AG Menachem Mazuz

"The taking of fingerprints has special sensitivity because such prints are generally taken from suspects and criminals, wrote Kav La'Oved, the Hotline for Migrant Workers and other activist groups.

"Treating an entire group as suspect humiliates its members, and discriminates against them," the activists said.

The Interior Ministry has drafted an amendment to the law governing entry into Israel that would allow the interior minister to predicate entrance to the country and work permits upon the applicant's willingness to be fingerprinted. Though this amendment has not won Knesset approval, the police started weeks ago to fingerprint foreign workers.

Attorney General Menachem Mazuz has written a brief saying that the amendment is necessary, and that until it is passed, fingerprints cannot be taken without the workers' consent.

But Kav La'Oved director Hannah Zohar says workers do not know they have the right to refuse. Farmers have told her that their Thai workers were to ordered to report on a particular day for fingerprinting. "That recalls what was done to Jews during the darkest days of history," she adds.