פעילי "עצמה יהודית" פגשו מסתננים

Dr. Michael Ben-Ari and Baruch Marzel arrived in southern Tel Aviv today and distributed leaflets to infiltrators in Tigrinya, the language spoken by natives of Eritrea and parts of Ethiopia.

The leaflets contain addresses and phone numbers of left-wing activists and Meretz MKs who have backed the demand by some infiltrators to be given legal status in Israel. Marzel and Ben-Ari encouraged infiltrators to avail themselves of the leftist activists' "hospitality" personally by providing the activists' personal contact information in mock invitations.

"This is the address to go to" Marzel directs a puzzled infiltrator he approaches. "A very good place to live, nice house. Free meals, free everything; you can do anything. Mrs. Silverman (Reform Rabbi Susan Silverman, sister of actress Sarah Silverman) and Member of Knesset Ilan Gilon in Ashdod - they're ready to take you, you can live in a very good place for free with the family, with your friends, you could go there, live there anytime you want."

Marzel (L) and Ben-Ari (R) leafleting
Marzel (L) and Ben-Ari (R) leafletingFlash 90

Marzel explained to Arutz Sheva that "I think my offer to Ilan Gilon is very tempting, and the offer of so-called Rabbanit Silverman, whose husband became a billionaire in Africa and sends her to speak ill of [Israel] with the money he makes in Africa, as if we're Nazis and behaving improperly. So I suggest that the Arabs and the infiltrators go and live with them. They will receive them nicley, give them free meals; sure, Mr. Silverman has lots of money, after all."

Dr. Ben-Ari explained the flyer's content: "The flyers offer infiltrators a comfortable place to live: 'We invite you to come to us, and when they try to deport you, you will find a warm home with us; with us you'll find free food,' etc.

"This week I saw Yoel Marshak regurgitating the words 'the kibbutzim, the kibbutzim, the kibbutzim'," referring to a meeting held last Friday between former members of the kibbutz movement and infiltrator leaders. The aim of the gathering was to formulate a systematized plan to aid African infiltrators as April approaches, when the Hulot facility will be closed and [male, single] infiltrators are to be return to Africa [with a grant from Israel and to a country where they are not endangered or imprisoned.

"You can search on Google," Ben-Ari continues. "Years ago the kibbutzim said they'd accept infiltrators. The kibbutzim haven't taken in one single illegal infiltrator, but now that we have personal invitations from Ilan Gilon and from Mrs. Silverman, we're providing the infiltrators with the addresses so they truly can have a place - or maybe just to expose their hypocrisy..."

Some would say, "Things are moving forward, we're about to see some action"; maybe it would be better for you to lower your profile for now?

"Unfortunately, when only their side [the left] speaks out publicly, they generate fear within the government with regards to the [deportation] process. Also very unfortunately, we have something else that's a disaster unto itself: They are only returning young single males on the whole. The problem, and the great disaster, are the women they brought here, each of them with at least 3-4 children."

Women infiltrators demonstrate in Tel Aviv
Women infiltrators demonstrate in Tel AvivFlash 90

"Here, right next to us, at the Levinsky Police Station, they cleared out the police in order to make fifteen kindergartens for infiltrators. This is a time-bomb in the State of Israel. These children, with their mothers, with their fathers, must be returned home. This is not expulsion; this is return to their homes."

How do you respond to charges of 'Nazi', which we heard today in the Knesset?

Marzel responds: "I must say that when I hear Meretz Knesset Members equating Likud MKs to Nazis, it reminds me of how in the past they would equate my teacher, Rabbi Kahane, and others from the Right to Nazis. Remove the Holocaust, remove the entire disaster that visited the Jewish people from the political lexicon; here we must speak to the point: There are infiltrators who are here and harm the State of Israel, and if the Leftists don't succeed in destroying the State with the Arabs, let them not try to do it with the infiltrators."

Tens of thousands of illegal work-seeking immigrants crossed into Israel over the past decade via the southern border with Egypt. Most of the infiltrators came from Eritrea, Sudan, Somalia, and other countries in northeastern Africa and very few are refugees..

Following the construction of the border fence along the Israeli-Egyptian frontier, illegal border crossings plummeted by more than 99% - but only after nearly 60,000 illegal immigrants had entered Israel prior to the construction of the fence in 2012.

A law passed last week will enable the government to deport illegal immigrants who have in the past refused to self-deport in exchange for $3,500 in cash. The bill also granted a limited three-month extension for the operation of the Hulot detention center, effectively putting a deadline for the deportation of those infiltrators now detained at Hulot.

“There are some 40,000 people (single males, not including those children who were born in Israel) in the territory of the State of Israel, mostly people from the African states of Eritrea and Sudan, who are currently… residing illegally in Israel,” the bill reads in part. “Their residing in Israel, illegally, has many negative consequences – social, economic, and others, including the deterioration of the rule of law and the right of the State to determine who may enter the country and who may reside there."

The State intends to bring about the comprehensive departure of infiltrators to a third-party state.

Some 15,000 infiltrators self-deported since 2014.

Former Knesset Member Dr. Michael Ben-Ari retired from the "Our Land of Israel" faction in 2012 and established a new political movement, Otzma Yehudit, joined by his Knesset aides Baruch Marzel and Itamar Ben Gvir.

MK Ben-Ari has been in the forefront of advocating for Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria. He had been a member of the National Union Party (Ichud Leumi) which was a conglomeration of four different religious and secular factions. The National Union merged with the Jewish Home Party (Bayit Yehudi), which Ben-Ari felt would weaken their Zionist message.

The Otzma Yehudit party narrowly failed to pass the electoral threshold for the Knesset in 2013 and again in the 2015 elections when it ran on a joint list with former Shas chief Eli Yishai in the Yahad party.

Baruch Marzel, a resident of Tel Rumeida, Hevron, was parliamentary assistant to Rabbi Meir Kahane when he was a Knesset Member for the Kach party in the 1980's. In 2015, the Central Elections Committee voted to disqualify Otzma Yehudit candidate Marzel from running in elections under the joint Yachad - Ha'am Itanu list. On appeal, however, the Supreme Court permitted Marzel's candidacy.