If you cross the wall, you can get killed
On the situation of Palestinian permit workers in the occupied West Bank
The distances are really short – you can get from one point to another just by walking. The separation barrier is sometimes an 8-metre-high wall, but occasionally, it’s just a fence. South of Hebron, there’s nothing but trees. A couple of weeks ago, a worker tried to cross the line and was killed. He thought the army knew that people crossed the barrier there daily, and that if there was a problem, he’d just go to prison for a couple of weeks. But now the rules have changed. He was killed just because he was going to work. If you don’t have a permit, but cross nevertheless, which was illegal, but normal before the war, you can get killed. That seems to be the message — says Assaf Adiv, the leader of the Maan Workers Association, an Israel-based trade union, working among Palestinian and Israeli workers. MAAN is a socially oriented union, working across the separation wall to organize and defend Palestinians from the West Bank who are employed by Israeli companies.
Did you participate in the latest strike of Histadrut?
No. We did not take part in this short strike. We see the whole conflict inside Israel as a partisan, factional struggle between the main parties of Israel, rather than any kind of movement for progress towards new solutions and opening up with Palestinians. But at the same time, we’re still battling it out with the Netanyahu government.
The next election is likely to be in November 2026, but it could be sooner, perhaps as early as next year. Presently, it’s crucial for the left to be prepared to take on the openly fascist elements within Netanyahu’s coalition. We need to get rid of them and their government. But to get there, we need to build a balanced and serious opposition that puts forward an alternative and not just blame Netanyahu for everything that goes wrong.
It wasn’t so long ago that we learned that six young hostages had been killed by Hamas. It was a real shock. Two of them were left-wing activists who were challenging the government and working with Palestinians in Jerusalem to build some kind of social opposition. It’s so sad when things like this happen.
People blamed the government for that, saying that Netanyahu doesn’t want any peace deal to stay in power, and mobilise the society against the Palestinians even more.
I think that it is wrong to say that Netanyahu killed the hostages. It looks like that now, though. My view is that it relieves the pressure on Hamas, and there should be one.
Ultimately, the situation is far more complex than it appears from observing the protests against Netanyahu. The government needs to be held to account for its colonial policies in the West Bank, as well as for stoking colonial sentiment towards Gaza and the killing of Palestinian civilians. But there’s more to it than that.
What about the workers who have worked in Israel and the Occupied Territories, what is their situation after 7 October?
It’s not just tragic, it’s worse than that. In just a few weeks, it’ll be a year since the border closed. That means more than 150,000 people, mostly middle-class West Bankers, are out of work. This has a knock-on effect on the Palestinians, their economy and political stability. The whole economic cooperation is currently on hold.
What are the exact numbers of the workers right now and before the war? Different sources always provide an array of data on that matter, so do we know the reality?
There always appears to be a bit of confusion with the numbers. The official data relates to people working inside Israel and in the Israeli settlements on the basis of work permits. But you have others who find ways to cross the barriers and checkpoints to get to work without proper permits.
What you had up until October 6, 2023 was around 120,000 workers with permits, employed in Israel. Most of them, around 80%, worked in construction sector, while the rest were employed in industry, agriculture, and tourism. In addition to these, another 40,000 workers were employed in the Israeli settlements, mainly focused in agriculture, construction, and industry. Above these numbers, there were about 40,000 people who worked without permits. This could have been because they couldn’t have gotten one, they have a criminal record, or they were older than 55 (men) or 50 (women) so they could enter without a permit. So, in total, there were around 200,000 people from the West Bank working in Israel or in the settlements.
And then there were workers from Gaza…
Before the war, there were around 20,000 people from Gaza. Even so, some stats include people from occupied Jerusalem. I’d rather just count people with permits and those from Palestinian territories beyond the separation barriers.
So what’s the impact of it the current situation and the rupture of economic relations between the two societies?
Apart from the basics, like having money, stability and economic security, there’s another aspect to having a permit and a job. As a matter of fact, if one has a work permit and a legal job in Israel or a settlement , one will get health insurance through the payslip from the Israeli employer. The money used to be transferred to pay the dues to the Palestinian Authority Health System. Presently, most people can’t access that. Apart from 20,000 workers who continue to work in essential sectors like food and hospitals, others have no salary and as explained above, lost even their family health insurance.
You’ve already been here, so you know that the West Bank is not a huge land. The distances are really short – you can get from one point to another just by walking. The separation barrier is sometimes an 8-metre-high wall, but occasionally, it’s just a fence or some kind of natural barrier. South of Hebron, there’s nothing but trees. A couple of weeks ago, a worker tried to cross it and was killed. He thought the army knew that people crossed the barrier there daily, and that if there was a problem, he’d just go to prison for a couple of weeks. But now the rules have changed. He was killed just because he was going to work.
If you don’t have a permit and cross illegally, which was normal before the war, you can get killed. That seems to be the message.
Killed, or detained?
A couple of days ago I spoke with a worker from the town of Yatta in the West Bank who used to work in the Beer Sheva region. He was caught by the military. He had a valid a permit but they caught him crossing the barrier illegally. He was placed in detention with a one thousand shekels fine and three years of suspended sentence. If they catch him again, he goes to prison for that time. This worker told me that he lost 10 kilos of weight in one month. During this period, he ate one plate of rice a day. Human rights are not respected in any way even when we discuss workers who are not accused of any involvement in terrorist activity.
What can you do as a labour union?
MAAN, as a trade union, is in contact with other institutions who deal with the situation in jails for Palestinians in general and for workers in particular. I recently discussed the situation of workers detained in prisons with a lawyer who represents detained Palestinians on behalf of the Ministry of Justice, and she confirmed the information available to me. Her report was really appalling, and we know that being in prison leads to health, physical and mental problems.
Simply put, normal people who want to work are caught out and detained there just because of mistakes, or a mere ‘terrorist threat’, or when crossing the border without permission and then treated in unhuman conditions
How does the work in illegal settlements look, especially in the light of settler’s violence towards Palestinians?
There are a couple of industrial zones in the West Bank where people can work in decent conditions. One of them is Mishor Adumim, just 10 minutes driving east from Jerusalem. There are plenty of job opportunities in factories, especially those producing wood and aluminium. Around 5,000 people have found work in one of them. These areas have been working normally. The workers simply returned to work.
As a union, MAAN represents workers in several work places in the settlement industrial zones. This gives us the power to negotiate collective agreements. We operate there regularly, organising union meetings every two weeks, lobbying on the workers’ behalf and communicating with the administration and business owners. I am pleased to say that there are no problems on any side of the equation.
In August, a worker attacked one of the managers in his company and killed him, it did not change the situation. There was a strong reaction from the settlers, but eventually, it was considered an individual case and the routine of workers entering the settlements continued.
There was already an escalation in the West Bank in August. The military carried out the largest pacification operation since the Second Intifada, how does this change the situation for Palestinian workers?
I think that the army is trying to separate, or isolate these clashes with groups of militants into separate fighting zones. The groups of militants, Islamic Jihad, Hamas, Popular Front and Fatah splinter factions are right now working together, creating some military-operating cells against the Israeli army. They are supported heavily by the Iranian proxies through Jordan, they are smuggling weapons and money through the border with Israel. Nevertheless, the general population in the West Bank seems to be afraid of any kind of escalation.
Everybody knows that any kind of armed struggle would bring here the level of destruction that we’ve been seeing in Gaza. People still remember the Second Intifada, which was devastating. I am talking to workers in the West Bank who want to keep themselves out of the fire between the Israeli army and these military groups. In the end, those fights bring death not only to fighters, but also to civilians.
One could say that mostly to civilians…
At the same time, most of the people just want to live, to have a normal life.
I believe that if the Israeli government allowed the entrance of workers into Israel, as it did before, most of them would welcome it. I am sure that the great majority of them would not exploit it to organise any type of terrorist activity. The Israeli security authorities are saying this themselves, recommending to the government to allow workers to return. The fact that Palestinian workers, especially in the construction sector and agriculture are not allowed to work in Israel, creates huge loses to the Israeli economy. This might be as much as three billion shekels, almost one billion dollars, every month.
The government postpones the re-opening the entrance of the workers for two reasons. On one hand, there is the agenda of the extreme right-wing ministers who aim at the annexation of the West Bank and refuse to accept the existence of the PA. On the other hand, you have the fact that the PA did not differentiate itself from Hamas and tries to compensate for its losing position and support among the general population by adopting extreme slogans – without taking care for workers.
And are there any other sources of labour? Has Israel tried to attract other workers to replace the Palestinians?
Bringing in workers from other directions, including Southeast Asia, has not succeeded, and in my view cannot succeed for various reasons. No government will allow its citizens to die here. After all, we are living, both sides, under war conditions. At the same time, if the replacement of Palestinian workers by workers from India or Sri Lanka took place, it would mean a total collapse of the economic situation of the PA and an increase in social unrest among Palestinians caused by poverty – in addition to the actions of the fascist government and the settlers.
Listening to you, one can think that you still believe that there is a possibility of peaceful coexistence between the two peoples, Palestinian and Israeli, regardless of occupation and war.
Firstly, we have no choice but to stand firm against both Israeli fascists and Muslim extremists. You have Jewish extremists in Israel who refuse to accept the right of Palestinians. And at the same time, you have the Iranian regime that pushes for a regional war with its proxies.
I am certain that most Iranians would agree with me that the Iranian regime is not on their side, but also on the side of the peoples of the region. This extremism is creating a sick situation in which innocent people are dying, and it is only serving to bolster the Ayatollahs’ regime. Instead of focusing on regional development and peaceful coexistence, everyone is focusing on war – and it’s wrong. What’s more, I am certain that the people of Lebanon would say the same. They simply do not understand why Lebanon is constantly at war with Israel. A year ago, there were still discussions about territorial rights in the Mediterranean and the extraction of natural gas from the seabed. An agreement was reached. I am not suggesting a fairy tale scenario. I am not in favour of extracting gas because of the climate catastrophe. What is important is that talks and negotiations were possible.
We must find a new path for the whole region that will stop wars and lead to peace. Extremists are on all sides, and they’re also in Europe and America. The majority of people, whether they are workers from the West Bank or people from Tel Aviv, artists, or the intelligentsia, want to live in peace and do not want this escalation. They want to coexist with the Palestinians. We will not back down from this struggle. We must win it. This is the future we are fighting for.
Cover photo: the separation wall. Photo by Mazur/catholicnews.uk.
Subscribe to Cross-border Talks’ YouTube channel! Follow the project’s Facebook and Twitter page! And here are the podcast’s Telegram channel and its Substack newsletter!
Subscribe to Cross-border Talks’ YouTube channel! Follow the project’s Facebook and Twitter page! And here is the podcast’s Telegram channel!
About The Author
