Ramallah: The Palestinian labour ministry has urged Palestinian workers in Israeli colonies to quit their jobs, especially since EU member states have started labelling colony products.
The Palestinian ministry expressed its strong support for workers quitting jobs in colonies in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem with immediate effect.
According to Nasser Qatami, the ministry’s undersecretary, the number of Palestinian workers in Israeli colonies will come down as the EU decision to label colony products is put in place. “The Palestinians have attained alternatives,” he said. “There are alternatives to jobs in the Israeli colonies and Palestinian workers can just jump into the field when they are ready to join the Palestinian labour force.”
Qatami said that construction and agriculture industries in the Occupied Territories are now flourishing and those sectors will grow over the next few years. “The [occupied] Palestinian territories can absorb Palestinian workers [employed in the] colonies. The ministry has finalised plans to accommodate workers who quit jobs at the Israeli colonies,” he said. “The ministry will use its recruitment fund to create job opportunities for workers [quitting their jobs].”
More than 30,000 Palestinians work in the colonies, mainly in the construction and agriculture sectors, with an average wage of 200 shekels (Dh189.43) a day.
The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) issued a law in April 2010 that made dealing with products from Israeli colonies a crime. The guilty party is liable to face punitive measures and fines. The PNA imports about $4 billion (Dh14.68 billion) worth of products from Israel annually. The PNA at the time could not address the issue of Palestinian workers in the Israeli colonies as it could not offer any alternatives.
The Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions, Workers and Labourers announced that asking Palestinian workers in Israeli colonies to quit their jobs is not yet possible. “Accommodation is not feasible because the PNA cannot offer alternatives. This is a dream that can not be fulfilled for the time being,” said a federation official, who requested anonymity. “It is not an easy task to persuade or instruct tens of thousands of workers to quit their well paid jobs and end up unemployed.”
Israel has warned that labelling colony products being exported to the EU will hurt tens of thousands of Palestinian workers and their families as those workers will lose their jobs.
The EU-Israel relationship has hit a new low, after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered his foreign ministry to suspend contacts with EU institutions over all issues related to the peace process with the Palestinians in response to the EU decision to label products made in the West Bank colonies.
According to Haaretz, the Israeli foreign ministry will reassess the level of involvement that Israel would allow the EU’s foreign affairs service, the European Commission and the rest of the EU’s institutions in Brussels in issues related to the peace process with Palestinians.
The official from the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions said that Palestinian workers in the colonies will suffer the implications of the tense Israel-EU relationship.
