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III.
International Legal Standards
Various
conventions of international human rights and labor law provide
protections and rights for working people. The International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), for instance, proclaims the
“right to work.” The signatories to the ICESCR, among them Israel,
“recognize the right to work, which includes the right of everyone to the
opportunity to gain his living by work which he freely chooses or
accepts….” Additionally Israel, as a signatory, agreed to “take
appropriate steps to safeguard this right.” These steps are to include,
among others, “policies and techniques to achieve steady economic, social
and cultural development and productive employment under conditions
safeguarding fundamental political and economic freedoms to the
individual.”
The phenomena
discussed in this report show that Israel has failed to live up to the
above commitments, particularly in light of the closure which prevents
Palestinians from continuing to work in Israel as they have for over 25
years.
Israel’s 1997
report to the United Nations regarding its implementation of the ICESCR
fails to account sufficiently for Israel’s performance vis a vis
Palestinian workers. The report discusses the rights of Palestinian
workers only in its section on foreign workers, despite the fact that
Palestinian workers have a different legal status and an altogether
different social and economic reality. The report states that “with the
increase in the number of terrorist attacks and the concomitant need to
close off the territories, a large number of workers came to Israel from
all over the world.”
No mention is
made of the economic and social repercussions of that act of closure upon
Palestinians in the Occupied Territories. Although Israel is responsible
for the rights of Palestinians over which it exercises jurisdiction as an
occupying power, it neglects to discuss those rights in its report to the
UN on the implementation of those rights.
Israel, under
the Convention, has undertaken to ensure “the right of everyone to form
trade unions and join the trade union of his choice” as well as the right
of such “trade unions to function freely subject to no limitations other
than those prescribed by law and which are necessary in a democratic
society in the interest of national security or public order or for the
protection of the rights and freedoms of others.”
The right to
join trade unions for the protection of a worker’s interests is also
guarded by the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights. Additionally the International Labor Organization has
proclaimed the right of workers to freely join unions and the right of
those unions to operate without restrictions in several conventions. For
instance the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to
Organise Convention obliges those states which have ratified the
convention to ensure that workers, as well as employers, “shall have the
right to establish and…to join organisations of their choosing without
previous authorization.” These organizations shall have the right to draw
up their constitutions and rules, to elect their representatives in full
freedom, to organise their administration and activities and to formulate
their programmes.” “The public authorities shall refrain,” as expressly
stated by this convention, “from any interference which would restrict
this right or impede the lawful exercise thereof.”
The access of
Palestinian workers to join effective trade unions, the ability of PTU’s
to function properly, and the relationship between Palestinian workers and
the Histadrut, the Israeli trade union federation, will be discussed in
light of these conventions.
Through
Article 9 of the ICESCR, Israel recognizes “the right of everyone to
social security, including social insurance.” Israel’s National Insurance
laws discussed above continue to abridge Palestinian social insurance
rights, supposedly protected by the ICESCR.
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