|
I.
Introduction
The condition
of Palestinian workers
who work
within Israel is among the most acute problems persisting in the conflict
between Palestinians and Israelis. The rights of laborers who make the
daily journey from the cities, villages and refugee camps of the West Bank
and Gaza Strip to Israel have been and continue to be violated, in
numerous ways. Additionally many workers, who historically have supported
their families plowing Israeli fields and constructing Israeli buildings,
have been prohibited from reaching their jobs, coldly replaced by workers
from Eastern Europe and Asia. If such violations continue, the prospects
for a just and lasting peace will be considerably weakened.
Palestinians
from the West Bank and Gaza Strip have been entering Israel to work since
shortly after Israel occupied those regions in the Six-Day war in 1967. A
substantial portion of the Palestinian workforce found its means of
sustenance in the Israeli market even through the tumultuous early years
of the Intifada. At the height of the Intifada as many as 120,000
Palestinian laborers crossed the Green Line into Israel on a daily basis
(both through legal channels and in unofficial arrangements) to work in
numerous fields, primarily the building industry, agriculture, and in
services such as hotels and restaurants. Additionally, and quite
ironically, many Palestinians also worked within Israeli settlements in
the Occupied Territories, some building the very houses which settlers
today inhabit. Closures of the Territories, which prevented workers from
reaching their jobs, were extremely infrequent even during the hostilities
of the Intifada. According to the statistics of the Palestinian National
Authority (PNA), during the entire three years of the pre-Gulf War
Intifada (December 9, 1987 - January 15, 1991), the West Bank was closed
for just 18 days. During the same period the Gaza Strip was closed for
only 16 days.
The
repercussions of the Gulf War drastically changed the dynamics of the flow
of labor. During the War itself, Palestinians in the Occupied Territories
were under severe closures and curfews with little ability to move about
within the Palestinian areas, let alone into the State of Israel.
Following the Gulf War and into the period marked by the peace process
between the PLO and the State of Israel, closures have become a more
prevalent and seemingly permanent phenomenon. According to the PNA, from
January 16, 1991, the start of the Gulf War, to September 13, 1993, the
signing of the Declaration of Principles, the West Bank was subjected to
48 days of closure, over three times the number of days of closure during
the Intifada. Meanwhile passage from the Gaza Strip into Israel was
prohibited 90 days total, compared with just 16 during the pre-Gulf War
Intifada.
It is common
knowledge that the initiation of the peace process between Israel and the
PLO, as exemplified by the fabled handshake between Yasser Arafat and
Yitzhak Rabin on the White House lawn, ushered in a period of great hope
among Palestinians, and Israelis as well as throughout the world. Many
assumed that political agreements would soon be accompanied by economic
prosperity. Ironically, for workers from the Palestinian Territories,
however, the Oslo period has become identified with economic hardship. One
premise of the Oslo accords, at least from the Israeli perspective, was
the idea of separation of the two populations. The concept of peace
through separation grew in support among Israelis following a series of
suicide bombings in various cities within the Green Line. Population
separation meant the loss of jobs for Palestinians who were denied entry
to Israel and largely replaced by foreign workers, primarily from Eastern
Europe and Asia. Those workers whose positions were not replaced have been
victimized in other ways by the closure. For instance, Israeli security
forces commonly seize worker’s permits and return them only after the
worker provides collaboration to the security services. As will be
illustrated in this report, the peace process has done little to remedy,
and has, in fact, largely exacerbated problems that faced workers before
the Gulf War and the Oslo process. In addition, new violations of workers’
human rights, caused by various aspects of the Oslo process, have become a
part of the reality of Palestinian workers.
A. Structure
of the Report
This report
will detail the situation facing Palestinian workers since the signing of
the Oslo Accords. First it will detail the basic legal rights of
Palestinian laborers in Israel under Israeli labor and social benefits
law. Next this report will outline the international legal norms against
which the situation of Palestinian workers must be evaluated. The report
will then discuss the Israeli closure of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, a
pervasive force in the lives of Palestinian workers and introduce two
novel legal arguments against the closure. These arguments will be based
on several doctrines of law, the doctrine of equitable estoppel and the
doctrine of eminent domain. Only in light of the closure can one properly
understand the problems and rights violations which face Palestinian
workers as a result of the Oslo Accords. These problems include 1)
employer underreporting and non-reporting of salary, hours worked and
other information; 2) obstacles to enforcement; 3) Physical and emotional
abuse of workers at checkpoints and elsewhere; 4) undocumented workers; 5)
“black work” and the purchasing of permits; 6) Palestinian workers in
Israeli Settlements and Industrial Zones; 7) GSS blackmail; 8) Palestinian
Trade Union (PTU) issues, including the relations between the Histadrut
federation of trade unions and Palestinian workers, 9) discriminatory
social benefits deductions and finally 10) PNA misuse of worker pension
funds.
This report,
while attempting a broad scope, is not comprehensive. Among the areas
which will not be discussed but deserve attention are workplace conditions
and the need for the development of a Palestinian Labor Law. With regard
to the issue of workplace conditions and injury, the Democracy and Workers
Rights Center (DWRC), in particular, has performed extensive documentation
of the problems Palestinian workers have faced in this area. Concerning
Palestinian labor legislation, the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC)
has already produced a number of drafts over the past several years.
Organizations devoted to fair labor relations, including the International
Labor Organization, the DWRC and the Palestinian General Federation of
Trade Unions (PGFTU), are presently in consultation with the drafters of
the law. The PHRMG calls on the Legislative Council to act quickly to
enact a comprehensive labor law which will lay the foundations for the
protection of workers’ rights in Palestine.
|
