(JTA) — Israel’s Cabinet is set to reopen discussions over the planned deportation of 400 children of foreign workers.
Ynet quoted a government source as saying that the matter would be taken up Sunday at the Cabinet meeting.
Labor Party ministers in the Cabinet have been calling for a reconsideration of a decision Aug. 1 to deport children who do not meet five criteria: studied in an Israeli school last year or is registered for an Israeli school this year; speaks Hebrew; parents arrived on a valid visa; arrived in Israel before the age of 13; and has lived in Israel five consecutive years.
Under those criteria, 800 of 1,200 children under consideration were allowed to stay, but Labor ministers argued that it would be cruel to deport children, some of whom were born in Israel, and that the spectacle would harm Israel’s image at a delicate time.
