Labor officials look into Palestinian workers’ mistreatment in Israel
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Salma Hossein
- . March 29, 2023
- . Update: March 29, 2023 4:43 pm
Allegations of mistreatment and exploitation of Palestinian workers in Israel are being looked into by the influential International Labor Organization.
93 Palestinian laborers in Israel were slain by the Israeli army in 2022, and an additional 31 have been killed so far this year, according to a dossier that Palestinian officials have given to the organization’s fact-finding committee.
The investigation also covered irregular working hours, the mistreatment of Palestinian laborers at military checkpoints and barriers, and the lack of occupational health and safety regulations.
Shaher Saad, secretary-general of the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions, delivered the file. Saad further revealed to investigators that the lack of a functioning social security system in Palestine was due to brokers and unlicensed intermediaries taking around $34 million in fees out of workers’ paychecks each month.
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Some 170,000 Palestinians from the West Bank and 17,000 from the Gaza Strip are employed in Israel or in illegal Israeli settlements. They are compelled to pay roughly 2,500 shekels ($780) per month in fees for a work permit in a corrupt system.
According to a 2021 analysis by the Center for National Security Studies, those who sold work licenses illegally made 1 billion shekels a year from 40,000 employees.
According to Palestinian sources who spoke to Arab News, Israeli forces have been attacking Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem more often throughout Ramadan.
The Israeli army detained 13 people from various West Bank locations on Tuesday. The town of Huwara, south of Nablus, was under its control for the fourth day in a row at the same time.
The Israeli army had heavily deployed on the main roadway, erecting numerous barricades and attempting to reroute residents’ trips through side streets inside the town, according to Kamal Odeh, the Fatah secretary in Huwara.
Military barracks were constructed out of many homes along Huwara’s main thoroughfare.
Amer Hamdan, a rights activist from Nablus, told Arab News that the security situation in the area around his hometown is alarming.
Also, three agricultural facilities in the Al-Sawahra wilderness, east of Jerusalem, and a business building in Deir Ballut, west of Salfit, were destroyed by Israeli bulldozers.
Salfit’s governor, Maj. Gen. Abdullah Kamil, claimed that Israeli authorities’ demolitions in Salfit served the occupation’s goals to evict Palestinian residents from their homes and lands in order to expand Israeli settlements.
