Israel seeks to oust Orientals

Migration to Israel is effectively limited to those who are able to establish that they are Jewish or have close links to someone who is. However, the preparation for Oriental food, especially Japanese and authentic Chinese requires chefs from those backgrounds. After all, it's pretty easy to cook a steak or deep fry flour balls, but preparing sushi or specialist Chinese fish dishes is not simple.

Customers know this and so do the chefs. So the removal of two popular snack items from menus yesterday drew to the attention of a widespread public that life without the Orientals will be tough.

And if the government attitude doesn't change quickly, the next thing to come off the menu will be sushi and noodles.

There are 300 oriental restaurants in Israel, says the Israeli Ethnic Restaurant Organization which is concerned at the effects on non-oriental restaurants, too.

Reuters quotes a government lawyer, Shoshana Strauss, a lawyer working on foreign worker issues for the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor as saying ""Everyone can make Chinese food, it's not impossible to learn,"

And it's not just the Chinese and Japanese that the government wants to remove - it's Thai as well. Last year, the Ministry says, it issued 900 permits for foreign kitchen workers. This year, it will reduce the numbers to 500 - and to zero next year. These are not for new entrants, the numbers include renewals. But restaurants will be permitted to continue to employ foreigners if they can satisfy the government that they are "experts" - and agree to pay double the national average.

Israel's immigration policy is unusual because it is based on religion and race - something that is ironic bearing in mind that other countries have been pressured - often by Jewish groups - to remove racial and religious barriers to entry and opportunity. In the USA, for example, in July 2006, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs produced a pro-forma letter which it makes freely available to Jewish groups in the USA, encouraging them to write to Senators on the question of equal opportunity in immigration. In that letter it says " As leaders of Jewish community organizations, we look both to the teachings of our Jewish religious and ethical tradition, and to core American values relating to immigrants, for guidance on immigration reform. They call on us to “welcome the stranger,” and provide an effective legal immigration system characterized by rule of law, national interest and compassionate treatment."

But there's another plot afoot: last year, Eliat hotels were told that they would not be allowed to employ migrant workers - only immigrants. According to a December 2006 report in Haaretz, a middle of the road Israeli newspaper, The Jewish Agency and hotels went on almost 50 missions to France, South American and the FSU to recruit Jewish workers who wished to migrate. Cynics might say that this is a ready made electorate whereas Isreali Arabs and Christians have to grow their own, and that's a slow process.

Also in December, Haaretz reported that foreign workers were being denied healthcare under employment and insurance schemes. Again, access to healthcare is one of the principle issues raised by the Jewish Council for Public Affairs and several other Jewish pressure groups in the USA.