Iraqi Refugees in Israel

Here's an item (in Hebrew, though the embedded video is a video) about an Iraqi family who escaped to Israel a few years back and isn't finding its place in society. But it's not the story you'd expect if you're the kind of person who believes the NYT.

They entered Israel by walking across the Egyptian border four years ago, along with 6 children. The authorities would usually have incarcerated refugees from an enemy country (Iraq is, legally), butt they couldn't imagine incarcerating the children so the whole family was sent to a hostel (see the video). They sat there for more than three years, as guests of the state, while being offered various routes to normality which they preferred not to accept. In the meantime another two children were born, and a third (=a ninth) is on the way. Some months back the hostel was shut down, and they wandered around, living off the good will of ordinary folks. A month or so ago they ended up living on the sidewalk, at which point the authorities took the 8 children and put them into foster homes (one? 8? no idea). Since then the parents have been camping in a bus stop on the road to Tel Hashomer hospital near Tel Aviv. The structure, you might be interested to hear, was put there by the organization which supplies perks to soldiers such as TVs for their units, sports equipment, shelter from the elements at bus stops, that sort of thing. The couple more or less speaks Hebrew. The few officials interviewed in the video sound very weary of their antics; one woman says they've been offered everything, but the father refuses to work and his family suffers accordingly.

A nice, stereotypical story, don't you think?