Since the beginning of the conflict, at least 16 thousand workers from India to replace those blocked in the West Bank and the Strip. Inputs will increase thanks to specific campaigns. In the north, farmers from Thailand return, among the emigrants who have paid the most victims and kidnappings. From 165,000 to only 15,000 Palestinians active in Israel.
Milan () – Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, which has now lasted more than 15 months with the inevitable trail of blood and devastation, has also had a profound impact on the economy and employment, particularly among migrant workers who they increasingly replace the Palestinians. According to the latest estimates, since October 7, 2023 – the day of the attack by the extremist group that triggered the military reaction of the Jewish State – at least 16,000 Indian workers, mainly in the construction sector, have left their country of origin to relocate. to Israel. However, according to experts, the figure would still not be enough to “cover” the needs caused by the permit blockade, which has simultaneously deprived tens of thousands of Palestinians of a job and dried up sources of income. of their families. India is the world’s fifth-largest economy and one of the fastest growing, but it is struggling to create enough domestic jobs for millions of people. With the conflict in the Strip, hiring has been further strengthened through specific campaigns in the construction sector to replace Palestinians who are increasingly unable to cross the borders on a daily basis.
Recruitment campaign
Samir Khosla, president of Delhi-based Dynamic Staffing Services, which has sent around 500,000 Indians to work in more than 30 countries around the world, has so far moved more than 3,500 workers to Israel, a new market with greater expansion possibilities. The businessman arrived a month after the October 7 attack, answering the call from local authorities looking for foreign workers in construction, a sector frozen due to the war. We didn’t know the market and there was no Indian workforce yet,” explains Khosla, so “we had to move and understand the needs.” He considers that India is a “natural choice” for Israel, taking into account the “excellent relations” between both governments, while the objective is to bring in up to 10,000 employees, having a large reserve of qualified workers in all sectors.
“In a short time you can earn a lot more in Israel,” says Suresh Kumar Verma, 39, from Uttar Pradesh and employed at a construction site north of Tel Aviv. Israeli researchers explain that the number of Indian emigrants still does not equal the number of Palestinians present before the war, which hinders the overall growth of the sector. According to Eyal Argov of the Central Bank, before the Hamas attack, some 80,000 Palestinians, mostly from the West Bank, were employed in the construction sector, along with almost 26,000 foreigners. Now, the number of foreigners employed is around 30,000, an insufficient figure, to the point that the activity of the sector in the last quarter of 2024 is around 25% below pre-war levels. The number of Indian workers, adds Argov, is “still very low” and, although this does not create a “housing shortage” at the moment, it could cause “delays in the construction of new homes.” Israel,” concludes the expert, “has a growing population [aunque se ha producido una ralentización en el último año y, paralelamente, un repunte de la migración, ed]which increases by 2% a year, and this delay could cause a structural shortage in the future.”
Thai on the northern front
In 2023, 17% of the nearly 137,000 foreigners with work permits in Israel were Indians, closely followed by migrants from the Philippines and Thailand, both at 16%. At the same time, there was significant growth in Chinese jobs, which increased by 15% between 2022 and 2023. Among the migrants most exposed to the conflict are Thai farmers employed in the north, in the border area with Lebanon considered off-limits to the Israelis themselves due to the war – now frozen after the signing of a fragile ceasefire – with Hezbollah. Despite the tension, and with permission granted by the army, farm owners and foreign workers continue to work in the area, tending the fields and livestock.
Although agriculture has gradually declined in recent years as a percentage of Israel’s GDP, the country remains famous for its products from the land, which are exported to the United States and the European Union, among others, with a turnover of 2,500 million dollars in 2021. Ubon Namsan, originally from Thailand, says he got used to the hiss that preceded the arrival of rockets from the country of cedars, whose border is a few kilometers north of the kiwi orchard whose rows he walks in search of ripe fruit. Like the vast majority of the 30,000 foreign agricultural workers in Israel, the 28-year-old has learned to take refuge in the basement of an adjacent farm warehouse to protect himself from the bombs.
To compensate for the risks, a salary three times higher than what he could earn in his country of origin, with an average of $1,500 a month. Added to this is another $80 as an incentive for working in what Israel has classified as a military zone, in a context that continues to be one of war and tension. Foreigners have also taken their toll: among the 1,200 people killed on October 7, 2023 in the Hamas attack there were at least 66 migrant workers, most of them Thai. Another 251 people were taken hostage, including 31 Thai farmers – the fate of a couple of them remains uncertain – and a Filipino carer. The dangers are still present, as confirmed by the death in October of a Thai laborer near the northern border, killed by an explosive device detonated when a tractor passed by, or that of a farm owner and four Thai farmers hit by Hezbollah rockets in the northern city of Metula.
The Palestinian blockade
While the number of Asian migrant workers has increased, that of Palestinians has plummeted: according to a study by the Statista Research Department, before October 7, 2023, some 165,000 people in the West Bank and Gaza were working (more or less). permanently in Israel, the majority of them – about 75,000 – in the construction sector. After the outbreak of war, their number was reduced to only 15,000, despite the progressive interdependence of the Israeli and Palestinian economies, especially in the agricultural and construction sectors. Hence the accusation by union groups and activists of the Jewish State of having violated international legislation (also) on labor matters, withholding salaries and benefits from almost 200,000 Palestinians. Furthermore, the Israeli government would have “blatantly” violated the International Labor Organization (ILO) convention on the protection of wages, plunging Palestinians into extreme poverty. One of the reasons is the non-payment of services provided before the start of the conflict by workers from the Strip and the West Bank, who are still waiting for compensation. According to ILO estimates, the average daily wage of Palestinian workers in Israel was $79, with weekly salaries between $565 and $700. In addition, unemployment among Palestinians reached an all-time high of 89% last March, according to Prime Minister Mohamed Mustafa. Finally, in an attempt to recover unpaid emoluments last week, movements and activists filed a complaint in court, with little chance of success.
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