Palestine – The Secretary-General of the Palestine Trade Union Federation, Shaher Saad, said that Israel continues its raids and search campaign in various Israeli workshops and factories looking for Palestinian workers who do not hold work permits. Saad said that Israel announced the arrest of workers who were sleeping on tree branches and others dug graves for them and hid inside it to avoid being arrested by the Israeli police, which intensify the raids of workshops, especially at night. Workers used to sleep in workshops and on the roads and above the ground, and under the ground and on the roofs of buildings to his from unprecedented raids and searches since Netanyahu took power in Israel. Trade unionist Saad was not surprised by the news published by the Israeli newspaper Maariv today about the Palestinian workers who where hiding in an apartment in the Karmiel area, where some workers hid in a refrigerator, in kitchen cabinets, in wardrobes. He said: Our workers had to risk their lives and were shot dead by the occupiers while trying to find work, when they jumped from the apartheid wall erected by Israel to prevent Palestinians from entering Israel. Many of them were shot by the occupiers and were injured by their truncheons and held in prisons without any legal justification. Saad also revealed that hundreds of workers were forced to cross the Israeli crossings and walls through the sewage lines near the wall, and through tanks and trucks loaded with building materials, because of the high unemployment rate in the Palestinian market, as they are seeking livelihood to support their families. Saad called on the international community to support the Palestinian people through the establishment of more projects and factories in the occupied territories, which suffer from a shortage of possibilities because of the Israeli siege of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The unemployment rate in Palestine increased to 27.0 percent in the first quarter of 2017 compared to 26.6 percent a year ago. The number of employed persons went down by 7.2 thousand to 857,300 while the number unemployed persons rose by 17 thousand to 369,800. Meantime, the labor force participation rate was steady at 45.8 percent.
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