MK Uri Orbach (Jewish Home) said Monday that “one of the harsh prices of the Oslo delusions is the problem of the foreign workers.” He spoke in the Knesset debate over a no-confidence motion regarding the foreign worker crisis.
"Whenever we talk about the foreign workers and all the great humanists talk about the problem of the children of the foreign laborers, remember what brought all this upon us,” he exhorted his audience. “Reckless visions of peace, irresponsible retreats, they are what brought this problem upon us.”
Orbach was referring to the fact that the Oslo agreements and the entry of PLO forces into Judea, Samaria and Gaza led to the terrorism which forced Israel to stop letting PA Arab workers into its territory, and to start bringing in workers from abroad.
MK Nitzan Horowitz of left-wing Meretz said: “We bring foreign laborers to Israel and then we wonder that they have families, that they have children. We must understand that we cannot bring foreign workers here and expect not to see them.”
Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz said that Israel does, indeed, pay a heavy price for its dependence on foreign labor. “The foreign workers compete with the weaker workers in society. They do not compete with the engineers or the hi-tech workers, they compete with the sanitation workers and lower the salaries they could have received,” he said.