2024-01-28 04:33:15
As Israel tends to dispense with Palestinian workers, and at the same time suffers from a shortage of workers, especially following the outbreak of the Gaza War, Tel Aviv is looking forward to a solution to its crisis with India, but it may be a slow and insufficient solution, according to experts.
After Hamas launched the October 7 attack on Israel and the start of the war, Palestinians were unable to go to their workplaces in Israel, in addition to Tel Aviv preventing their work permits for security reasons.
The shortage of Palestinian workers, who constitute a third of the workforce in the construction field, with many Israelis going to serve in the reserve force in the war, and the departure of thousands of foreign workers, especially Thais, to their countries, caused a crisis that threatened to disrupt work in several areas.
Indian solution
- In May 2023, that is, 5 months before the war, Israel and the Indian government signed an agreement to recruit 10,000 Indian workers, half of whom would go to the construction field and the other half to go to the nursing field, according to the Hebrew website “Wala”; This is to secure Israel’s needs in the event of security disturbances that prevent Palestinian workers from accessing workplaces.
- On January 25, the American newspaper “Washington Post” published that the Israeli government is seeking to replace Palestinian workers with Indian workers, and the number scheduled to be brought in ranges between 10-20 thousand Indians within months.
- In addition, India will be one of the largest suppliers of construction workers in Israel in the coming years, if not the largest, as the approval of regarding 5,000 workers has been obtained so far, and according to recruitment advertisements in India, salaries range from $1,400 to $1,700 per month.
- This plan depends on the improvement of relations between New Delhi and Israel in recent years, following India was known to stand by the Palestinian cause. The strengthening of relations appeared in a statement by the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, to his Israeli counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu, following the October 7 attack, in which he mentioned The Indian people stand firmly with Israel in this difficult time.
- According to what Agence France-Presse reported from the Indian Embassy in Tel Aviv, there are already 18 Indians in Israel in the fields of elderly care, artificial intelligence and diamonds, in addition to students, but an increase is needed in the fields of construction and nursing in particular.
- The number of Palestinians working in Israel and Israeli settlements before the war reached an “all-time high” of 193,000, according to the International Labor Organization.
Need of time
Economist and head of the Asian Institute for Civilization and Development Research, Shakil Ramai, expects that importing Indian workers will be a slow solution to the problem of labor shortages in Israel. This is due, in his explanations to Sky News Arabia, to factors related to both Israel and India:
- It is difficult to replace Palestinian workers who have been working for decades with Indian workers immediately, and there will still be an Israeli need for workers from the West Bank, who constitute a large part of its labor market.
- India may see that, in light of the ongoing war in Gaza, the time is not appropriate to send Indian workers to Tel Aviv, and it will wait for the end of the war so that its citizens are not exposed to danger.
- Sending Indian workers now to replace Palestinians may be considered politically offensive to India, as it wants to have a neutral position, and has been known historically for its support of the Palestinian cause, and does not want to put itself in this position now.
“Almost impossible”
The researcher specializing in political economy, Ahmed Al-Qarout, agrees that the matter requires time, and in turn, this is due in his interview with “Sky News Arabia” to:
- The number of Palestinian workers in Israel is regarding 200,000, and attracting a large number of workers from another country urgently is almost impossible.
- The Palestinian who works in Israel goes to work in the morning and returns to his home in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the evening, and trying to bring in workers from abroad requires providing housing for them, which is not available.
- The new workers will need training on the country’s system and the work system in factories, farms, etc., in addition to the language barrier, and even if Israel overcomes all the difficulties, it will take a long time to train them to get what it wants from them, and it does not currently have the luxury due to economic pressures and the shortage of workers in the country. Some sectors.
- There is another problem, which is providing security for migrant workers, especially those who will work in West Bank settlements, and setting possibilities for dealing with the possibility of some of them being killed in armed attacks.
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