Posted on 01/17/24
| News Source: JPost
The Likud's ministers in the government should not support any decision to allow Palestinian workers from the West Bank into Israel, 12 Likud Members of Knesset (MKs) and two ministers wrote in a petition addressed to the other ministers of the Likud on Wednesday.
The petition followed an admission by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday that Israel was considering a pilot program for the entry of Palestinian workers aged 45 and older, and after Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned this week that not allowing Palestinians to work in Israel would strengthen Hamas in the West Bank and ultimately lead to a deterioration in the security situation.
Walla reported earlier this week that the Population and Immigration Authority was examining a proposal from the head of the Contractors Association, Eran Siv, for a personal file for each worker intending to come to Israel. The intention is to facilitate the entry of older Palestinian workers with a clean security record in Israel who have been working in Israel for years.
"Since the beginning of the war on October 7, central sectors of the economy have frozen due to their dependence on workers from Judea and Samaria and Gaza," the petition began. "The required quota (of workers) for the economy can be filled by agreements with a number of countries, in which there are thousands of workers interested in working in Israel."
However, the government is "tarrying" from doing so, and every day that the sectors return frozen cost the state NIS 3.1 billion, the petitioners claimed, based on what they said was data from the finance ministry.
"In parallel, there is talk in the government of returning tens of thousands of Palestinian workers into Israel, as if October 7 never happened," and despite what they claimed were 83% of Palestinians in the West Bank who supported Hamas' October 7 massacre.
"It is not clear how the government of Israel wishes to run a 'pilot' on the security of its citizens? Should we enter Palestinian workers and see if they are murderers? Have we learned nothing?" the MKs and ministers wrote.