On June 22, 2021, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz published a report acknowledging Israel’s theft of tens of millions of shekels from Palestinian workers over the past fifty years. The report stated that the Jerusalem District Court held that the deduction of these sums was illegal, but that the Israeli authorities did not compensate the workers.
The Secretary-General of the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU) confirmed what was stated in the report adding that this information supports the data they to the investigation committee of the International Labour Organization (ILO) and international trade unions. Palestinian workers’ financial rights have always been violated.
The Secretary-General explained that Israel has accumulated at least 18 billion shekels in financial rights for Palestinian workers, and is refraining from returning them despite what was stated in the “Paris Agreement.”
He added that Israel deducts the wages of Palestinian workers without integrating them into Israeli trade unions and that Palestinian workers defend their rights individually rather than collectively.
The Haaretz report stated that the Israeli government has been deducting a welfare allowance of 0.75% from the salaries of Palestinian workers in agriculture and transferring the funds to Histadrut, the General Organization of Workers in Israel for 50 years, without considering their membership. Similarly, sums of money were deducted from tens of thousands of Palestinian workers, and were transferred to the trade union in violation of the law.
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