Israel Seeking 100,000 Indians To Replace Palestinians ?
Israeli Builders Association is planning to hire 50,000 to 100,000 Indian workers to replace 90,000 Palestinians, according to reports. After the attack from Hamas resistance group, 90,000 Palestinians, who has been working in the construction sector in Israel lost their work permit.
Haim Feiglin, Vice-president of Israeli Builders Association said they are negotiating with India and waiting for Israeli government to grant approval. He said, “right now, we are negotiating with India. We are waiting for the decision of Israeli government to approve that. And, we hope to engage 50,000 to 100,000 workers from India to be able to run the whole sector and bring it back to normal”, as reported by Voice Of America.
As per the report, around 25 percent of the workers employed in Israeli construction industry are Palestinians. These 25 percent of the work force are “not permitted to work in Israel” anymore. Of the 25 percent, around 10 percent are Palestinians from Gaza, which is a battle field now, and remaining are from the occupied West Bank.
Earlier, prime Minister has said that, “Isarel is severing all contact with Gaza. There will be no more Palestinian workers from Gaza”. He also added that the workers from Gaza, who were present at the time of “outbreak of war” will be returned to Gaza.
It is still not clarified how many Palestinians from Gaza were in Israel on October 7th. Hindustan Times reported that a senior Palestinian Authority official has said that 4,950 residents of Gaza had fled to the occupied West Bank and around 5000 were believed to be detained by the occupation force.
According to report, Israel has signed a deal with India in May. The deal is about allowing 42,000 Indian workers to the “fields of construction and nursing”. During Eli Cohen, Israel’s Foreign Minister’s visit to India on May 9th, the Framework Agreement on Facilitating Temporary Employment of Workers in Specific Labour Sectors in Israel has been signed.
The Centre For Indian Trade Union (CITU) has denounced the Israeli Builders Association’s plan. In a press release, demanded the Indian government to refuse any such requests and called out to the working people to refuse any such movements from the government.
CITU denounced the “brutal and inhuman acts of the Israeli government against Palestinian workers in Israel” and said that instead of green flagging the Israeli association’s request, India should “rather support the latest UN resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire by Israel on a humanitarian truce and to ensure a Palestinian homeland with the pre-1967 border free from all occupation”.
