{"id":629670,"date":"2026-09-28T03:38:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T03:38:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/629670\/"},"modified":"2026-09-28T03:38:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T03:38:13","slug":"this-is-my-country-israel-born-children-of-filipino-migrants-fight-for-right-to-jo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/629670\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018This is my country\u2019: Israel-born children of Filipino migrants fight for right to jo"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the IDF fights the longest war in its history and struggles with a severe manpower shortage, a group of young people born and raised in Israel has spent months fighting a very different battle: getting permission to enlist.<\/p>\n

John Ray Delisai, Moliv Vicente and Mariel Aya, all born in Israel to parents who legally immigrated from the Philippines, are among dozens of young adults behind a petition to the High Court of Justice seeking the right to serve in the military.<\/p>\n

\"\u05d2\u05f3\u05d5\u05df<\/a>\"\u05d2\u05f3\u05d5\u05df<\/p>\n

John Ray Delisai, Moliv Vicente and Mariel Aya <\/p>\n

(Photo: Moti Kimchi)<\/p>\n

Mariel, 19, was born in Be’er Sheva and raised in Tel Aviv. Since finishing high school, she has been waiting for movement in the legal battle. John Ray, 20, also from Tel Aviv, hopes to serve in a combat role in a special unit. Moliv, 20, was born in Jerusalem, lives in Tel Aviv and has already completed a year of national service.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sentence that best describes our situation is, \u2018A person is nothing but the landscape of their homeland,\u2019\u201d Mariel said. \u201cWe were born here and raised here, just like any other Israeli, with Zionist values.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe feel we have something meaningful to give,\u201d she added. \u201cWhen we see our friends coming home from the army, it gives us a knot in the stomach. We also want to give something back to the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

John Ray described military service as an expectation that surrounded him throughout childhood. \u201cI was born and raised in a society that loves the country and wants to protect it,\u201d he said. \u201cAll my friends, everyone around me, knows that after school you give three years or more of yourself. Not because you have to, but because you want to. That\u2019s what I was raised on, and that\u2019s what I want too.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Oct. 7 massacre and the war that followed only intensified their determination to enlist.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was educated at school and in the Scouts on Zionism,\u201d said Moliv, who joined the Re\u2019im service-year program after high school. \u201cAfter Oct. 7, I volunteered at Kibbutz Nirim. I saw what happened there, and I also saw what was happening in Kiryat Shmona. I told myself, \u2018This is my country. There\u2019s no way I\u2019m not going to protect it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Mariel said she felt the same pull while still in 12th grade. \u201cI think that was the effect Oct. 7 had on most young people in Israel. Everyone saw what happened and wanted to be the ones standing on the front line and protecting the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their frustration has grown as the IDF publicly warns of a shortage of personnel.<\/p>\n

\"\u05d2\u05f3\u05d5\u05df<\/a>\"\u05d2\u05f3\u05d5\u05df<\/p>\n

\u201cThe head of the IDF Personnel Directorate and the chief of staff say they are short of people,\u201d Mariel said. \u201cIt\u2019s crazy that there is a group here ready to stand on the front line, to take part, even at the risk of our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAre we foreign workers? We physically grew up here, with the values of this country. We even speak Hebrew better than many others. It\u2019s absurd. The country is still at war, and we are here, ready.\u201d<\/p>\n

John Ray said the contradiction is difficult to accept. \u201cThere are people trying every possible way to get out of serving. When do you see a group of people saying they want to enlist even though they don\u2019t have to?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI know they need me, but they don\u2019t want to accept me. I\u2019m disappointed. It hurts. I\u2019m only asking them to stop for a minute and look at us for who we are, not under the label \u2018children of migrant parents.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Their situation stems in part from temporary government decisions adopted between 2005 and 2010. Those measures allowed some children of foreign workers who grew up in Israel and attended Israeli schools to receive permanent residency, on condition that they serve in the IDF at age 18.<\/p>\n

But the measures were temporary and were never enshrined in permanent legislation. After a limited application period, the pathway closed.<\/p>\n

For the current group, the distinction can feel arbitrary. Moliv described a friend from the same age group whose older sister qualified under the earlier arrangement, allowing him to regularize his own status and later enlist in the Golani Brigade.<\/p>\n

\"\u05de\u05e4\u05e2\u05d9\u05dc\u05d5\u05ea<\/a>\"\u05de\u05e4\u05e2\u05d9\u05dc\u05d5\u05ea<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re the same age, with the same circumstances, with parents from the Philippines,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat is different between us and them?\u201d<\/p>\n

For John Ray and Moliv, military service is also about belonging.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe army would give me the feeling that I\u2019m part of something,\u201d John Ray said. \u201cIt would give me that stamp that I\u2019m really part of society, that people see me as an equal and not as some strange outsider.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moliv put it more simply: \u201cIt\u2019s like getting a certificate that defines me as Israeli.\u201d<\/p>\n

The three are part of a group of dozens of young men and women who have petitioned the High Court seeking permission to enlist. The petition was filed in December 2025, but the state\u2019s response has been postponed repeatedly. It is now required to respond by Oct. 4.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has been a fight for years,\u201d Moliv said. \u201cI remember being seven years old and seeing my parents meet with lawyers and go to court hearings. Now they\u2019ve postponed us for the sixth time.\u201d<\/p>\n

John Ray said the delays carry a personal cost. \u201cWe\u2019re losing momentum, and we\u2019re being hurt by being left behind. My vision was that six months ago I would already be at the induction center, but I didn\u2019t understand how difficult and cumbersome the legal system could be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the delays, all three say giving up is not an option.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe accept the postponement, but we don\u2019t lose hope,\u201d Mariel said. \u201cBecause if we had lost hope, we probably wouldn\u2019t still be in this process. We hope it happens soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Attorney Zari Hazan, chairman of the Israel Bar Association\u2019s Immigration Committee and one of the lawyers representing the petitioners, said there was no dispute that the IDF needs thousands of additional soldiers.<\/p>\n

He accused the defense establishment of failing to respond to the petition despite an earlier court order, saying the delay was prolonging harm to the petitioners and, in his view, to national security.<\/p>\n

The IDF said: \u201cThe petition has been received. The state\u2019s response will be submitted as part of the legal proceedings, as customary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Defense Minister Israel Katz\u2019s office said the issue had not been presented to the minister. \u201cWhen it is brought before him, we will respond accordingly.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the IDF fights the longest war in its history and struggles with a severe manpower shortage, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":629671,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":["post-629670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=629670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629670\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/629671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=629670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}