Ramallah: A total of 24 Palestinians who entered Israel to work without the necessary permits have died in 2016, and 320 others have suffered various types of injuries because of a lack of proper safety measures and the greed of their Israeli employers.
The victims all died on Israeli construction sites, according to Nasser Al Qatami, the undersecretary of the Palestinian Labour Ministry.
“The high death toll and number of casualties can be attributed to the fact that Israeli employers do not care much about the safety of Palestinian workers and never provide them with the necessary safety measures on site,” Al Qatami said in a statement. “The main cause reported for the accidents was falling from a height.”
Israeli employers viciously discriminate against Palestinian workers.
“This is a systematic Israeli policy that violates the basic rights of Palestinian workers,” Al Qatami announced.
Israeli employers do not provide injured Palestinian workers with the necessary medical attention, and refer them back to Palestinian hospitals in the West Bank for treatment.
The vast majority of Israeli employers get away with not paying or short changing Palestinian workers, who then have no legal recourse against employers who enjoy legal immunity.
Palestinian workers without work permits are usually hired to finalise projects, after which they are asked to leave without being paid or are reported to the Israeli police who rush to arrest, fine and prosecute them.
After the first violation, the worker’s name is registered on a police blacklist and they are required to spend a night in police custody.
Further violations are met with hefty fines and imprisonment.
During 2015, a total of 27 Palestinian workers died inside Israel.
Meanwhile, in another instance of injustice against Palestinians, a report issued by the PLO-affiliated Abdullah Al Hourani Centre for Studies and Documentations, states that Israel demolished 1,023 Palestinian homes and facilities during 2016 in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem.
The occupation forces also issued 657 demolition orders, which are anticipated to be implemented during 2017.
This avalanche of demolitions has left 1,620 Palestinians, half of whom are children, homeless.
Palestinian homes and facilities are demolished under the pretext that they were built without the necessary official Israeli construction licenses.
But Palestinians point to a systematic Israeli plan to change facts on the ground, expand colonies on Palestinian and later annex them into Israel.
The Israeli daily, the Haaretz, has reported that the Israeli Civil Administration, which runs the West Bank on behalf of the Israeli government, only approved 35 of the 1,253 applications for building permits in Area C of the West Bank this past year.
The daily added that in 2015, the Israeli authorities issued only seven building permits for Palestinians, and in 2014, only nine such licenses were granted.
