We did it! Geffen can stay in Israel

19/06/23

A huge victory: We stopped the deportation of an 8-year-old girl and her mother! This happened thanks to the work of our community: more than 41,000 Zazim members joined our campaign for Geffen Getahon, chipping in to pay her legal expenses and a billboard carrying the message in the Interior Minister's neighborhood. Geffen's friends' families organized a demonstration and our team, that accompanied Geffen's family, secured coverage in major media outlets in Israel and ensured that our demand reached the Interior Minister.

 After Geffen's Israeli father passed away, Geffen's mother, Maza, was issued an immediate deportation order and her naturalization process was halted. Geffen would have been forced to leave her home, family and second-grade classmates, and join her mother in Ethiopia.

After a two-month-long struggle we succeeded in annulling the deportation, but our work will only be completed once Maza is granted legal status in Israel and she and Geffen can live here peacefully.

This isn't the first time we successfully stopped the deportation of a girl and her mother: in 2021, in a similar case, we prevented the deportation of Coltilda Lev and her daughter, 7-year-old Daniel, thanks to public pressure, following a campaign launched at "Zazim in the Community"; thousands signed the petition and many more supported the cause and contributed to the victory. Coltilda and Daniel joined the struggle for Geffen without hesitation, highlighting the strength of our community in promoting solidarity, and exerting civic pressure through the involvement of 400,000 activists.

The Interior Ministry pursues racist and discriminatory policies and issues deportation orders to children of immigrants, refugees and men and women without legal status in Israel. Until this policy is halted and changed, our community sends a clear message again and again: we won't allow the state to deport children!

We will continue to struggle to ensure that Geffen and other children will not be deported from Israel.

:Campaign coverage in the media
Channel 13 morning show, 14/6/23
https://www.facebook.com/HaolamHaboker/videos/936654797644071

: 12/6/23 Haaret 
https://www.haaretz.co.il/news/education/2023-06-12/ty-article/.premium/00000188-b002-d1d6-a7b9-fbf799d40000