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:

Join Meretz USA in helping end the destruction of Bedouin villages in Israel

Meretz USA is co-sponsoring a petition to end the destruction of Bedouin Villages in Israel with the Jewish Alliance for Change, Rabbis for Human Rights-North America, and the Shalom Center.

As American Jews and others who care deeply for Israel, we join with many Israelis, both Jewish and Arab, in raising our voices in protest at the destruction of the Bedouin village of Al-Arakib in the Negev and the forcible removal by some 1,500 Israeli police of over 300 Bedouin Israeli citizens - mostly children - leaving them homeless, expelled from their land, and bereft of their possessions.

Over 1,000 Israelis have already signed a Hebrew petition to Prime Minister Netanyahu, to be delivered to him on August 10, calling for an end to the destruction of Bedouin villages in Israel and a just and comprehensive solution to the plight of Israel's Bedouin Palestinian Arab citizens in the Negev. We join them in solidarity.  

Sign the petition here.

 The tragically divisive "conversion bill", now making its way through the Knesset, rightfully has American Jews up in arms.  If passed, the bill would reinforce the State-sanctioned religious monopoly already held in Israel by the Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox (haredi) minority and further distance the country from the "freedom of religion" guaranteed by its Declaration of Independence.

But the blistering response to the bill issued this week by the Reform and Conservative movements, as well as the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) and the American Jewish Committee, also demonstrates a curious irony in the American Jewish-Israel relationship: It's apparently acceptable to slam the Israeli government, as long as it's about policy within the Green Line, not beyond it.