Israhell mistreats Palestinians, then imports Indian workers to replace them

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Israel to bolster construction sector with thousands of Indian workers
India's delivery of migrant workers comes alongside an official probe by the International Labor Organization into the mistreatment of Palestinian workers in Israel
https://thecradle.co/article-view/25403/israel-to-bolster-construction-sector-with-thousands-of-indian-workers

Israel is planning to bring around 10,000 workers from India to fill positions in the construction and nursing industries, in a sign of deepening economic and political cooperation between Tel Aviv and New Delhi.

According to Hebrew news outlets, the workers will arrive in stages, with half destined for the construction sector and the remaining half designated for nursing roles.

At least 5,000 workers are due in the first year. The final labor agreement is still being negotiated between Israeli and Indian officials.

A spokesman for the Israeli Ministry of Population and Immigration said they expect the agreements to be approved soon "in a proper and supervised manner."

This development follows Foreign Minister Eli Cohen's visit to India earlier this month, during which he signed an agreement with his Indian counterpart to bring approximately 42,000 Indian workers to Israel.

Of this number, 34,000 workers will be allocated to the construction sector, while 8,000 will be employed in elder care.

Tel Aviv's large order of construction workers comes alongside renewed attempts at illegally re-establishing the four abandoned settlements of Homesh, Sa-Nur, Ganim, and Kadim in the occupied West Bank.

According to a scoop by US news outlet Axios, Israel had promised the US that there would be no efforts to turn Homesh into a settlement after US officials repeatedly urged the government to stop any steps in the occupied West Bank that would escalate tensions.

Although Tel Aviv assured Washington of this, settlers have made their presence a regular thing in Homesh under the protection of Israeli police.

Most recently, a Jewish religious school was relocated into Homesh, on private Palestinian land. Police have also blocked the entry of journalists into the area.

New Delhi's delivery of migrant workers also comes despite the government's well-documented mistreatment of Palestinian workers.

The International Labor Organization (ILO) is investigating allegations of mistreatment and exploitation of Palestinian workers in Israel.

Palestinian leaders have submitted a dossier to an ILO fact-finding committee, revealing that 93 Palestinian workers were killed by the Israeli army in 2022, and an additional 31 workers have been killed so far this year.

Shaher Saad, the secretary-general of the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU), presented the dossier to investigators, which showed that brokers and illegal intermediaries were deducting approximately $34 million per month from workers' salaries, effectively hindering the establishment of a functioning social security system in occupied Palestine.

The report also highlights abuse at military checkpoints, lack of occupational health and safety standards, and illegal working hours for Palestinian workers.

After the 1967 Six-Day War, Israeli leaders sought to maintain control over the occupied territories with minimal resistance, according to a report by Haaretz. To achieve this, they introduced a new strategy of employing Palestinian workers in Israel, offering them higher wages than they would receive in the occupied territories.

This approach served a dual purpose for Israel: it provided leverage over the Palestinians in the form of work permits and benefited from the availability of cheap labor.

In addition to controlling Palestinian work permits, Israel also exercises control over Palestinian trade through the numerous checkpoints between Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Whether the trade is with Israel or the external world, all Palestinian foreign trade must pass through Israeli borders.

Around 170,000 Palestinians from the West Bank and 17,000 from the Gaza Strip are employed in Israel or illegal Israeli settlements. These workers are required to pay about 2,500 shekels ($780) monthly for a work permit, a system that primarily benefits the intermediaries involved, who illegally sell those work permits, generating one billion shekels in annual profit from around 40,000 Palestinian workers.

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Can Indians replace Palestinian workers in Israel?
People in the occupied territories depend on jobs in Israel to make ends meet.
https://www.trtworld.com/middle-east/can-indians-replace-palestinian-workers-in-israel-13453987

An Israeli plan to bring in thousands of workers from India could create problems for Palestinians who have little recourse but to cross over into the Jewish state every day to make a living.

New Delhi and Tel Aviv are finalising details on an arrangement which can see an influx of up to 42,000 Indians in Israel's construction and elderly care industries

Israel's Foreign Minister Eli Cohen and his Indian counterpart, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, signed an agreement in this regard in New Delhi last month.

Around 150,000 Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank and the besieged Gaza Strip take the cumbersome journey, which involves security screenings and a humiliating wait for many, to work for private companies in Israel.

"I think this has little to do with economics and more to do with security and ideological considerations," said Dr Mosheer Amer, a Gaza-based Palestinian academic, about the Israel-India deal.

"This is an extension of the attitude of the fanatical, extremist current government."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is leading the country for the sixth time, has cobbled together a right-wing government, which includes Jewish extremist elements who have openly called for the expulsion and, at times, even extermination of Palestinians.

Besides the 5.2 million Palestinians who live in the occupied territories and Gaza, some 1.5 Palestinian Arabs live in Israel.

Netanyahu has faced criticism from human rights groups for joining hands with far-right Jewish Power's leader Itamar Ben-Gvir who derives his beliefs from the ideology of late Jewish extremist Meir Kahane.

In India, critics of Prime Minister Narendra Modi of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) accuse him of curbing press freedom and passing laws which discriminate against Muslims.

The two countries have deepened security ties with New Delhi buying Israeli missiles, drones and cyber security infrastructure. Between 2001 and 2021, India spent $4.2 billion on Israeli defence goods.

Some Israeli industries, such as construction, are experiencing labour shortages. In the past few years, thousands of Palestinians have received work permits, while Tel Aviv has reached out to countries like Morocco and China to find additional workers.

Employers can hire foreign workers at wages lower than what they have to pay Israeli citizens, something that authorities want to use to curb inflation.

A Palestinian question

Giving work permits to foreigners is raising eyebrows as tens of thousands of Palestinians remain without work. The unemployment rate in the occupied West Bank is around 16 percent, according to the latest data.

The situation in the Gaza Strip is even direr, as around 46 percent of the Palestinians have no work. An Israeli blockade has crippled the Gazan economy, and even aid can come through only after Tel Aviv's approval.

In the initial phase, the deal with India includes giving 5,000 permits for construction work and those affiliated with the caregiver industry for the elderly.

"I think the idea is to gradually increase the number of workers of other nationalities and reduce dependence on Palestinians," says Amer.

Israel keeps tight control over the movement of Palestinians and periodically bans their entry into Israel, extending its influence over the occupied territories.

Most Palestinians with Israeli work permits are employed in the construction sector, where they remain at the mercy of employers who can fire them on minor pretexts.

Yet, the desperation is so rampant that Palestinians often pay $675 per month to middlemen to get their hands on Israeli work permits.

By letting in Palestinian labour, Israel maintains control over the economy of occupied territories and also keeps a check on armed groups resisting the occupation.

Entry bans when tensions flare up can drain Palestinian households of their meagre incomes. It also keeps groups like Hamas, which is in control of the Gaza Strip, from retaliating against Israeli aggression.

This was seen recently when Israel launched air strikes against the Islamic Jihad group, killing 33 Palestinians, but Hamas didn't join the fight, leaving many to wonder why. Two people were also killed in Israel, including a Gazan who had a permit to work there.

But for 26-year-old Hassan Abu Dukhan, a Palestinian from the occupied West Bank, workers from India and elsewhere are a matter of worry for a different reason.

He's waiting for his paperwork to complete and will soon start a job at an IT company in Tel Aviv that will pay him $25 per hour.

"In Palestinian territories, I can barely make $3 to $4 an hour. In the best of times, maybe $10," he tells TRT World.

Indian workers, besides being skilful, often agree to work at lower wages than Dukhan. "That's my biggest worry."

However, the geography, the history and the conflict have bound Palestinians and Israelis in a special way, he says.

"There's a certain way to work and deal with the Jewish people. We, the Palestinians, know Israelis, and they know us. We understand each other. So I don't think this plan to bring Indian or other nationalities to Israel is going to work."