Bethlehem – Together – The workers are still waiting for an Israeli decision to return to their workplaces inside Israel. More than 200,000 workers have been sitting in their homes for eight months without anyone asking about them. Many of them were forced to sell their home furniture in order to provide food for their children.

Their calls for help received no response from the government or even the unions. Everyone is silent, while the war cabinet delays and does not decide whether to let them in again. Everyone wonders where the Ministry of Labor is?

After October 7, the political and military cabinet in Israel decided to prevent Palestinian workers from entering Israel. The decision has remained in effect ever since.

The economic situation in the West Bank is getting worse. More than a billion shekels were paid to workers in the West Bank every month. The West Bank’s economy depends mainly on workers’ incomes, in addition to international grants and local revenues.

An Israeli military source told Yed
ioth newspaper: ‘Improving the economic situation in the West Bank is an Israeli security interest.’

According to data from the Israeli security services, the number of Palestinian workers working in industrial areas in the settlements exceeded 10,000 workers. Before the war, about 40,000 workers worked in the West Bank settlements, and about 200,000 in Israel. Today, between 6,000 and 8,000 workers work in Israel, and more than 10,000 workers in the settlements, according to Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper.

According to Israeli military sources, the demand for Palestinian workers in the settlements comes from contracting companies whose work has been halted and damaged, and a small portion of them are allowed to enter to work.

A military official explained that there are many projects in Israel that have been stopped and people have lost a lot of money.

Source: Maan News Agency