They were born in Israel. They are native Hebrew speakers who were educated in the Israeli public school system. But because they are the offspring of non-Jewish migrant workers, around 1,200 children stand to be deported to their parents’ native countries – even though they’ve never been there and often do not speak the language.

You can see these children all over south Tel Aviv, playing basketball and football in the parks and walking hand-in-hand with their mothers through the Carmel Market. Many of them attend a school that is called, perhaps a little ironically, Bialik. They speak unaccented Hebrew and they celebrate the Jewish holidays just like all secular Israeli Jewish kids – with school seders, mad Yom Kippur bike rides through car-free streets, wearing fancy dress to school on Purim and singing songs about light and the Maccabees at Chanukah.

Interior Minister Eli Yishai (Shas) wants to deport these children because they are not Jewish.

The organizers of Israeli Children, an NGO that is working to save these Israel-born children of migrant workers, believe that Yishai will sign the final order to deport these children in the coming weeks, when the school year ends, in order to minimize bad publicity from scenes like this:

In a last push to stop Minister Yishai from signing the order to deport the children, a protest demonstration will take place in Tel Aviv tomorrow evening (Tuesday, May 25), at 7.30 pm at the Tel Aviv Museum.

The event will be hosted by: Orly Vilnai and Guy Meroz (investigative reporters who focus on social justice issues).

Performing artists: Dudu Tassa, Shlomo Grunich, Maya Rotman and Keren Pelles

Various MKs from across the political spectrum are also scheduled to speak.