From the construction industry to the catering industry, passing through agriculture. Since the start of the war in the Gaza Strip, hundreds of Israeli companies have fallen into deep crisis. Reason? A shortage of Palestinian workers, whom the government has banned from staying in Israel for security reasons.
The bloc is supported by the far-right parties of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. To overcome the labor shortage, the administrator implemented an incentive system to encourage the employment of Israelis. But attempts to replace Palestinians are failing: According to the government’s own data, 773 Israelis have been hired so far, the vast majority of them in agriculture. However, before the start of the conflict, approximately 150,000 Palestinians were working in Israeli companies.
Most had regular employment contracts: about 110,000 people arrive every day from their homes in the West Bank to industries, construction sites or fields in Israel for wages lower than the average Israeli worker. According to the analysis of researcher Haggay Etkes, there were another 40 thousand irregular border crossings. According to the law, entrepreneurs who use them face imprisonment. However, Tel Aviv officials turned a blind eye to this.
Moreover, the dependence of Israeli companies on Palestinian labor is getting stronger over the years. “Israelis don’t want to do these jobs,” restaurateur Ilon Zigdon told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. Words that remind me of the words of other entrepreneurs, especially in the construction and agriculture sectors. “There are currently 1.6 billion shekels (ed. 390 million euros) worth of fruit on the trees that no one has harvested,” says Daniel Klusky, secretary general of the Citrus Growers Association. There are those who try to look for workers elsewhere, even far away from Israel, but to no avail: “I tried to include Chinese workers, but they want 1,500 shekels (about 360 euros) a day, and even so. “In this case, they do not want work,” says a construction contractor.
The short-term damage to productivity in the sectors most affected by the labor shortage in Palestine amounts to over 730 million euros per month, the Finance Ministry’s chief economist estimates. “As this damage accumulates, it will affect not only entrepreneurs who depend on Palestinians, but also the Israeli economy as a whole,” he writes. Haaretz. “Many entrepreneurs are on the verge of economic collapse,” says Eran Siev, president of the Builders Association.
For this reason, the pressure from the business world on Netanyahu to find a solution to the problem is increasing. He told a news conference that the prime minister had not yet presented a clear plan but had hinted at the possibility of granting Palestinian workers permission to work “under adequate security measures in isolated locations.”
Source: Today IT
Karen Clayton is a seasoned journalist and author at The Nation Update, with a focus on world news and current events. She has a background in international relations, which gives her a deep understanding of the political, economic and social factors that shape the global landscape. She writes about a wide range of topics, including conflicts, political upheavals, and economic trends, as well as humanitarian crisis and human rights issues.
