Pinay mother, 4-year-old daughter deported from Israel

An Israeli court ruled to deport a four-year-old Israel-born Filipino girl and her mother, who had been staying there illegally for four years. The Central District Court on Thursday ruled in a closed-door hearing to deport the two even if the child's Filipino father is residing legally in Israel, the Jerusalem Post reported. Its ruling came despite the mother’s petition that she and her daughter be allowed to remain in Israel another month, and then leave voluntarily. Last week, the District Court had issued a temporary stay of the deportation orders against the mother and daughter, pending the petition. The Jerusalem Post report said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s wife Sara even sent a letter to Interior Minister Eli Yishai asking that he stop the child's deportation. Noa Galili, spokesperson for the Association of Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), who filed the petition along with NGO Israeli Children, slammed the ruling. She said the child's deportation was a "badge of shame for Israel." "It's a disgrace that the Interior Ministry held the hearing behind closed doors contrary to the judge's instructions. It's crazy that at the same time Yishai is bringing thousands of new workers, he is deporting 400 children as a solution to the migration problem," Galili said. Lawyer Oded Feller, who represented the child and her mother, told the court that while illegal residents should be deported, the state should put the child's best interests first. He said the Filipina child and her father are very close, and should have been given time to prepare for their separation. "Israel is the only country where the process of removing a child and her mother from the country happens within 24 hours without parental involvement," Feller said. But the Jerusalem Post quoted Judge Avraham Yaakov as saying there were no special circumstances that would have merited delaying the deportation of the Filipina mother and daughter. Population Authority legal adviser Daniel Solomon said the petition had just been a "nuisance suit" whose only outcome was that the mother had to spend over a week in custody apart from her daughter. — JE/LBG, GMA News