Family members of Filipino-Israeli soldier Cedric Green during his funeral in Tel Aviv (French)

The killing of Israeli soldier of Filipino origin, Cedric Green (23 years old), last month in the Gaza Strip, along with 20 other soldiers, renewed the controversy over the rights of foreign workers in Israel, according to what was reported by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

The newspaper reviewed the aspects of that controversy regarding those who were not Jewish but were killed in a war launched by a government that hardly recognized them. Joining the army was the ideal solution they chose or their parents chose for them to obtain the citizenship of an entity that defines itself as a national homeland exclusively for the Jews.

A lengthy investigation - by Alison Kaplan Sommer on the family affairs page of Haaretz newspaper, entitled “These non-Jewish children most want to prove themselves” - believes that this represents a sword drawn against those even when their children serve in the army, and are even killed.

Cedric (23 years old) had to serve in the army to obtain citizenship, and his murder gave his parents the opportunity to obtain it as well, after Benjamin Netanyahu’s government decided to “give it to them in gratitude,” according to the newspaper, which quoted Imeda (Cedric’s mother) as saying while crying during his funeral: What? Can I do it with her (nationality) after he leaves?”

The “crime” of procreation

Imeda came to Israel in the 1990s, like hundreds of women (many of them Filipinas) recruited by recruitment companies with government blessings to serve in the health care sector, who married and gave birth in Israel, but who were then forced to give up their children by sending them outside Israel, under penalty of Threatening to cancel their work visas.

The mother of Filipino-Israeli soldier Cedric Green during his funeral in Israel after his killing in Gaza (French)

Cedric was deprived early from his father, Rico Bazilo, who was expelled from Israel 22 years ago, and he only met his son face to face twice. Cedric had to fulfill his “dream” of joining a combat unit in the army, but his mother saw the military career as merely a practical path to obtaining citizenship. .

Cedric was one of the lucky ones included in a law that paved the way for citizenship in 2006, followed by another law in 2010, opening the door to permanent residency for parents, according to the Israeli newspaper.

The 2010 law granted permanent residency to anyone aged 5 years or older who speaks fluent Hebrew and whose parents entered Israel legally, with a promise to grant them the right to apply for citizenship if they performed military service and were “good citizens” for a year, according to Haaretz.

The newspaper believes that the killing of Cedric was limited to the parents all this way, as the situation of Cedric’s parents is similar to the situation of hundreds of foreign workers in Israel, many of whom are Filipinos who have not received recognition from either society or the government, even though they are classified among the most law-abiding foreign workers and asylum seekers.

Cedric Green is one of 21 soldiers killed together in the Gaza Strip on January 23 (French)

The newspaper quotes a reservist soldier who taught Cedric in primary school and participated in his funeral: “These people come to work in jobs that Israelis hate. Their children want to be like the rest of them in Israel. They realize that if they want to be Israelis with full rights, all they have to do is join the army.” .

The newspaper's investigation reviews that this reality may seem shocking elsewhere in this world, for a mother to struggle to send her son to the army (to obtain citizenship).

The newspaper goes on to accuse the Israeli governments of treating these women “like criminals simply because they gave birth to their children in Israel.”

Haaretz notes that hundreds of the children of these women do not meet the criteria of the 2006 and 2010 laws, and they are approaching adolescence with a legal status that it describes as ambiguous, and without hope of a military career that might improve their chances of winning citizenship.

Source: Israeli press