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Barred from Working in Israel, West Bank Palestinians Pay a Price for Gaza's War
(Times of Israel) Nurit Yohanan - For 30 years, Mohammad Abu Zahra, a Palestinian from the southern West Bank, worked in construction in Israel. It was a relatively well-paying job that brought in a far higher salary than similar labor did in the West Bank. On Oct. 7, 2023, the work stopped as Israel sharply restricted the entry of West Bank Palestinian workers as part of its response to the Hamas-led invasion from Gaza, a step that carried severe economic consequences for these workers. More than 21 months into the war, most of the Palestinian workers are still banned from working in Israel. The Oct. 7 attack reinvigorated distrust in Palestinians for many Israelis, which was coupled with suspicions that Gazans who had entered Israel in the past had provided intelligence to attackers regarding the communities they had worked in. Before the war, 100,000 West Bank Palestinians worked inside Israel, and another 40,000 were employed in Israeli communities and industrial zones in the West Bank. Today, that number has shrunk to 11% of what it was. Some 7,000 Palestinians are allowed to enter Israel each month, classified as essential workers in hospitality or food manufacturing. Another 9,000 work in Israeli communities or nearby industrial zones. The average monthly salary in the West Bank is $430. Israel's minimum wage, which applies to legal Palestinian workers, is more than quadruple, at $1,890. Skilled Palestinian construction workers can earn $2,380 or more per month. Israel's Finance Ministry reported in January 2024 that the absence of Palestinian workers from the construction sector has led to a 35% drop in monthly output in that sector. Tomer Tzaliach, vice president of the Israeli Contractors Association, said, "We lost 90,000 Palestinian workers in construction. Over the past two years, approximately 50,000 foreign workers have arrived, mostly from India and Sri Lanka. That means we're still short about 40,000 workers to return to prewar levels....A foreign worker costs us, as contractors, twice as much as a Palestinian one." Projects are also taking longer, he said, with the backlog compounded by the need to rebuild homes and buildings damaged in the wars with Hamas, Hizbullah, and Iran.