews and Arabs isn't applied right away, it is
clear that an Arab majority will reduce the Jewish landscape of the state,"
says Sofer.
