Meretz speaks out against deportation of children of foreign workers

The Israeli Cabinet's decision to deport 400 children of foreign workers, many of them born in Israel, has caused a stir in the country, and beyond, including criticism from Holocaust survivor and Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel. 

Although the decision represents a reduction from the 1,200 originally slated for expulsion, opponents of the move, such as Meretz chair, Haim Oron, argue that the number is still 400 too many:

(translated from the Meretz party website)

"There has to be a government policy on immigration and on foreign workers.  Don't give us this false ‘dilemma' between humaneness and Zionism.  What damage is being done to Zionism?  These 400 children - what are they doing? ... Are they diluting Jewish identity here?  Are they disrupting demographic balance?

"Where's the reasoning?  Where's the compassion ["Hochmat HaLev", literally "wisdom of the heart"]?  The wisdom of the heart is a central facet in Judaism.  Wisdom - and heart.  Stop all these awful spectacles ...Let them live here.

"Again and again... we'll see on the internet about another boy or girl who speak a level of Hebrew we should envy, who say: ‘We want to be here.  This is our home'...

"Yes, I know they're not members of [the Jewish] people, and that doesn't bother me in the slightest.  I'm for a Jewish state [in Israel] ..., but when you go and take this argument to the extreme, I lose the confidence that you truly want a Jewish and democratic state.

"Just use the wisdom of the heart.  Let them stay here.  Let their parents stay here.  And start implementing a real policy, one that has clear criteria regarding the entire question of migrant workers."