THE STAR OF OSCAR-WINNING DOCUMENTARY FACES DEPORTATION
The 12-year-old-star of Sunday’s (27Feb11) Oscar-winning short documentary STRANGERS NO MORE is facing deportation from Israel.
Esther Aikpehae is among the 120 students at the school featured in Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon’s film who have been asked to leave the country because they don’t have Jewish roots.
The youngster’s father, who is South African, is in Israel illegally, and they’re the victims of a government campaign to purge areas of immigrants.
Aikpehae arrived in Israel with her father in 2007 after her mother was killed by gangs in her homeland. Her father told the Israeli authorities it was too dangerous for them to return home.
And now the young actress does not want to leave the country she knows as home, telling Reuters, "I feel African-Israeli, not just Israeli. I speak the language, I’ve gotten used to it here." But Israel’s Interior Minister Eli Yishai insists the Jewish state has to protect native Israelis and legal immigrants.
He says, "It’s my personal mission to preserve the Jewish majority in Israel."
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