“It affects a number of families that did not meet the criteria set out in the cabinet resolution, in most cases one of the parents entered Israel illegally. After an extended process involving each of the families individually, a final decision was made.”

That is the official explanation by the Interior Ministry’s Population, Immigration and Border Authority of its decision to expel 20 families of migrant workers.

The decision was made six years after the cabinet passed a resolution giving legal status to hundreds of children in migrant-worker families. Six years during which the Interior Ministry “evaluated” their status; six years in which the children became part of Israeli society; six years during which they learned Hebrew, made friends, grew up among Israelis; six years during which their status could have been settled – even if one of the parents entered Israel illegally – and they could have been permitted to live in Israel with dignity.

But Interior Minister Arye Dery decided to continue the hard-hearted policy of his predecessors. His concern for “invisible” Israelis is once again revealed to be a parody: The most miserable individuals, those at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder, who ask only to live and work with dignity in Israel, these Dery is at a loss to see.

Before them, Jewish compassion – “And if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not do him wrong. The stranger that sojourneth with you shall be unto you as the home-born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself” (Leviticus 19:33-34) – disintegrates and turns into callousness.

These were the 20 last applications submitted in 2010, and were not answered. The last 20 requests that Israel could have approved, in a brief moment of humanity an compassion. But Dery did not find within himself the strength to take a decision that contradicted the racist, xenophobic ill wind that for several years has blown from the Prime Minister’s Office, finding natural partners in the various ministries – and turning into the turbid air that swirls through Israel’s streets and cities.

And so, on the eve of Pesach, the holiday celebrating Israel’s exodus from slavery to freedom, Israel chooses to send 20 children with their families from freedom into slavery.