It isn't easy, or comfortable, to hear about the Population and Immigration Authority sweeping up a Hebrew-speaking child, or a man and his wife being forcibly repatriated after living here for so many years. I don't like it. But I was not chosen to be a public servant to turn a blind eye to what "I don't like." I was elected, and I swore to work for all of Israel, perhaps mostly doing things that "I don't like."
Claiming that Israel or the Jewish nation, which since the dawn of its history has faced myriad hardships and persistent torment, should have greater empathy for migrant populations, is justifiable. But the expectation that Israel ought to relinquish its fate to the hordes crossing its borders and everybody who sees Israel as an appropriate place for migration is wrong.
Thousands of demonstrators gathered on Sunday in Rabin Square, which is located in the first Hebrew city. In the last several years, the face of Tel Aviv has changed. Southern neighborhoods have become an African appendage, and it's just a matter of time before border police set up checkpoints throughout Neve Shaanan, around the Old Central Bus Station, in Hatikva and Shapira.
Perhaps the demonstrators were calling for "freedom," but in reality they were asking for something else. They seek the freedom to turn Israel into another country, a different land. So it's not them that should be doing the shouting. We should be carrying on, saying, we won't back down and we won't stay quiet while they try to change the face and essence of the only Jewish state in the world. We will not ignore their outspoken demand for us to go back to "Poland and Morocco." We have stayed quiet as residents in south Tel Aviv, parts of Arad, Haifa, Modiin and other Israeli cities have been hiding in fear.
While Iran poses an existential threat, the danger to our future does not lie solely in a "nuclear Iran," but an "African Israel." Let us not give up, let us put our heads together to tackle the issue. We must continue working against the phenomenon of infiltration in the strongest, fairest way possible. We must put in more effort every day. Enough handing out work permits to infiltrators. We need to put them all away in detention facilities while we find third-party country as soon as possible, if their home countries refuse to cooperate. Incorporating all of these measures is the only way to clearly send the message that Israel is not just another destination for the world's infiltrators.
Perhaps thousands of demonstrators were yelling at Sunday in Rabin Square, but their cries were overshadowed by the thousands more wailing everyday, justifiably screaming "my poor city" long before.
Eli Yishai is a Shas MK and former interior minister.
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