Palestinian workers in Israel () are

Palestinian Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...

citizens of the

Palestinian Authority The Palestinian Authority (PA), officially known as the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), is the Fatah-controlled government body that exercises partial civil control over the Palestinian enclaves in the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, ...

who are employed by Israeli citizens in the

State of Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

and

Israeli settlements Israeli settlements, also called Israeli colonies, are the civilian communities built by Israel throughout the Israeli-occupied territories. They are populated by Israeli citizens, almost exclusively of Jewish identity or ethnicity, and hav ...

in the

West Bank The West Bank is located on the western bank of the Jordan River and is the larger of the two Palestinian territories (the other being the Gaza Strip) that make up the State of Palestine. A landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

. Most of them work as unskilled laborers in sectors such as agriculture and construction.

Work permits available for Palestinian workers

According to January 1, 2015

Administration of Border Crossings, Population and Immigration The Population and Immigration Authority (; PIBA), is an Israeli government agency established on July 23, 2008 which is responsible for population registry and immigration topics. History On July 30, 2002, the 30th Prime Minister of Israel, A ...

report, there are 55,200 jobs that are dedicated to Palestinian workers. The permits are divided to sectors: In 2022, the number of work permits from Gaza was raised to 17,000 with plans to further hike the number to 20,000. As of 2023, 150,000 Palestinians work in Israel.

History

Post Six-Day War

Immediately after the

Six-Day War The Six-Day War, also known as the June War, 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states, primarily United Arab Republic, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan from 5 to 10June ...

the Palestinian community in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip suffered a major economic crisis, due to the disconnection from the ruling country,

Jordan Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...

and

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

respectably, which was the main destination of agricultural exports and paid wages for civil workers (such as teachers and official clerks). Quickly, the Israeli administration opened new significant work opportunities for the Palestinian community, which started being an important part of the Israeli economy, mainly as workers in jobs such as agriculture, construction and cleaning. Soon the Palestinian workers started replacing unskilled Israelis from these sectors who were employed before 1967. The abundant number of low wage Palestinian workers in different sectors caused a general drop in the average wage in these specific sectors and a drop in

workforce productivity Workforce productivity is the amount of goods and services that a group of workers produce in a given amount of time. It is one of several types of productivity that economists measure. Workforce productivity, often referred to as labor produc ...

due to the wide supply of cheap manual labor. Initially, the Palestinian workers were employed illegally, and since the summer of 1968, in an official permission, the number of workers gradually increased (several thousands before 1970, around 20,000 in 1970, 50,000 in 1972 and 75,000 in 1982). According to estimates, a third of the Palestinian workforce were employed in Israel at that time. Along with workers who held permits, an unknown number of illegal workers were also employed. Palestinian workers were often exposed to exploitation by their employees because of the abundance of available workers and the illegal workers, and because they are an unskilled workforce.

Post First Intifada

In the late 1980s and the 1990s, tension between Israel and Palestine built up to the

First Intifada The First Intifada (), also known as the First Palestinian Intifada, was a sustained series of Nonviolent resistance, non-violent protests, acts of civil disobedience, Riot, riots, and Terrorism, terrorist attacks carried out by Palestinians ...

. One of its aftermath is the restriction on Palestinians' freedom of movement. The large scale blocking of Palestinian workers would eventually drove Israeli employers to look to Eastern Europe and Asia to replenish their want for cheap laborers.

Post 2008

In 2011, the

(PA) claimed it would take actions to limit the number of Palestinians who are employed in Israel and in settlements. Shaher Saad, the Secretary General of the Palestinian workers association said that such action can't be done because the PA doesn't provide any alternative. He stated that 35,000 Palestinian workers are employed within Israel and in the settlements which provide the local economy with 2 billion dollars budget every year. In 2013, ''

Haaretz ''Haaretz'' (; originally ''Ḥadshot Haaretz'' – , , ) is an List of newspapers in Israel, Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel. The paper is published in Hebrew lan ...

'' reported that 48,000 Palestinians are legally employed in Israel and Israeli settlements, the highest number since the outbreak of the

Second Intifada The Second Intifada (; ), also known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada, was a major uprising by Palestinians against Israel and its Israeli-occupied territories, occupation from 2000. Starting as a civilian uprising in Jerusalem and October 2000 prot ...

. It also states that according to evaluations, up to 30,000 worked illegally without a work permit.

Post October 7, 2023

In 2024, the

Shin Bet The Israel Security Agency (ISA; , (GSS); ), better known by the Hebrew acronyms, acronyms Shabak (; ; ) or Shin Bet (from the abbreviation of , "Security Service"), is Israel's internal Security agency, security service. Its motto is "''Magen ...

, Israel's internal security service, published an investigative report concluding that Palestinian workers in Israel did not systematically spy for Hamas in the lead-up to

2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel On October 7, 2023, Hamas and several other Palestinians, Palestinian militant groups launched coordinated armed incursions from the Gaza Strip into the Gaza envelope of southern Israel, the first invasion of Israeli territory since the 1948 ...

References

Foreign workers Palestinians Labor in Israel