During a tour of the fence that is being constructed along Israel's border with Egypt on Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had instructed the IDF to begin planning the construction of another fence along the border with Jordan.
"We will have to build a fence in the east as well, because if we block one border they will come from the Arava," he later told the Negev Conference in Eilat.
"The illegal infiltrators from Africa enter the Negev's cities, as well as cities all across Israel; they change the make-up of the population and take away jobs from Israelis," the PM continued to say, adding that "the infiltration threatens to alter the Jewish and democratic character of the state. We must stop the flood of infiltrators to protect our future."
A day after Israel began deporting some children of illegal foreign workers, Interior Minister Eli Yishai told the conference in Eilat that the construction of the fence was imperative "for the preservation of the Jewish majority in Israel. The infiltrators take many jobs from citizens and create unemployment – they cause great damage to the Jewish population and the Zionist enterprise."
Yishai agreed that Israel should build a fence along its eastern border, saying "Eilat has already been conquered (by migrants)."
Deputy IDF Chief of Staff Maj.-Gen. Yair Naveh said the army would try to complete the southern border fence by next summer. Since the construction of the fence along the border with Egypt began, the security establishment has recorded a significant drop in infiltrations – from an average of 1,200 a month last year to 400 a month in 2011.
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