According to the decision, initiated by Interior Minister Avraham Poraz and backed by Attorney General Menachem Mazuz, the children of foreign workers who are students in grades 10-12, ages 16-18, or who have finished high school and have lived in Israel for at least five years will be able to become permanent residents, as long as they are fit to serve in the Israel Defense Forces and do not have a criminal record. Children of foreign workers in grades 5-9, ages 10 and above, who have lived in Israel for at least five years will receive temporary residency for a period of two years, and thereafter will become permanent residents.

The proposal to be voted on by the committee, whose members include Justice Minister Yosef Lapid, Tourism and acting public security minister Gideon Ezra, and MKs Tzipi Livni, Meir Sheetrit, and Natan Sharansky, stresses that it will affect only 650 children at this stage, and will apply only if the children and their parents having entered Israel legally, even if at present their residence in Israel is illegal.

"The problem of the children of foreign workers who have integrated into Israeli society must be resolved by a one-time arrangement, on the basis of humanitarian principles," the proposal explains. "Deporting them means sending them to a country to which they have no cultural bond."

Most of the children to be affected by the ruling are in Israel illegally at present. "The committee has taken into account the fact that for many years there was no proper enforcement of the laws regarding illegal residence in Israel, which allowed a situation in which children lived here for many years with no legal status," the committee wrote in explaining its reasoning for legalizing their presence.

As opposed to previous proposals initiated by Poraz, the granting of permanent residence to the children of foreign workers will not apply to everyone but will be made "on the basis of an examination by a committee to be established in the Interior Ministry headed by the director of the Population Administration."

Candidates who come before the committee and cannot produce their original work permit may find themselves required to leave Israel.

The committee has limited the time period during which children of foreign workers may apply for a change of status. "To remove any doubt, the decision to be brought before the committee for approval will not give legal status to children of foreign workers illegally in Israel who came to Israel or were born here during the period after the decision is approved."

Children under the age of 10, in grades 1-4, are not eligible for permanent residence; according to the proposal, they and their parents will have to leave the country.

According to information provided by the Knesset research and data department to Poraz a few months ago and taken from Education Ministry statistics, some 2,000 children of foreign workers are living in Israel of whom some 600 are in grades 5-12, meaning that only about one-third of the children of foreign workers will be able to take advantage of the ministerial decision to change their status.

According to the proposal, the parents and younger siblings of the children eligible for permanent residence will also be granted permanent resident status until the children are 21, when soldiers finish their army service. The younger children will not receive permanent resident status, but will be able to stay in Israel legally as long as their parents can.

Some months ago, the director of High Court petitions in the Justice Ministry, Yochi Gnessin, torpedoed a previous initiative by Poraz, stating that it would bring about the effective naturalization of Palestinian children, some of whom, like the children of foreign workers, are in Israel illegally; the principle of equality before the law would make it impossible to differentiate between Palestinians and foreign workers. But Attorney General Menachem Mazuz informed Poraz two weeks ago that he "saw no problem" in legally differentiating between these two groups for purposes of granting legal residency. Mazuz required the committee to set a numerical ceiling for the children to be involved in the status change, and a case-by-case examination of eligibility.