Who will help the "invisible" citizens of Israel?
Who will help the "invisible" citizens of Israel?

When the previous minister of interior, Silvan Shalom, announced his resignation from the Knesset, a nightmare that had dogged me and the residents of southern Tel Aviv in the past came back to haunt us.

We knew that if Aryeh Deri – the man whose election ads promised to take care of Israel’s “invisible” citizens – were to return to the Ministry of Interior, it would spell disaster for Israel’s truly “invisible” citizens, the poor residents of southern Tel Aviv. On the other hand, the tens of thousands of infiltrators and their good friends from the radical left would have cause to celebrate.

What worried us was not necessarily the fact that Deri was one of the great supporters of the Oslo disaster, nor his famous “thou shalt love the foreigner” approach (in which he takes pride publicly whenever the opportunity arises), nor even his close ties to leftist parties and NGOs that desire fervently to grant citizenship to the tens of thousands of infiltrators who came here from Eritrea and Sudan, and to enable their families to unite with them here.

What worried us was, rather, the clear understanding that Deri would not do the things that the previous Shas interior minister – Eli Yishai – dared to do. Even if refraining from acting hurt the Nation of Israel terribly, and compromised its security and character. Even if it ran counter to the principles of Shas, the party he heads, and involved sacrilege, assimilation and awful damage to Israel’s weakest population, most of which is made up of kipah-wearing Mizrahim.

It was clear to us that if Deri’s nemesis, Yishai, had said that the infiltrators need to leave Israel, Deri would adopt the opposite approach, no matter what.

If the truth be told, a law-abiding state would never allow a convicted criminal to serve as minister again – and certainly not in the very same ministry in which his crimes were committed. But how did we reach a situation in which a man about whom ultra-leftist Uri Avneri said “he is more radically leftist than me” heads a religious, Mizrahi, “right wing” party and hoodwinks everyone around him so perfectly? That is the true mystery.

Three interior ministers before Deri refused to grant infiltrator leader Mutasim Ali refugee status, on the grounds that he is a dangerous subversive who is controlled by foreign organizations that seek to change the character of Israeli society.

Gideon Sa’ar, Gilad Erdan and Silvan Shalom all considered Mutasim’s application and rejected it. During at the time they were in office, he was largely seen as a dangerous person who should remain in the Holot facility because he engages in subversion of infiltrators against the state of Israel and its laws.

This is exactly what he is: a danger. Only a few months ago, he stood outside the Holot facility, together with members of the Hebrew Cushite sect of Dimona, and proclaimed that “the land of Israel originally belonged to Africa and should be returned to its original owners, the Africans.”

This is the same “refugee” who serves as the director of the Center for Advancement of African Refugees that is funded by the New Israel Fund – an NGO registered at the same address as the Israeli Committee against Home Demolitions headed by Jeff Halper, an infamous anti-Zionist BDS activist. This constitutes clear cooperation between the infiltrator leader who received refugee status from Deri last week, and a well-known activist against the Jewish character of the Jewish state.

Two months ago, The Hebrew City – the NGO I head – exposed that Dasi, Deri’s daughter, and her husband, Yitzhak Iluz, are also the owners of buildings in southern Tel Aviv that are all rented out to illegal infiltrators. This constitutes a clear conflict of interests for a minister who is supposed to be implementing government policies and taking action to send the infiltrators back home to Africa.

While Deri professes to be concerned for the fate of the Nation of Israel, he does nothing to counter the deluge of infiltrators, who now number well over 100,000, with an added 7,000 births annually, and refuses to even meet the residents of southern Tel Aviv, Arad, Ashkelon, Eilat, Ashdod, Petah Tikva, Yavneh, Haifa and other cities where entire neighborhoods have been overrun by Eritreans. These neighborhoods have lost their Jewish character entirely; a foreign culture has taken them over and the Jews have fled them en masse.

The same Deri gave Ali refugee status in a clear signal to his leftist friends that he is taking care of their interests – and unsurprisingly, the decision is being seen as a harbinger of many more refugee-status approvals that are yet to come. He also recently approved “family unification” for 2,000 Arabs from the Palestinian Authority with Israeli-Arab spouses.

People tell me it’s all about politics. That the Arabs vote for him and that the infiltrators will, too. But how is it possible for Deri to blind the Jewish public in this way, when he himself has become a demographic threat? Doesn’t the prime minister, who appointed him Interior Minister, understand that the precedents Deri is setting are taking us past the point of no return, in terms of Israel’s security and Jewish character?

I have an idea. Maybe Aryeh Deri can set aside his political interests and think for just one moment about the underprivileged citizens whom he is supposed to represent. Perhaps he can visit southern Tel Aviv without media accompaniment and get to know the deprivation from up close.

But wait a minute – what am I saying? His family already rents out buildings to the infiltrators, so they already know southern Tel Aviv well.

That leaves only you, Mr. Netanyahu. I realize that you have to maintain stability in your coalition, but maybe you can hold a little talk with the interior minister you appointed, to keep him from doing the opposite of the policy you yourself declared?

Oops. Silly me, I forgot. No one messes with Aryeh Deri. He does as he pleases, no matter how great the destruction.

Ah, well. What is left for us, then, but to pray that redemption will come from a different direction? After all, justice has to triumph in the end, doesn’t it?