Israel government has now planned to replace the 90,000 Palestinians by 1 lakh Indians and they are in discussing stage and soon will expect more Indians work in Israel. According to the Israel Builders Association, they are negotiating with India and waiting for the Israeli government to approve the request.
This was the first time in history that Israeli construction industry had opened way for Indians. The agreement also includes nursing staff.
Following the Hamas attack in Israel on October 7, the Israeli construction industry reportedly asked the government to allow companies to hire 1 lakh Indian workers to replace the already existing 90,000 Palestinians whose work permits have been cancelled since the start of the war.
Source: The Kashmir Monitor
“Right now, we’re negotiating with India,” says Haim Feiglin, vice president of Israel’s Builders Association. We are awaiting the Israeli government’s decision to approve the request. And we hope to hire 50,000 to 100,000 Indian workers to run the entire sector and restore it to normalcy.”
The minister of Indian external affairs did not immediately respond to the report. According to the report, Palestinians account for roughly around 25% of the workforce in the Israeli construction industry.
According to Feiglin, “Due to the war, the Palestinian workers are not coming and are not permitted to work in Israel.” Approximately 10% of the Palestinian workers are from Gaza, the conflict’s epicentre, and the rest are from the West Bank. In May, Israel signed an agreement with India that will allow 42,000 Indians to work in Israel, largely in the construction sector. According to press statement from the Israeli foreign ministry, the Israeli ministers also signed agreements to allow the arrival of 42,000 Indian workers in the fields of construction and nursing.
The Framework Agreement for the Facilitation of Temporary Employment of Workers in Specific Labour Market Sectors in Israel was launched on May 9 during Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen’s visit to India. According to the Population and Immigration Authority in Israel, the workers from India were hardworking, skilled, and fluent in English.
Source: NDTV
However, on the other hand, hundreds of thousands of Palestinian workers have been deported to Gaza. Israel deported thousands of Palestinian workers from Gaza back to the besieged territory last week.
Some workers told of violent mistreatment by Israeli authorities in detention centres as they walked through an Israeli crossing that had been closed since Hamas launched its brutal attack on southern Israel on October 7.
Wael al-Sajda, one of the workers from the border said, “we sacrificed, and they treated us like livestock over there,” and pointing to his ankle, which was imprinted with an identification bracelet.
Approximately 18,000 Palestinians from Gaza were permitted to work in menial jobs in Israel. The permits have been highly sought after in Gaza, which has an unemployment rate of nearly 50%. Despite a broader blockade aimed at weakening the Islamic militant group, Israel began issuing the permits in recent years, believing it would help stabilise Gaza and moderate Hamas. Israel announced late Thursday that it would revoke the Palestinian workers’ permits and deport them.
Since the October 7 attack, in which Hamas militants stormed across the border and killed 1,400 people and kidnapped 240 more, Israel has said little about the workers. Nowadays foreign workers are increasingly preferred over Palestinians, because they provide insurance against frequent work disruptions caused by frequent closures of borders in and out of Gaza and the West Bank.
