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Palestinian Arab workers rights in Israel
(The following is an extract from an article in Sawt el-Amel/The Laborer’s Voice, an independent grassroots organization founded by Palestinian Arab workers in Nazareth in 2000 to defend and promote the rights of Arab citizens in Israel.) The need to establish a trade union association for Palestinian Arab workers who hold Israeli citizenship did not arise out of a vacuum, nor was it born of coincidence; rather, it is urgently required to fulfill the ambitions of those Palestinian workers who remained on their lands after the Nakba of 1948. It is also a direct result of the historical events the Palestinian people experienced after the Nakba and the subsequent collapse of the Palestinian trade union movement, whose activities were centered in the city of Haifa. The Palestinian working class in Israel is among the poorest sections of society and the one whose rights are most abused by employers. It should be emphasised that this group of workers is part of the Arab Palestinian minority holding Israeli citizenship, which has been faced with racial discrimination for sixty years, as manifested in land confiscations, home demolitions and the denial of work opportunities. Their land was confiscated, their jobs lost, and - after Israel brought in hundreds of thousands of foreign workers as cheap labor in the building, agricultural and service sectors to replace Arab workers - their economic survival depended on social security benefits from the Israeli National Insurance Institute.
To read the full article in pdf format click HERE.
Matthew Brett is the Canadian Dimension weblog manager. The views expressed on this blog do not necessarily represent his own. Read more by Matthew Brett.
