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VII.
Conclusion
As has been
laid out in this report, during the Oslo-Wye era, violations of
Palestinian workers’ human rights are varied and numerous. Some violations
predate the Oslo Accords, such as discriminatory National Insurance
deductions. Other violations are primarily post-Oslo phenomena, such as
GSS blackmail. While some violations are perpetrated by the Israeli
authorities, such as abuse of workers at checkpoints, other violations are
carried out by the workers’ own government, the PNA, such as misuse of
worker pension funds. Further abuses, such as underreporting salaries and
other figures to avoid paying social benefits, are perpetrated by Israeli
employers and tacitly approved by the Israeli government through weak
enforcement.
Palestinian
workers receive some aid and protection from the two trade union
federations in the region, the PGFTU and the Histadrut. Both organizations
could, however, do more to guard Palestinian labor rights. The Histadrut
should act with fiscal responsibility to Palestinian workers through the
PGFTU and the PGFTU should maintain its focus on workers’ rights and not
on allegiances to the PNA establishment.
All violations
discussed in this report relate in some fashion to the suffocating Israeli
closure of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Whether chooses the lens of
international humanitarian law, international human rights and labor law,
or some other doctrine (such as Estoppel or Eminent Domain as we have
suggested), the closure’s illegality appears clear as day. The PHRMG calls
for its elimination, in addition to the remedy of all violations contained
in this report.
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