{"id":253500,"date":"2024-02-05T12:01:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-05T12:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=253500"},"modified":"2024-01-31T05:50:21","modified_gmt":"2024-01-31T05:50:21","slug":"after-expelling-palestinian-workers-israel-turns-to-the-global-south-for-labor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2024\/02\/after-expelling-palestinian-workers-israel-turns-to-the-global-south-for-labor\/","title":{"rendered":"After Expelling Palestinian Workers, Israel Turns to the Global South for Labor"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Palestinians at the Occupation-controlled Karem Abu Salem crossing between Israel and Gaza
(Photo: Screenshot)<\/p><\/div>\n

Israel has thus far signed agreements with Kenya and Malawi to bring in workers to its agricultural sector, which has otherwise relied on Palestinian and Thai migrant labor.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

26 Jan 2024<\/em> – As Israel has continued to wage a genocidal war on Gaza for over 100 days, the Occupation is now contending with the impact on its own economy.<\/p>\n

After revoking the work permits given to Palestinian workers from the occupied territories, and foreign migrants having left Israel since October 7, the Zionist state has turned to recruit workers from countries in Asia and Africa, where working class people are especially vulnerable<\/a> to economic crises.<\/p>\n

Recruitments have been announced in at least two states in India, where Israel is looking to hire up to 20,000 workers in the coming months for its construction sector. This is amid several concerns<\/a> regarding the process, including a lack of labor protections related to labor guarantees and medical coverage.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Israel\u2019s agriculture sector, central to the Zionist settler-colonial myth of \u201cmaking the desert bloom\u201d<\/a>, is facing its \u201cbiggest crisis since\u20261948\u201d<\/a> as it is no longer able to exploit Palestinian workers for some of its most physically-intensive tasks.<\/p>\n

Following the launch of the Al Aqsa Flood operation by Palestinian resistance groups on October 7, Israel revoked the work permits of thousands of Palestinian workers from Gaza.<\/p>\n

While the Occupation has refused to confirm how many Palestinians were present within the Green Line at the time, thousands of workers were detained and subjected to brutal physical abuse<\/a>, torture<\/a>, and humiliation for several weeks. At least two detained workers from Gaza were killed<\/a> in Israeli detention facilities in the Occupied West Bank.<\/p>\n

Palestinian workers are predominantly confined to low-wage and strenuous work under abusive and dangerous conditions in the Israeli Occupation\u2019s construction and agricultural sectors. In the agricultural sector, Palestinians account<\/a> for nearly a quarter of the workforce, while migrants mainly from Thailand make up 33%. These workers have been confined to labor-intensive and non-mechanized tasks, including planting seeds and picking fruits.<\/p>\n

Not only has Israel revoked the work permits given to Palestinians, but an estimated 10,000 Thai migrant workers have also left after 39 workers were killed and 32 were among the hostages taken by Hamas fighters on October 7. Now faced with a labor shortage, Israel has turned to countries in Africa.<\/p>\n

Neoliberal crisis at home<\/b><\/h3>\n

In November 2023, Malawi sent 221 young people to work on Israeli farms, with the government stating that it would send an additional 5,000 people. The announcement has come at a time when the country is facing a severe economic crisis, characterized by a high cost of living.<\/p>\n

While being a predominantly export economy, Malawi has been facing a critical decline in foreign exchange reserves, which led to shortages of necessary goods including food, medicines, and fuel.<\/p>\n

Conditions worsened significantly after the country\u2019s central bank devalued the kwacha<\/i> by 44% against the US dollar in November 2023\u2014 a major step the bank seemingly had to take<\/a> to access a USD 178 million loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). This was after Malawi had already devalued its currency by 25% in May. The price of fuel, which affects the price of goods and services, grew by 45% following the devaluation.<\/p>\n

According to the Famine Early Warning Systems Network, by the end of November, the prices of the maize had increased<\/a> by 30% up to 80% as compared to the year before. It is in this context of economic strife that many young Malawians might seek employment abroad.<\/p>\n

The first plane with workers on board took off just weeks after Israel delivered a USD 60 million aid package to Malawi. Human rights groups and opposition politicians in the country have criticized<\/a> a lack of transparency surrounding the employment agreement.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, soon after, Kenya announced that it would be sending 1,500 farm workers to Israel. The agreement was secured in December, with Nairobi announcing that Kenyan workers part of the agreement would receive a monthly wage of approximately USD 1,500 under three-year renewable contracts.<\/p>\n

This was after Kenyan president William Ruto announced<\/a> that his government would work to send up to 5,000 Kenyans abroad for work every week as a way to address the unemployment crisis in the country.<\/p>\n

Economic conditions for poor and working class people have spiraled in Kenya in recent years, with the crisis exacerbated by currency depreciation and policies including the removal of subsidies on fuel and maize\u2014a decision Ruto took just days into his presidential term\u2014and retrogressive tax laws.<\/p>\n

Despite mass protests<\/a> which saw deadly violence by state forces, the government has implemented<\/a> a neoliberal, pro-corporate, and pro-privatization<\/a> agenda informed by the diktats<\/a> of the IMF and the World Bank.<\/p>\n

\u201cRuto has instead opted to sign agreements with foreign countries and presented this as a solution to a perennial joblessness. However, this is a very neoliberal way of managing the economy, instead of utilizing Kenya\u2019s internal productive forces to respond to the issues affecting the people, including food security, developing agriculture, and access to land,\u201d Booker Ngesa Omole, the Vice-Chairperson and National Organizing Secretary of the Communist Party of Kenya, told Peoples Dispatch<\/i>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government\u2019s foreign policy is attached to the contracts it is signing with foreign governments. It is reducing our country to a country of interests. Ruto is promoting what he calls \u2018economic diplomacy\u2019, what is happening is that there are no principles on the basis of which Kenya is relating to other countries, rather it has become a question of whether relations are serving an agenda\u201d.<\/p>\n

For instance, Omole cited an announcement President Ruto had made on X <\/i>(formerly Twitter) in 2022, rescinding Kenya\u2019s recognition of Western Sahara, which remains under Morocco\u2019s colonial occupation. While the decision was later dismissed by Kenya\u2019s foreign ministry, Ruto\u2019s announcement had followed<\/a> an assurance by Morocco to provide subsidized fertilizer.<\/p>\n

The Ruto administration has held close ties<\/a> with Israel, with the Occupation\u2019s Minister of Intelligence, who attended the presidential inauguration, calling<\/a> Kenya a country of \u201cstrategic importance\u201d for Israel. Even prior to the current administration, both countries have cooperated in key areas including defense and security, including training and technical support to its forces.<\/p>\n

During a July 2023 visit to Nairobi, Israel\u2019s now former foreign minister, Eli Cohen, thanked<\/a> the Ruto government \u201cfor their efforts to promote Israel\u2019s position on the continent\u201d adding that \u201cKenya\u2019s membership on the board of the [UN\u2019s] International Atomic Energy Agency allows it to influence the international supervision of Iranian violations.\u201d Both Israel and its imperialist backer, the US, have adopted an aggressive stance against Tehran.<\/p>\n

Following the Palestinian resistance offensive on October 7, Ruto expressed Kenya\u2019s \u201csolidarity with the State of Israel and unequivocally condemned terrorism.\u201d According to Omole, \u201cthis showed that the government is alienated from the Kenyan people,\u201d as \u201cthe \u201cpeople in Kenya were in support of the resistance of the Palestinian people.\u201d Protests held in solidarity with Palestine in previous months have seen a heavy-handed response form the police, including arrests<\/a> and the use of tear gas.<\/p>\n

Omole added that the October 7 resistance offensive exposed and disrupted the process of the normalization of the Zionist occupation of Palestine as successive countries were moving to establish ties with Israel. \u201cThere was going to be peace in West Asia\u2026 but this was peace based on the brutalization of the Palestinian people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Moreover, he added that \u201cthe Zionist army had boasted before that it was invincible. Now it is clear that Israeli forces can be defeated, just like the apartheid forces in South Africa and the brutal British colonial forces.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sending Kenyan workers to be employed by an apartheid state known for the abuse and exploitation of Palestinian and immigrant workers has raised alarm among the people.<\/p>\n

Exploitation abroad\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n

\u201cNow that the Zionist occupation cannot exploit the labor of Palestinians, they are searching for another place on the globe from where they can exploit labor,\u201d Omole said, adding that Kenyan workers would face phases of exploitation. \u201cWorkers are not being employed on the land directly. There is an Israeli agency that will contract a Kenyan agency which will in turn recruit workers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen there is talk of a salary, it is not all going to directly go to the worker. Part of it will go to the government\u2019s labor office in Nairobi, part will go to the recruiting agency, and a part will go to the Israeli agency,\u201d he said, adding that the workers\u2019 status as immigrants might mean that they would be denied the same benefits an Israeli worker might be able to access via social services.<\/p>\n

Moreover, abuse and exploitation of migrant workers in Israel has been documented consistently over the years.<\/p>\n

Thai workers employed in moshavim<\/i>, which are branded<\/a> as a \u201cunique type of cooperative farmers\u2019 village,\u201d have been subject to severe exploitation, including extremely long working hours, salaries below the minimum wage, and unsafe and unsanitary living and working conditions. Between 2008 and 2013, 122 Thai migrants died<\/a> in Israel.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Palestinian workers have been subject to discriminatory labor laws, lower pay compared to Israeli workers, and zero benefits or social protections. According to the Palestinian ministry of Labor to the International Labour Organization, 53 Palestinian workers died<\/a> in Israel in 2022, out of which 44 people worked in the construction sector. According to the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions, six workers were killed by Israeli forces while traveling to workplaces in Israel or its illegal settlements.<\/p>\n

Now that Israel has punitively revoked the permits given to Palestinians and foreign migrant workers have left, it has sought agreements with countries in Africa to fill the labor gap. Israel is planning to recruit farm workers from Uganda, and has already initiated the process in Tanzania, the Israeli ambassador to Kenya told<\/a> the BBC<\/i>. Israel has also turned to Asia, where it signed an agreement in November with the government of Sri Lanka, a country devastated by a debt crisis, for the \u201cimmediate\u201d hiring of 10,000 farm workers.<\/p>\n

Omole stated, \u201cThe Kenyan government cannot guarantee the safety of workers even within the country, it cannot guarantee the safety of Kenyan people outside our borders. Israel boasts of its friendship with the Ruto government, this means that it will not be held accountable for the mistreatment of Kenyans.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis agreement has been packaged as an initiative taken deliberately by Israel and Kenya to address unemployment in Kenya, it is much like the Israeli propaganda of turning a desert into productive farms\u2026 Ultimately, this policy is only beneficial to the Israeli Occupation and not the Kenyan majority.\u201d<\/p>\n

Go to Original – peoplesdispatch.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

26 Jan 2024 – Israel has thus far signed agreements with Kenya and Malawi to bring in workers to its agricultural sector, which has otherwise relied on Palestinian and Thai migrant labor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":253501,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[289,2846,88,2325,2497,359],"class_list":["post-253500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle-east-north-africa","tag-economy","tag-global-south","tag-israel","tag-migrant-workers","tag-palestinians","tag-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253500"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253500\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":253502,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253500\/revisions\/253502"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}