Palestinians need jobs - working in [illegal] settlements......

With over 500,000 Israeli citizens illegally settled in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem where settlements are growing rapidly, defying international humanitarian law and supporting Israel’s land-grabbing occupation, many Palestinians living nearby find jobs.  Many employed in the settlements’ industrial zones earn bigger bucks, too.

"We make good money in the Israeli construction projects,” says Abed, a 38 year-old, as he waits with hundreds of others at 3am at a settlement checkpoint. He and other Palestinian villagers every day watch the sun rise over the Settlements growing on top of hills where olive trees used to grow.

According to the Fourth Geneva Convention, article 49 (1948), international humanitarian law prohibits the occupying power from transferring its citizens from its own territory to the occupied territory.  And it’s these army-protected settlements which infringe on the rights of the occupied Palestinian residents to self-determination, equality, property, an adequate standard of living, and freedom of movement.

"If there were Palestinian shops to work in, then we would prefer to work there than face a soldier’s check even before we start work," he says, referring to the long wait at the Israeli soldier-controlled checkpoint to settlements.

"I completely agree with the Palestinian Authority's demand to halt the settlements, but where is the alternative that will provide us with a decent living?" he asks.

Palestinians have now lost up to 60% of their lands since 1967 as this gradual and obvious cancer has eaten away at Palestinians’ livelihoods. Abed is rational. “So, if lands are lost, the next logical employment pattern is to seek any jobs that pay!”

Before the 2000 Al-Aqsa Intifada uprising, some 146,000 Palestinians were working inside Israel and the settlements, according to the International Monetary Fund.  In contrast, in 2010, one survey noted that only 22,000 Palestinians work with permits in Israeli settlements in construction, agriculture, manufacturing and service industries with another estimated 10,000 working informally without permits.  http://survey.ituc-csi.org/Palestine.html?lang=en#tabs-4  . This number is rising while only around 45,000 Palestinians have work permits to enter Israel, according to the Israeli military.  So numbers of employed are dwindling, or the unemployed leave the country, or numbers work in the informal economy, unnoticed and not taxed.   According to the Bureau’s Labor Force Survey, the Palestinian unemployment rate in the West Bank in 2010 stood at more than 17%, while in the Gaza Strip it reached almost 38%.

Kalandiya checkpoint barrier Wall grafitti

In April 2010, Palestinian Authority Minister of National Economy, Hasan Abu Libda, announced the goal of zero Palestinians working in Israeli settlements by the end of 2011, saying that the interim years would see increased investment into local businesses, and efforts to create jobs to absorb would-be settlement laborers.  "Those who are working in settlements are beefing up settlements, contributing heavily to the lifeline of settlements, and therefore they deserve more punishment," Abu Lidba told the Reuters news agency.  While the law was signed into action in July 2010, implementation remained loose to date; it has yet to affect between 30,000 - 40,000 workers today working in construction, agriculture, or industry.  According to the law, workers would face penalties of up to five years in jail or a $14,000 fine for anyone found working in settlements after the start of 2011.

In December 2010, PA spokesman Ghassan Khatib said, “We’re planning to go ahead with the boycott option, but at a pace that ensures parallel work opportunities for Palestinians in local markets.” In the meantime, todate, the ban on Palestinian laborers working in the settlements remains unattended.

The 2010 legislation also banned the sale of West Bank settlement products in Palestinian shops. Khatib estimated the annual sale of settlement goods to Palestinian businesses at between $200 million to $500 million.  Irritated by this, the Boycott/Divestiture/Sanctions (BDS) campaigns forge ahead in countries to stop commercial trade with settlement-made goods. But this becomes just another threat to Palestinian worker livelihood.

Settlement above Wadi Qana lands/Qalqiliya District/West bank

 The Palestine Central Bureau of Statistics released its April 2011 report: 14.2 percent of employed Arabs from the West Bank worked in settlements in 2010, despite the PA’s ban on Palestinians working in settlements. The nominal daily median net wage of Palestinians who worked in the West Bank was NIS 76.9 (US$21) in 2010, while those who were employed in settlements received NIS 150 (US$41) per day. Many Palestinian laborers will not discuss their reasons for working in the settlements. They fear losing their Israeli work permits if the Palestinian Authority (PA) finds out.

Dani Dayan, who heads the Council of Jewish Communities of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip, welcomed reports of an increase in Palestinians workers in the settlements. “It is a positive thing both for Israelis and for the Palestinians,” he said.   “I think the reality of fruitful coexistence that [PA Prime Minister] Salam Fayyad tried to undermine is stronger than his boycott plan,” Dayan said. “The only way to promote peaceful coexistence is through cooperative endeavors.”  (See:  “Palestinians Working in Settlements Earn Double” by Khaled Abu Toameh, Jerusalem Post, 04/22/2011)

According to the IMF, in 2010, Palestinians paid 75 dollars a month for a permit to work in the settlements, but they could still be turned back by the soldiers at the checkpoint at any time for unspecified "security" reasons.  A construction worker could make 50 to 75 dollars a day in Israel and its settlements, compared to just 20 dollars (15 euros) in areas controlled by the PA.  Palestinian employment minister Ahmad Majdalani says the Authority is aware of this settlement employment preference (is it really a choice?) but blames Israeli closures for the lack of job opportunities.  "There is unprecedented unemployment in the Palestinian labour market, which is basically tied to the Israeli blockade and the closures," he says.

Settler Violence Towards Palestinians

Hark! There is a vital twist of fate here, as violence by settlers towards Palestinian persons and property is up 57% this year, as of June 2011, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA). This is double the rate in the whole of 2010.  Extremist right-wing factions in Israel are currently preparing a plan dubbed “children against children, women against women”, as part of settlers’ activities and attacks against the unnamed Palestinian population in the West Bank and in occupied East Jerusalem.

Armed Settlers supported by Israel Defense Force (credit: www.occupiedpalestine.com)

The Israel Defense Force (IDF) is training Jewish settlers for combat situations. This means settlers own more than half a million automatic rifles, and practically unlimited amounts of ammunition, getting ready for any ‘Palestine uprising’ they expect which refers to the UN vote in September, and subsequent activities for agitation. ( See http://www.imemc.org/article/61930)

While confrontations between Palestinians and Settlers have been sporadic but continual, an increase of violence has already started, resulting in road blocks on Palestinian roads to deter people away from settlement areas.  Will this lead to another Intifada?  A Palestine ‘Autumn’ uprising? Will the Israeli government realize this violent madness by settlers is not about any Palestinian-made violence or ‘terrorist’ tendencies, but about a miscarriage of justice by the so-called ‘democracy’ which Israel boasts?

Soldier Stalking and other War Games-14 Sept

Tensions rise.....20 September Palestine UN vote nears.........

Carol stalking and watching in Jayyus village

I took to Jayyus streets again – in broad daylight – when our local support contact called saying, “Some 15 soldiers are in front of my house.” I ended up stalking three Israeli Defence Force army jeeps as they made their rounds in the village. “They chose to come after the boys leave school and while parents are working”, said one shopowner, used to these gun-toting visits. “The boys then play ‘occupation war’ with these soldiers,” he said, as the youth positioned themselves to throw stones and rocks at the jeeps. My venture was to both avoid these stones as well as the sound bombs soldiers threw to disperse the young crowd.  Elders just looked on, weary and detached. I did too, with my camera clicking away.

No arrests were made, as is usually done on such unannounced military excursions…because there were no military police in the entourage to make the arrests. “Combat soldiers cannot arrest, by law”, said one shopowner.  “The village just becomes a playground for the soldiers and boys - they play ‘war’”. A woman with a young child walked home, passing the jeeps.

Two young men jumped into a large bulldozer tractor and gunned its engines to maneuver it onto the street. The mission was to block the jeeps from passing. But the army outwitted them, and blocked the tractor instead, and pulled a man out and beat him. The jeeps then drove away, as did the freed tractor driver who pranced in the village to spread the message that he had overcome.

I and my colleague just watched, amazed at such bullying and incitements. A war game, indeed.  No wonder little boys throw stones.

Agitation of youth has increased since the end of Ramadan with stick banging and stone throwing amusements, probably due to tensions leading up to the UN vote for Palestinian membership in the United Nations on 20 September. Soldier visits and arrests of youth have also increased in West Bank villages, indiscriminately.  Blood boils and hatreds swell – it’s the young ones who feel the impact most. So why do good little boys do bad things??

Will these war games result in a new nation’s future militaristic leaders of Palestine, I wonder?