Intl. Workers' Day: No cause for celebration for Palestinians working in Israel
April 30, 2014
Tomorrow, 1 May, marks International Workers’ Day. For Palestinian workers, there is not much cause for celebration: the day is a painful reminder that another year has gone by and nothing has changed. Palestinians are still denied basic rights, including the right to earn a living without risking their lives.
The West Bank has been under Israeli military rule for nearly 47 years. As the occupying power, Israel is responsible for the well-being, dignity and livelihood of West Bank residents. Yet it acts in contravention of international law, exploiting natural resources in the West Bank for its own needs and those of Israeli settlers, while ignoring the needs of the Palestinian population. These resources – largely in Area C, which is under full Israeli control – include quarries, water sources, land for agricultural or industrial development, and tourist attractions. A case in point: even as Israel prevents Palestinians from developing modern and potentially more profitable agriculture by denying them access to most of the Jordan Valley as well as to most of its water, it allocates land and much water to settlements so that they can develop such agriculture.
This policy is a major underlying cause for the absence of an independent Palestinian economy, which could provide sufficient and profitable work opportunities for all or most Palestinians in the West Bank. In the present economic situation, the only option available to tens of thousands of Palestinians for earning a living is work within Israel, either with a work permit from Israeli authorities or illegally.
Israel has strict criteria for the approval of work permits and issues no more permits than the number fixed in an occasionally revised quota. The current (March 2014) quota is 47,350 work permits for Israel and the settlements; most of the quota has been utilized.
Workers with permits may enter Israel by one of eleven designated checkpoints throughout the West Bank. In June 2013, B'Tselem staff visited the Tarqumya and Eyal Checkpoints, through which Palestinians with work permits enter Israel. We found harsh conditions of overcrowding, long lines, and cases of humiliation during inspection. On Sundays, the number of Palestinians crossing through both checkpoints peaks at 4,500. The workers and their belongings are scanned with a metal detector. Then, they move on to stations where personnel check their fingerprints and their papers, including their entry permits. Some individuals are sent for an additional inspection procedure, which is at times humiliating. Although both checkpoints open at 4:00 A.M., hundreds of laborers arrive hours earlier, in the middle of the night, concerned they will not reach their workplaces in time due to the long lines and the chance of being sent for additional inspection. Despite the throngs of people waiting to cross, not all eight inspection stations are regularly staffed.
in full: http://www.btselem.org/workers/20140430_international_workers_day_2014