Three facts about Palestinian workers

The International Labour Network of Solidarity and Struggle supports these press releases from the Arab Workers Union in Nazareth. The first sheds light on the disappearance of many workers from Gaza; the second deals with a trade union victory with the reinstatement of three dismissed workers; the third deals with a campaign to get Israeli employers to pay the wages of Palestinian workers who have lost their jobs as a result of the war; it is also an appeal for financial support for this campaign.

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The Case of the Disappearance of Gazan Workers During the War 
More than a year and a half after the genocidal war on Gaza, the Israeli Prison Service responds to the interrogation of the Arab Workers Union in Nazareth: “There are 34 workers who died in prisons due to “mysterious circumstances” or “heart attacks.” 

More than a year after the interrogation submitted by the Arab Workers Union in Nazareth to a number of Israeli security and military institutions regarding the circumstances of the death of 46 Palestinian workers from Gaza Strip who disappeared on October 8, 23 , after the “Al-Aqsa Flood” attack on the settlements of the Gaza Strip, the workers numbering 18,000 workers who worked with work permits in Israeli cities and work sites until October 7, these workers  were forced to flee to the West Bank areas, and dozens of them disappeared after their arrest, abuse and torture at Israeli military checkpoints in the West Bank, and later they were arrested in army camps and a number of prisons in the West Bank areas. 

The Israeli Prison Service acknowledged the fate of these people with a vague and unclear answer about the circumstances of their death in Israeli detention centers, despite the fact that all the testimonies collected by the Arab Union in the first half of the beginning of the war from Gazan workers in Jericho and the West Bank, and the families of workers from different areas in the Gaza Strip, confirm that these workers were arrested and taken to army camps while they were alive and in good health.

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Reinstating three Palestinian female teachers to their jobs in elementary and secondary schools after they were dismissed from their jobs on the pretext of “solidarity with a terrorist organization

Eight months after the Israeli Ministry of Education decided to dismiss three Palestinian teachers from the cities of Haifa and Nazareth on charges of solidarity with a terrorist organization during the war on Gaza through writings on social media, these writings included condemnation of the genocidal war on Gaza and the deprivation of people in Gaza from food, medicine and water.

The lawyer of the Arab Workers Union, which represented the teachers in the "Obedience Committee" or the so-called "Disciplinary Committee" of the Israeli Ministry of Education, claimed in the defense list that the teachers expressed their opinion on the war on Gaza within the framework of freedom of expression and that what the teacher wrote "My heart is with the children of Gaza" or what the second teacher wrote "We are all with Gaza" and what the third teacher wrote "The people of Gaza will win", all of these writings do not contain any kind of support or solidarity with terrorist organizations, and that the expulsion of the teachers from the workplace in the school comes within the campaign of incitement, racism and the policy of revenge that is sweeping Israeli society and which began since the beginning of the war against the Palestinians in the 48 areas and which led to hundreds of arrests and the filing of indictments against Activists, workers and employees because of their writings and expressing their solidarity with the people of Gaza. And that there is no legal basis for expelling teachers from the workplace. 

After four sessions in the "Obedience Committee", which lasted for many months, the Arab Workers Union was able to return the teachers to work, in addition to paying the monthly salaries of the teachers during the entire period of time in which the workers were dismissed from work. 

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Arab workers union continue activities to pay the wages and rights of Gazan workers who worked for Israeli employers before the war

Union campaign to oblige Israeli employers to pay the wages of workers from Gaza who lost their jobs during the war. 

Palestinian workers in the Gaza Strip paid a heavy price for the aggressive war launched by Israel on the Gaza Strip. In the first days of the war, the Israeli authorities issued a decision to withdraw work permits from 18,000 workers from the Gaza Strip. In addition, the Israeli police and army arrested thousands of workers and put them in detention centers controlled by The Israeli army in the West Bank. In this context, the Israeli authorities were forced to release the vast majority of these workers after the Arab Workers Union in the city of Nazareth submitted an appeal to the Israeli Supreme Court demanding that the Israeli authorities be obligated to immediately release the workers. (A small number of workers were recently released through a prisoner exchange deal between Israel and Hamas.) 

Since the war began, the Palestinian workers from Gaza have been found without work and without rights and wages, and despite the fact that the workers, from the beginning of the war until this moment, have gone to the Israeli employers and demanded that they pay their wages and also the compensation they deserve, especially since approximately 6,000 workers have been working for the employers for more than 3 years. Unfortunately, the vast majority of employers refused to respond to workers’ demands to pay their wages and rights. 

The field researcher for the Arab Workers Union in Gaza, Comrade Mahmoud Al-Ghoul, collected complaints and testimonies from workers from the Gaza Strip, which amounted to 76 files. It is expected that these files will increase significantly in the coming days, during the truce period between Hamas and Israel. 

The legal department of the Arab Workers Union sent letters to a number of Israeli employers on behalf of the workers and asked them to pay the workers’ rights.

It is unfortunate that the Israeli employers’ response was a categorical refusal to pay the workers’ wages and claimed that these workers did not work for them or that these workers are “terrorists and loyal to a terrorist organization and a terrorist authority.” We do not want to pay them their wages,” the operators claimed. 

In light of this situation, it is clear that Israeli employers have no intention of recognizing workers’ rights and paying their wages, and thus there will be no choice left for the Arab Workers Union except to take legal measures in the Israeli labor courts in order to oblige employers to pay workers’ rights. 

In terms of legal procedures, submitting workers’ files to a court will cost the financial cost per file for each worker as follows: 

Fees for opening a single file: 536 shekels (132 euros). 

In cases of workers’ compensation for their years of work, a fee of 2.5% of the total amount of compensation is paid. For example, if the amount of compensation is 10,000 shekels, the amount we will pay to the court is 250 euros. 

Covering lawyers’ expenses: The union covers lawyers’ expenses. For each file, the union pays 1,500 shekels (370 euros). 

In the face of this situation, the state of war, and the emergency regulations imposed by the Israeli authorities on institutions and Palestinians in the 48 areas, the Arab Workers Union will begin from the beginning of next week a major campaign in Palestinian society and also among friends and comrades in international unions in order to collect the largest amount of donations so that it can The union helps our brothers and fellow workers in the Gaza Strip. 

We appeal to you, friends and comrades, to contribute to this campaign according to your capabilities and abilities. 

Contribute to spreading and supporting this campaign for the workers of Gaza. 

arab.workers.union48@gmail.com