MIFTAH - The Situation of Workers of the Occupied Arab Territories

The Situation of Workers of the Occupied Arab Territories

Date posted: May 30, 2005

Preface

The Report was prepared, as in previous years, following high-level missions to Israel and the occupied Arab territories (the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and the Syrian Golan) and to the Syrian Arab Republic. The missions enjoyed once more the full cooperation of the interlocutors, reaffirming the support for the ILO’s efforts to contribute to building peace and security in the region through monitoring and assessing economic and social development in our fields of competence.

A new climate of dialogue prevails among Israelis and Palestinians, opening up new prospects. Conditions of life for workers and their families in the occupied Arab territories nevertheless continue to be extremely hard. The intricate linkages between economic, social and political development on the one hand, and peace and security on the other, have to be at the forefront of our thinking in addressing the pervasive and continued problems of daily life faced by the people of the occupied Arab territories. This is the underlying premise behind ILO efforts in the region and elsewhere: economic and social security is a condition of lasting peace. As the United Nations Secretary-General puts it in his report entitled In larger freedom: “We will not enjoy development without security, we will not enjoy security without development, and we will not enjoy either without respect for human rights.” 1 The rights of Palestinian workers and their families are a fundamental component of human rights and therefore constitute one of the building blocks on the path towards socio-economic development, security, peace and enhanced freedom in the occupied Arab territories. This is why the Governing Body of the International Labour Office and the International Labour Conference have ascribed a constructive role to the ILO in helping, through its programmes, to improve the lives of working men and women and their families in the region. In this respect, the enhanced programme of technical cooperation with our constituents in the occupied Arab territories enjoys the widespread support of all regions and groups in the Governing Body. The ILO has always held that security was never only a military matter. The ILO Constitution’s statements that “poverty anywhere constitutes a danger to prosperity everywhere” and that “lasting peace can be established only if it is based upon social justice” are extremely relevant in today’s Middle East.

Human security is in deficit on both the Israeli and Palestinian sides of the unresolved conflict. The Government of Israel emphasizes physical security for its citizens. The Palestinian Authority stresses the economic and social insecurity as well as the physical security of Palestinians living under occupation. Security in all its aspects – physical, social and economic – in Israel on the one hand cannot be separated from security for the Palestinian people living in the occupied territories on the other. The comprehensive security of both peoples is inextricably intertwined. There is a shared responsibility to address the full range of issues jointly.

The mission this year has witnessed a new climate of confidence and dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians nurtured by the consolidation and democratization of Palestinian institutions, a new political base of the Israeli Government, a lower degree of violence, and renewed dialogue between the two sides at the political and operational levels. There has been a moderate decrease in the intensity of closures, and a major decision by Israel to withdraw settlements and military forces from inside the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank.

This willingness to engage in dialogue was also apparent among the social partners on both sides during the mission. One recent example is the meeting organized by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) in Brussels on 14 April 2005, which brought together Israeli and Palestinian trade unions. The organizations agreed to move forward quickly on finalizing a joint cooperation agreement, which would address some key issues such as access for Palestinian workers to employment in Israel, relief funds for Palestinian workers and their families, action to prevent and resolve cases of exploitation of Palestinian workers, implementation of a March 1995 Cooperation Framework, and prospects for future cooperation between the two organizations. This is indeed a welcome development.

A first round of local elections (with record participation of women both as candidates and as voters) was held in the occupied Arab territories in December 2004 and January 2005. This was to be followed by a second round in May 2005. The death of the President of the Palestinian Authority, H.E. Yasser Arafat, in November 2004 was a loss to the Palestinian people and a watershed in Palestinian affairs. In January 2005, presidential elections generally acknowledged as fair and orderly gave a clear and undisputed majority to H.E. Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen).

Elections to the Palestinian Legislative Council are expected to take place in July 2005. These have clearly been important contributions to Palestinian institution building and political reform in general, as well as to the establishment of conditions in which the social justice and rights dimensions which are at the centre of the ILO’s concerns – beginning with freedom of association and non-discrimination – might be advanced. Business associations are in the process of holding elections, which they have not done for 14 years, pending the adoption of the chamber of commerce law in the Palestinian Legislative Council. Local trade union elections have started taking place for the first time in nearly ten years. And they are heading for a national congress and national elections by the end of 2006. I wish that these congresses could take place in the Palestinian territories, bringing members from the West Bank and Gaza together with full freedom of movement.

A further positive step is the recent appointment by the Quartet (the European Union, the Russian Federation, the United Nations and the United States) of James D. Wolfensohn as Special Envoy for Gaza Disengagement. The Quartet mandated the Special Envoy to “work with the Palestinians on specific reforms and steps to promote economic recovery and growth, democracy, good governance and transparency, job creation and improved living standards”. I welcome Mr. Wolfensohn’s appointment and his mandate, and pledge the ILO’s support for his work.

The new configuration of the Israeli Government with supporting representation in the Knesset may also enhance the possibilities of wider backing for complex decisions thatneed to be taken.

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By: MIFTAH

Date: 29/04/2025

Israel’s Attack on UNRWA and Its Implications for Palestinian Refugees

By: MIFTAH

Date: 05/03/2025

Palestinian Women: The Disproportionate Impact of The Israeli Occupation

By: KARAMA

Date: 21/11/2018

The shocking human cost that occupation has taken on Palestinian women is laid bare in research published today. Combining research, extensive surveys, and first-hand testimonies from over 40 Palestinian women, Palestinian Women: The Disproportionate Impact of The Israeli Occupation provides new insight into the gendered experience of occupation, looking into four issues in particular:

women refugees
the impact of residency revocation on Palestinian women in Jerusalem
the experience of women prisoners
Gazans’ access to health

Co-authored by four Palestinian NGOs – the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH), Palestinian Working Woman Society for Development (PWWSD), the Women’s Centre for Legal Aid and Counselling (WCLAC), and Women Media and Development (TAM), the report includes detailed findings that demonstrate how the oppression occupation has permeated women’s daily lives, and the particular impact is has had on women in Palestinian refugee camps, Palestinian women living in Jerusalem, women prisoners, and residents of Gaza who require health services.

The impact on refugee women

Researchers spoke to 500 Palestinian refugee women from 12 Palestinian camps (7 in the West Bank, 5 in Gaza). Their findings included the following:

A third of women surveyed had been directly exposed to physical assault by Israeli Occupation Forces. 9% had been exposed to threats of being attacked by police dogs during Israeli night raids on their homes.
Over a third (37%) of respondents had been exposed to detention or interrogation, while 38% said that they or members of their households had been exposed to verbal abuse during Israeli army raids, at checkpoints or while visiting religious places.
Nearly a quarter (24%) were forced to live in shelters or with extended family. 22% were forced to live under unhealthy conditions. 13% stated that the female and male members of their families were separated as a result of having to live in shelters.
More than one in five (21%) had been exposed to beatings or tear gas at Israeli checkpoints while they were pregnant. 4% reported that they aborted or gave birth at Israeli checkpoints.
The majority (64%- 321 cases) had been unable to visit religious or recreational places because of Occupation restrictions.

Jerusalem: Residency Revocation and Family Reunification

According to official figures, 14,595 Palestinians from East Jerusalem had their residency status revoked between 1967 and the end of 2016.

Through residency revocations, Israel has separated husbands from wives, parents from children, and extended families from one another, causing traumatic complications for women attempting to remain with their families in both Jerusalem and the West Bank.

This leads to traumatic fears of separation from children for mothers and an entrenching of patriarchal practices across society. Palestinian women living in Jerusalem lose residency rights if they get divorced or their husbands remarry. Limiting their access to justice, female victims of domestic violence fear reporting abuse to authorities in case they are forcibly transferred away from their children.

Women prisoners

Since the beginning of the Israeli Occupation of Palestine in 1967, approximately 10,000 Palestinian women have been arrested and detained by Israeli military forces. According to the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs’ 2017 annual report, 1,467 children were arrested last year.

Our researchers spoke to prisoners who experienced physical and psychological torture at arrest and imprisonment, and traumatic, gendered treatment, including:

Women denied access to menstrual products while detained
A woman arrested while pregnant who gave birth while chained to a prison hospital bed
Ex-prisoners who report being subjected to rape and death threats during interrogation, including a girl in of 15-years old threatened with rape
Women who were subjected to frequent forced and violent strip searches
A prisoner who reported toothache, only to have the wrong tooth removed

Access to Health in Gaza

Israel exercises strict control Gaza’s borders, a policy of ‘actual authority’, constituting continued occupation, despite the withdrawal of its permanent presence. This control in particular affects those who need medical treatment outside of Gaza’s struggling health system, who require permission to leave. The report shows that the rate of approval applications is falling year-by-year:

92.5% of applications were successful in 2012
88.7% in 2013
82.4% in 2014
77.5% in 2015
62.1% in 2016

At the end of November 2017, the approval rate was only 54% – the lowest since 2006 when WHO began monitoring patient access from Gaza.

Of the 26,282 permit applications submitted by patients aiming to exit through Erez in 2016, 8,242 (31.4%) were delayed. Many applicants received no response from border authorities, even after lawyers filed formal applications on their behalf. These delays regularly extend months and years beyond medical appointments, worsening already life-threatening diseases and in some cases resulting in death.

Read the full report here, or download it here:

Palestinian Women – The Disproportionate Impact of the Israeli Occupation

By the Same Author

Unemployment, Poverty Grips Palestinian Workers

Date: 01/06/2004

GENEVA (ILO News) – High unemployment continues to grip Palestinian communities in the Occupied Arab Territories, reaching an average of 35 per cent, the International Labour Office (ILO) says in a new report.

A recent high-level mission to the area also found that "severe restrictions" on the movement of persons, goods and services were causing "severe losses in production, employment and income, a report on the situation of workers of the Occupied Arab Territories said. View Full Report (pdf)

"The reality of life in the territories is one of strangulation of the economy." ILO Director-General Juan Somavia said in a preface to the report. "Poverty continues to grip Palestinian communities, relieved only by large-scale international assistance."

Unemployment in the last quarter of 2003 hit 20.7 per cent in the West Bank and 31.9 per cent in Gaza, a slight improvement over 2002, the report said, adding that close to 290,000 persons – 89 per cent of whom are men – were unemployed or discouraged from looking for work. It added "this suggests an expanded unemployment rate of 35.3 per cent, a number which would be even higher if women confined to their homes by necessity and not by choice were included".

The report said the actual number of Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza working in Israel is highly dependent on the continuously changing Israeli restrictions on the movement of persons within the occupied territories and into Israel. Noting that "a valid work permit is no guarantee of actual employment, particularly for those workers who have to enter Israel to work", the report said restrictions on mobility continue to intensify because of the new West Bank separation wall.

"The delays, increased costs and loss of earnings that result from road closures, prolonged security checks and curfews hamper economic activity of all kinds, thus reducing family incomes," Mr. Somavia said. "No sustained recovery of the economy is possible while this situation prevails."

Nevertheless, the report also cited some improved mobility in the West bank, but in some areas the situation "clearly remains volatile". One out of three Palestinians said reaching their place of work was "difficult, very difficult or impossible" in March, compared to 50 per cent in August 2003. In Gaza, 14.4 per cent said they had problems with mobility compared to nearly 30 per cent last August.

The economy of Israel, meanwhile, pulled out of recession in 2003 with a growth in GDP of 1.2 per cent, thanks to a "vigorous increase in exports and higher domestic consumer confidence", the report said. Nevertheless, a major element in Israel's fiscal deficit of -5.7 per cent of GDP was the cost of the occupation, the report said, including expenditure on the separation wall. Despite a pickup in 2003, "prolonged high unemployment in Israel has led to a sharp increase in poverty", it added. "The number of families living below the poverty line is estimated at 18.1 per cent in 2002, reaching 44.7 per cent among the non-Jewish population – particularly the Arab population".

The ILO has an ongoing technical cooperation programme for the Occupied Arab Territories, centred around strengthening the capacity of employers' and workers' organizations and the Ministry of Labour for promoting social dialogue as a requirement for peace and has allocated US$1 million to the Palestinian Fund for Employment and Social Protection. The Fund is the umbrella for the coordination of all financial and technical assistance for employment creation in the West Bank and Gaza.

The ILO Mission concluded that, "development strategies for the Palestinian economy have to focus on rebuilding the internal labour market. As this will take time, a complementary strategy for Palestinian work in Israel and in other countries is necessary".

The report places special emphasis on the gender dimensions of the situation of workers, and highlights the role of Palestinian women in holding together families and communities. It added that development strategies for the Palestinian economy should "aim to realize the full productive capacity of women, given their high educational qualifications" and recommended the establishment of an inter-ministerial working group to develop a national women's employment strategy that would be integrated into the overall employment strategy of the Palestinian Authority.

The Situation of Workers of the Occupied Arab Territories

Date: 01/06/2004

Download Full Report (pdf)

International Labour Office Geneva

International Labour Conference, 92nd Session, 2004
Report of the Director-General
Appendix

The situation of workers of the occupied Arab territories

Preface

I submit this report in accordance with the resolution adopted by the International Labour Conference at its 66th Session (1980). 1 As for the previous two years, I decided that it should be prepared following high-level missions to Israel and the occupied Arab territories and to the Syrian Arab Republic in order to make as full an assessment as possible, in the prevailing circumstances, of the situation of workers of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and the Golan. This reflects the great importance our Organization attaches to the rights of workers in the occupied territories and the appreciation our constituents and others have indicated for our close attention to this situation.

The Governing Body of the International Labour Office and the Conference have seen scope for the ILO to play a constructive role in the region in alleviating the difficulties faced by working women and men and their families and in contributing to peace and security. This year’s report provides a factual assessment of the economic and social circumstances of workers of the occupied territories at a time of continuing tension and conflict. It also offers some proposals on how the ILO, within its means of action, could contribute to easing these difficulties and, in doing so, make a modest contribution to building the economic and social foundations for peace.

The report makes for sobering reading. The situation prevailing in the occupied Arab territories continues to be a source of tension in the region and beyond: this at a time when all available energies and resources need to be harnessed for dialogue to improve the overall political, economic and social conditions in the region. All of us are aware of the restrictions, security measures, acts of violence and impositions that afflict people in the occupied Arab territories. This report goes behind the headlines to examine the impact that the heightened state of tension in the territories has on the daily life and work of Palestinian women and men and their families, and on their institutions. It is no consolation for them to observe that their near neighbours, Israeli workers and their families, are living through times of great difficulty in their own way, and many fear further acts of violence against them.

The reality of life in the territories is one of strangulation of the economy, with consequent far-reaching social impacts. Poverty continues to grip Palestinian communities, relieved only by large-scale international assistance. The report documents in detail the many obstacles Palestinians face in trying to earn a living and support themselves in dignity and independence. It also shows the extraordinary resilience of the human spirit in overcoming the barriers to a normal life to make a space for physical and mental survival. I have placed special emphasis this year on the gender dimensions of the situation of workers, and the report highlights the role of Palestinian women in holding together families and communities through these very dark times.

The fragile situation described in last year’s report has changed very little. A few economic indicators have improved slightly since last year, when tensions were at a very high point. This is no comfort however to Palestinian workers and employers endeavouring to work normally in abnormal circumstances. Restrictions on the movement of Palestinian workers and the goods and services they produce are pervasive. The delays, increased costs and loss of earnings that result from road closures, prolonged security checks and curfews hamper economic activity of all kinds, thus reducing family incomes. No sustained recovery of the economy is possible while this situation prevails.

Obstacles to the functioning of the economy create social tensions which in turn add to political frustration. Compounded by the lack of progress in political negotiations, the depressed state of the economy of the territories creates fertile ground for those on either side of the conflict who wish to exploit the situation to foment yet more acts of violence. The longer this vicious cycle continues, the harder it will become to reverse course and build peace and security for all people living in the region.

Special attention is given to the situation of women in the occupied territories. In spite of high educational attainments, women remain marginalized in the labour market. They nevertheless bear the brunt of the crisis and are central to the coping strategies devised by families and communities.

The report documents with hard statistics the economic and social situation in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and the Golan. But the mission also heard many personal stories that illustrate the urgency of finding solutions to the conflict. The report requests members of governments, and employers’ and workers’ organizations worldwide, to listen to and understand the plight, but also the aspirations, of the workers of the occupied territories and their families. All women and men in the region, as indeed anywhere in the world, have the right to live in peace and security so that they can work productively and provide for themselves and their families.

The Road Map to peace presented last year by the Quartet has yet to deliver on its promise to the Palestinian and Israeli peoples, of two States living side by side in peace and security. This can only be achieved, as restated recently by the United Nations Secretary-General, through a comprehensive political settlement. Without such a settlement, sustained economic and social recovery is inconceivable. But political negotiations cannot be separated from socio-economic security. History has taught us many times that security in one country cannot be built on creating insecurity in another. We in the ILO have a duty to do what we can to contribute to a peace settlement within our mandate. Ensuring that the grave situation of workers in the territories is known and understood is one small but important step. Promoting social dialogue between Israeli and Palestinian workers and employers is another. The conclusions to this report set out several practical proposals, including measures needed to fully activate the Palestinian Fund for Employment and Social Protection set up last year.

A solution can only be found as part of negotiations and dialogue; political dialogue, social dialogue, citizens’ dialogue. To fulfil one’s potential in life, have a decent job to sustain a family and see one’s children through education are the common aspirations of people everywhere, whatever their religious faith and national origin. The Israeli and Palestinian peoples share this aspiration.

The parties to the conflict have placed confidence in the ILO and its procedures. This not only does credit to our Organization, it also encourages us to continue and, if possible, expand our work in the areas seen as essential to the situation of working women and men and their families in the territories. Our services in the fields of employment and enterprise development, social protection, fundamental principles and rights at work and social dialogue are important to the population of the occupied Arab territories today and for their state-in-the-making.

The principles of social justice which inspired the founders of the ILO after the Great War 85 years ago remain as relevant as ever today to the search for peace in the Middle East. When the foundation stone of the first lakeside headquarters of the ILO was laid, a scroll with the following motto in Latin was placed under it: “If you seek peace, cultivate justice”. Let us continue this work and step up our efforts to provide practical assistance, remembering the values and principles that are always and everywhere the foundations of lasting peace.

May 2004.
Juan Somavia,
Director-General.

1 Resolution concerning the implications of Israeli settlements in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories in connection with the situation of Arab workers.

Contents
Preface
Introduction
I. The political context: Uncertain prospects for peace
II. Constrained economic growth, labour markets and occupation
III. Low employment and high poverty incidence among
Palestinian women and men
IV. Social governance for a state-in-the-making
V. Ongoing ILO technical cooperation programme
Final remarks
References
Annex. List of interlocutors

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