West Bank Palestinian laborers in despair after eight months without jobs in Israel

Ibrahim, a father of four, sat with friends in his living room in the Palestinian village of Hizme,  just outside Jerusalem, to talk about the hardship of unemployment over the past eight months: “The Israeli government cannot wage war on every Palestinian as if we are all guilty [of Hamas’s crimes],” he said.

A professional tiler in his late forties, Ibrahim has been at home on most days since October 7, when Hamas terrorists rampaged through southern Israel, killing nearly 1,200 people and taking 251 hostage to Gaza.

Within hours of the onslaught, the Israeli government announced the suspension of work permits for about 150,000 West Bank Palestinians who had been commuting daily to work inside Israel, plus another 18,500 Palestinians from Gaza, leaving an economic hole on both sides of the border.

About 3,000 East Jerusalemites have also moved into the town in recent years, attracted by its lower cost of living and the easy commute into the capital through the nearby checkpoint.

Today, Ibrahim spends most of the time at home, gripped by uncertainty for his and his family’s future. He occasionally gets work in the West Bank, but it pays half what he used to make in Israel — about NIS 300 a day ($80).

When he gets hired, he will often take some struggling local laborers with him to share his daily wages with them, he said. One of them is a father of seven, and frequently calls him asking him for a NIS 100 ($27) handout to buy food.

“People here are hungry,” Ibrahim said.

The loss of wages has compounded the economic impact of the war against Hamas. A recent International Labor Organization report said unemployment in the West Bank now stands at 32 percent. The private sector suffered a 27% reduction in production value, equivalent to $1.5 billion, during the first four months of the war.

For Israel, the acute shortage of Palestinian workers following October 7 brought building to a shuddering halt. Residential construction fell by 95% late last year, contributing to an overall 19% slump in economic activity.

Other sectors, such as agriculture and services, were also hit, but none as much as construction, which accounts for 6% of Israel’s $500 billion economy.

Ibrahim said he often gets phone calls from Israeli customers, asking him when he will return to work.

Living in limbo

“Many Palestinians live in a state of uncertainty. Their work permits are officially still valid and are even being renewed automatically, but if the permit holder goes up to a checkpoint to enter Israel, they won’t be allowed through. It’s an unprecedented situation,” said Assaf Adiv, the executive director of WAC-Ma’an, a union that represents Israeli and Palestinian workers.

“Nobody really knows when Palestinians will be allowed back in. A whole ‘rumor industry’ has developed that feeds on partial news from the media, Israeli contractors who call up their workers and promise them checkpoints will open the following week or after the next holiday. Palestinian officials also spread rumors in a bid to show that they have good connections. People’s despair causes them to believe any hearsay,” said Adiv.

Like Ibrahim, other Hizme residents agreed to speak with The Times of Israel on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal for talking with the Israeli press. Their real names have been replaced.

Khaled is a father of three who is officially still employed by an Israeli company but is not allowed to return to work and has not been receiving his salary. He was worried that if one of his children gets sick, he would not be able to pay a doctor’s fee of NIS 50 or cover treatment costs in a private facility, given that the nearest public hospital is in Ramallah and the care there is considered “unreliable.”

Mahmoud, an educated man in his early forties, used to work as a journalist for a Palestinian newspaper, earning less than NIS 4,000 a month, but a few years ago he decided to become a self-employed shiputznik in Israel, i.e., a contractor who undertakes to remodel homes and apartments.

His standard of living increased significantly, as testified by his spacious and impeccably decorated apartment in Hizme. His monthly earnings jumped to NIS 10,000 a month ($2,700), or even NIS 15,000 ($4,000). It allowed him “to not have to ask how much something costs if I want to buy it,” and to afford a private school for his three children.

For comparison, he said a close relative of his is a doctor in Ramallah who normally earns NIS 8,000 a month, but over the past months, he has suffered a 50% pay cut, as did 130,000 public employees in the Palestinian Authority (PA).

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