The Israeli occupation cut off all livelihoods of Palestinian workers

By Awad al-Ragoub, IOL Palestine Correspondent

GAZA CITY , May 1 (IslamOnline.net) – As the world marks Labor Day on Thursday, May 1, jobless Palestinian workers, suffering under the yoke of unemployment and poverty, stand at the fence, due to the crippling Israeli blockade.

Any Palestinian worker inside the Green Line (the Palestinian territories occupied by Israeli Diaspora in 1948) must first get permission from the Israeli authorities, which becomes null and void once a martyrdom operation takes place.

The Palestinian public sector inside the Green Line sustains annually some $10 million, according to estimates released by the Palestinian Labor Ministry.

Add to that, the Israeli soldiers’ torture, abuse, fining and jailing of those workers not to mention the frauds carried out by Israeli employers.

Some of the those employers are making advantage of the worker’s dire need for money and underpay them or even do not pay them at all, threatening to notify the Israeli police about their illegal status, forcing them to remain silent.

Up to 11,000 lawsuits have been filed by Palestinian workers against such Israeli opportunists, according to estimates of the Palestinian Trade Union (PTU).

360,000 Unemployed

The Israeli blockade, in effect, cut off the livelihoods of some 360,000 Palestinian breadwinners, head of the PTU Shaher Saad told IslamOnline.net.

“Poverty percentage hit 55 per cent in some Palestinian territories, i.e. about 1.7 million Palestinian are living under poverty,” he elaborated.

“On the one hand, the Israeli blockade slammed the Israeli market in the face of Palestinian workers, and denied access of raw materials to the Palestinian market and prevented exportation, on the other,” said Saad.

“They are also subjected to a plethora of humiliation and abuse such as chasing them with dogs, forcing them to take off their clothes and detaining them from five a.m. till 12 p.m. ,” he added.

Child Labor 

The deplorable conditions forced Palestinian children to work to provide for their families.

The center of the creations of the Palestinian children called for combating child labor in factories and local institutions.

According to the Palestinian Central Audit Agency (CAA), 6.6 per cent of the Palestinian age-group 6-16 are working, the center’s programs department said.

“This is a brazen violation of children rights, which provides for protecting children from abuse and violence,” the department said.

Glimpse Of Hope

However, Saad said that consultations were under way to set up an employment fund in cooperation with the International Labor Organization (ILO) to help generate job opportunities for the Palestinian workers who took the brunt of the current situation.

Saad put the losses of Palestinian workers since 1995 at $3.8 billion, calling on the relevant international organizations to put an immediate stop to the appalling conditions suffered by the Palestinian workers.

Some relief and humanitarian agencies provided the workers with necessary food stuffs, such as the 200,000 food packages provided by the Saudi committee for supporting Al-Quds Intifada and distributed by the PTU in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

The committee also pledged to cater for 10,000 Palestinian families for one year by remitting 500 Saudi Rials ($130) per month for each family.

The Arab League’s department of donations, the Omani body for humanitarian aid and cuts from the employees of the Palestinian Authority provided another 80,000 food packages.