In colonised countries, indigenous labour has often been exploited to serve the interests of the colonial power. Palestine is no exception. In the Occupied Territories, Israeli middlemen recruit Palestinian women to work in Israel in often seasonal and precarious jobs, exposing them to multiple violations. Despite the ban on returning to their own country, these women are forced to cross the Green Line every day to work in Israeli factories and farms for weak wages. Deprived of all their rights, these women workers cannot defend their interests collectively, let alone unionize.
Aisha Hamouda, head of the women’s department of the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU) and head of the women’s committee of the Arab Trade Union Confederation (ATUC), claimed that the number of Palestinian women working in Israel is quite substantial, even if there are no precise figures on this subject.
The trade unionist explains that “if we do not have exact statistics on the number of Palestinian women working in Israel, it is because the majority of them are not registered and they prefer not to talk about it because of social prejudices. However, we know that these women generally have no choice and are forced to work in the Occupied Territories to support their families.”
Ahlem (as she will be called in this article to preserve her anonymity), a 40-year-old Palestinian woman and divorced mother of two, relates the conditions that led her to work in Israel. Confiding to us about her journey, Ahlem says that she was “left with no choices, I had only one goal: to provide for my children and make sure they had everything they needed. I tried to find work in my region but I soon realised that my only way out was across the Green Line, and so began my nightmare.”
In recent years, the Israeli army has set up hundreds of checkpoints throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip, severely restricting the freedom of movement of Palestinians. Women who are forced to pass through these checkpoints are often sexually harassed and intimidated by Israeli soldiers.
“I had to go through the checkpoints every day with only one thing in mind; to obey all the orders and instructions given to me by the soldiers at the risk of having my work permit confiscated,” says Ahlem, adding that the worst thing was the verbal abuse she received from other Palestinian workers who consider that a woman should not work in the Occupied Territories. “They don’t take into consideration the conditions that lead women like us to leave our homes and children and risk our lives in Israel to work, they don’t understand that we don’t have a choice and that we only do it to feed our families and our children,” she says.
Palestinian women workers are no better off in terms of their legal and professional status; falling under neither Israeli nor Palestinian jurisdiction, they are not treated as workers but as ‘commodities’. Aisha Hamouda says that they work “with no minimum wage, no occupational health and safety standards, and even fewer laws to protect against exploitation and harassment, Palestinian women are completely helpless against workplace accidents, unfair dismissals and other violations. Women workers who are injured at their workplaces are literally thrown to the nearest crossing point. While those who are fired, even if they are registered, are not entitled to unemployment benefits or any kind of insurance as they are contractual workers. It should also be noted that Palestinian workers in the Occupied Territories do not have the right to join a trade union.”
Ahlem has experienced this total lack of protection. The forty-year-old was fired from two jobs, the first time for refusing to have sex with the employer and the second time for protesting against the lack of basic work tools. She reveals that she “was fired from a factory for refusing the advances made to me by the employer… some of my colleagues, in untold financial insecurity, were forced to accept them, they were able to keep their jobs. On another occasion, when I was working in a farm, I was fired for protesting against the absence of sanitary tools… on this farm, we were forced to go and relieve ourselves behind the mountain, like animals.”
Aisha Hamouda adds that the precariousness of Palestinian women workers in the Occupied Territories is one of the priorities of the PGFTU, which is in direct contact with these workers and tries to ensure a regular follow-up of their professional situation. “We are working to trace all the violations that are reported to us, like the testimony you have seen.” She, also, mentioned that the federation is also working to raise awareness among these workers about the moral and sexual harassment to which they may be subjected and is currently working on a report that will be submitted to the Commission of Inquiry of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).
However, the trade unionist explains that it is up to the international community to put pressure on the occupation forces and boycott Israeli trade unions that play no role in protecting Palestinian workers. She adds that “it would help compensate for the inability of the Palestinian Authority and our trade unions to effectively protect workers in the Occupied Territories, many of whom are exposed to chemicals that have a long-term impact on their reproductive health.”
Faced with this precariousness and overexploitation, the Palestinian Authority is trying to preserve the rights of Palestinian workers in the Occupied Territories by holding talks with the International Labour Organisation (ILO). However, these discussions have not led to any results, as the occupation forces refuse to negotiate with the Palestinian Authority, considering that it has no statute that allows it to represent the workers, which leaves the latter in the hands of intermediaries and makes them deprived of all their rights.
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