Only in Israel....
Israel's Foreign Ministry workers have gone on strike,
shutting down the country's embassies and consulates around the world.
The strike is the latest development in the nearly two-year old work dispute
declared by the workers for improved salaries and work conditions.
Seven months of mediation efforts exploded on March 4 when the workers
rejected a Finance Ministry proposal.
Once the mediation blew-up, the workers resumed crippling sanctions
that were put on hold during the mediation period. A number of
high-profile visits to Israel were cancelled as a result of the
sanctions, as well as Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's planned trip
to Mexico, Colombia and Panama next month. In addition, Pope Francis'
planned visit in May is in doubt because of the work sanctions.
A
statement put out by the workers' committee said that the workers
declared an "open ended" strike "in protest of the employment conditions
for Israeli diplomats and because of the draconian decision by the
Treasury to cut the workers' salaries."
"Today, for the first time
in Israel's history, the foreign Ministry will be closed and no work
will be done in any sphere under the ministry's authority," the
statement read.
The decision to strike was slammed by Foreign
Minister Avigdor Liberman, who called it a "miserable" decision that
shows the worker's committee has "lost its head."
"This move has
no benefit, and will only cause more damage to the ministry's workers,"
he said. "I am sorry that these irresponsible steps will come at the
expense of the country's citizens, and as contacts are underway with the
Treasury and in the middle of mediation."
Liberman said "we will do everything possible to limit the damage caused to the state and its citizens."
As
a result of the strike, no consular services will be available, Israel
will not be represented in any international gathering or forum, its
ambassadors abroad will not work, and services needed for everybody from
new immigrants to employers bringing in foreign workers will be brought
to a halt.
According to the statement, the ministry's doors
will be locked from Sunday afternoon to everyone, including the
ministry's management and political leadership.
I think we're actually better off without anyone at the UN - who needs them? As to the rest of it, this is the only country in the world where the diplomatic corps could go on strike. I have no idea how much money these people make or what kind of perks they have, but I suspect they are far better than yours or mine.
Labels: foreign ministry strike, Israel's Foreign Ministry
Yes, you can make aliya this summer
The Jewish Agency is circumventing the
Foreign Ministry strike by having olim
enter Israel as tourists and then convert them to olim once they are here.
The Foreign Ministry ceased issuing immigration visas in late June as
part of an ongoing work dispute by the ministry’s workers’ union and the
government.
New immigrants will be flown to Israel as tourists, at the expense of the Jewish Agency, and will then be processed in Israel.
“We will do our best to bring everybody to Israel on the date they want to make aliya,” spokeswoman Hagit Halali said.
Those
whose immigration has been put on hold due to the strike can expect to
receive letters informing them of the “ad hoc solution,” she added.
This solution is so simple that one can only wonder why it took the Jewish Agency nearly three weeks to think of it. For those of you making aliya, welcome to reality. Here are some potential reasons why they didn't do it until now:
1. They were afraid you'd take the free flight and then return to your home countries. Oh wait, aren't they only buying you a one-way ticket? And aren't they demanding that you repay the ticket if you don't stay in Israel for a certain amount of time.
2. They're afraid that the Foreign Ministry employees will picket your arrival at the airport or whenever you go to the Interior Ministry or the Absorption Ministry to be registered as olim. Well, who says any of those things have to be disclosed to Foreign Ministry employees? Oh wait, this is Israel where half the government workers are on strike at any given moment and the other half are busy watching them....
This reminds me of
my own aliya 22 years ago (pre-Nefesh b'Nefesh) when the few financial benefits you got were the cost of the plane ticket (on what was then government-owned El Al) and a VERY small loan for your moving expenses (which was forgiven if you stayed long enough) from what we called Banky Dude. I went to the Jewish Agency to get my loan and they told me that I needed two guarantors. I looked at them like they came from another planet and asked them why I needed guarantors. They said, "surely you cannot expect to get a loan without guarantors!" I pulled a piece of plastic from my pocket and said "see this? It has no guarantors and ten times the credit line you're offering me."
In the end, they insisted on the guarantors. I no longer recall which of my American friends signed on it, but they never had to pay.
I'm so glad to hear that things haven't changed. Welcome home guys!
Labels: Absorption Ministry, aliya, foreign ministry strike, Jewish Agency for Israel, Minister of the Interior, Nefesh b'Nefesh
Olim get early education in Israeli reality
Hundreds of potential olim are getting an unwanted education in the realities of living in the socialist paradise. Let's hope this causes them to seek change rather than to reconsider.
Here in the socialist paradise, anyone can go on strike.
Even diplomats. It's not quite that bad this week, but due to foreign ministry 'sanctions'
hundreds of olim worldwide are having their aliya held up.
According to Jewish Agency director of aliya
Yehuda Sharf, potentially “hundreds” of prospective immigrants worldwide have
been told that they must put their travel plans on hold, as Israeli consulates
are no longer issuing aliya visas necessary for obtaining
citizenship.
Sharf told the Post that the Jewish Agency is “saddened by
the distress to the new immigrants caused by the strike, and intends to do
everything in its power to alleviate their problems.”
“We are very
concerned that olim may suffer financial damages, as many of them have already
made plans and sold their property,” Sharf said. “There are others who have
arranged to start new jobs or registered for educational courses. There are even
those who have been assigned a call-up date to the Israel Defense
Forces.”
Prospective immigrants are among the thousands of people –
including Israelis abroad, foreign statesmen and diplomats – caught in the
crossfire created by the Foreign Ministry workers’ five-month-old labor
dispute.
The ministry’s workers’ committee has steadily ratcheted up its
sanctions, issuing directives last week to end all consular services abroad – a
move that would include measures impacting prospective immigrants. This week,
the workers announced that they would end all support given to foreign diplomats
in Israel.
As a result of the sanctions, the Foreign Ministry has stopped
providing logistical support for any ministerial trips abroad, ceased all
cooperation with the IDF and the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) and refused
to give assistance to visiting foreign dignitaries. On Sunday, Hungarian Human
Resources Minister Zoltan Balog canceled his planned trip because of the
sanctions.
In a statement to the Post, Foreign Ministry spokesman Paul
Hirschson said that, as part of the work dispute, “consular services are being
provided only in the following cases at present: anything to do with saving
lives, personal medical requirements, the transfer of bodies for burial and
anything to do with adoption and surrogacy.”
Therefore, as of Wednesday,
all aliya was put on hold.
I'm thinking of where we were at this time in 1991 - the year we made aliya in August. There was no Nefesh b'Nefesh back then, and there were no Nefesh b'Nefesh flights. But by this time, our house was under contract and we may have had our plane tickets. In those days, you did all the visa paperwork at the airport. I would guess that the worst nightmare is for people who have sold their homes and given up their children's places in school for next year. I wouldn't worry too much about what people's plans are at this end - they're so used to this sort of thing that it will all sort out in the end. But given a five-month strike which seems to have little prospect of being resolved anytime soon, I'd be really nervous if I'd sold my house (and perhaps already had most of my worldly belongings on a ship to Israel), given up my children's places in school and suddenly discovered that I cannot get the visas to come to Israel. If you're in that position, my amateur advice would be to come as a tourist and make aliya once you're here.
Oh - and what's the strike about? We only get a hint of it from the relatively lengthy article linked above.
Speaking with the Post on
Thursday, union chief Yair Frommer said that he was fighting for the very
survival of Israel’s diplomatic corps.
“Today we are in the situation
that one out of three diplomats that have been recruited to the cadet program
leave after 10 years, and that is what I’m talking about,” he said. “People
don’t see a future in the foreign service because of the working
conditions.”
While he agrees with critics of the strike that “aliya is
crucial for the State of Israel” and that immigration is “one of the most
important elements in Israeli policy toward the Diaspora and Israeli identity,”
Frommer said that it “is also one reason why we should have an acting
professional foreign service; this is what we are fighting
for.”
“Unfortunately,” he lamented, “this labor dispute is affecting many
people, but I think that’s the only way to get the attention of policy-makers so
they will understand how important it is to attend to the problems of the
foreign service.”
And what are the problems? While I'm not 100% sure, I believe that we're talking about the age old problem about Foreign Ministers appointing cronies to key ambassadorial posts rather than longtime members of the foreign service corps. Honestly, this cuts both ways. While I would not have wanted to see
Dalia Itzik as the ambassador to King James' court, the diplomatic corps has also produced more than its share of
incompetents and embarrassments, not to mention people
not capable of representing the country's policies. And there's also an element of
Right v. Left here....
In any event, olim (immigrants) should not be paying the price.
Labels: aliya, foreign ministry strike, Israel's Foreign Ministry
Priorities
But of course....
The Foreign Ministry's workers union said that Israeli diplomats will not help distribute the Turkel Committee findings among foreign nations, due to an ongoing labor dispute in the ministry.
However, the union noted that the strike will not impede the efforts of other Israeli elements to publish the findings in foreign countries.
If the bloggers can do the job of our 'diplomatic corps,' as well as the 'diplomatic corps,' what does that tell you?
Labels: blogosphere, foreign ministry strike, Mavi Marmara, Turkel Commission
