Palestinian workers often bear the brunt of Israel’s efforts to undermine the Palestinian economy and its regime of settler colonialism and apartheid.
Palestinian trade unions have always been key to the Palestinian struggle for freedom, justice, and equality.
Since the founding of BDS in 2005, Scores of trade unions and trade union federations across the world have endorsed BDS as a key form of solidarity with Palestinian workers. Trade unions are making a vital contribution to the BDS movement through campaigns. Since the beginning of Israel’s Gaza genocide in 2023, dockworkers unions in Belgium, India, Catalonia, Italy, Greece, Turkey, California, and South Africa have taken action against Israeli ships or arms shipments to Israel.
In 2011, Palestinian trade unions came together to appeal to international trade unions to join the BDS movement and form the Palestinian Trade Union Coalition for BDS (PTUC-BDS).
Scores of trade unions and trade union federations across the world have endorsed BDS as a key form of solidarity with Palestinian workers. Trade unions are making a vital contribution to the BDS movement through campaigns. Dockworkers in the US, South Africa, Sweden, and elsewhere have refused to unload Israeli ships and exports.
Background
Israel’s systematic destruction of the Palestinian economy, its discriminatory and racist laws, and its restrictions on freedom of movement and association have a massive impact on the rights and working conditions of Palestinian workers. Palestinian trade unions have long been at the heart of the Palestinian struggle for freedom, justice, and equality.
In 2011, Palestinian trade unions came together to issue an appeal for international trade unions to join the BDS movement and form the Palestinian Trade Union Coalition for BDS (PTUC-BDS). Palestinian unions are urging trade unions across the world to launch effective boycott campaigns and to boycott the Histadrut, the Israeli trade union that played a key role in Israel’s early colonization of Palestine and continues to play a vital role in Israel’s oppression of Palestinians.
Since 1948, Israel has systematically confiscated Palestinian land and other natural resources. As part of its regime of settler colonialism and apartheid, Israel has implemented a range of measures aimed at undermining Palestinian economic activity and development. These measures include:
- In Gaza, Israel has imposed a siege that severely limits the entry of materials and inputs for manufacturing and the export of goods.
- In the West Bank, Israel has implemented restrictions on movement, access to land and water, and various other obstacles to limit exports.
- Across the occupied Palestinian territories, Israel has deliberately undermined Palestinian agricultural production.
- Under the terms of the Paris Protocol, Israel has the final say on what Palestinians can import and export and control over many aspects of Palestinian economic activity.
Together, these measures have created a situation where the Palestinian economy mainly depends on foreign aid investment and imported goods. This has had a significant impact on employment and compensation levels.
According to International Labour Organization data, as of May 2024, Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip have lost over 500,000 job opportunities, with daily losses amounting to approximately $25 million. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate in Gaza has exceeded 80% because of the ongoing genocidal war against the Palestinian people in the Strip.
Israel’s strategy in the West Bank revolves around deepening the economic dependence and exploitation of Palestinian workers. Palestinians who manage to find work in Israel are forced to endure long hours at military checkpoints under humiliating conditions, the Israeli army maintaining complete control over their lives and livelihoods.
The loss of income sources and rising unemployment rates leave many Palestinians in the West Bank with little choice but to work in illegal Israeli settlements. Their payment often falls below the minimum wage, and their working conditions are highly exploitative and frequently dangerous.
In addition, Israel has consistently withheld tax revenues collected on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, leaving public sector employees without salaries for months at a time.
The violations against Palestinian workers in Israel have intensified following October 7, the start of the genocide against our Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, besieged since 2007. The occupation has arrested, tortured, and expelled approximately 175,000 Palestinian workers, including around 18,500 from Gaza, according to official Palestinian statistics. The number rises to over 205,000 when including undocumented and unregistered workers.
Israel’s colonial system views Palestinian workers through a comprehensive security lens, devoid of any labor rights. Palestinian workers receive significantly lower wages compared to Israeli workers, with inequitable social security, no health insurance, and little compensation for work injuries.
Palestinian workers are also subjected to extortion and exploitation by permit brokers and Israeli security agencies. They are denied numerous financial and legal rights and face ongoing racism in the workplace.
Palestinian citizens of Israel face systematic discrimination in the labour market. Many jobs are only open to people who have served in the military, excluding Palestinians from many jobs. Only 6.6% of Israeli state employees are Palestinian. Communications giant Bezeq employs less than a dozen Palestinians out of a total workforce of 10,000.
Palestinian workers in Israel often face routine racism in the workplace. In 2004, Palestinian workers on a construction site near the Israeli parliament were forced to wear helmets marked with a red X to facilitate their assassination by security forces in the case of emergency.
The Palestinian Trade Union movement
Palestinian trade unions have long been at the heart of the Palestinian struggle for freedom, justice, and equality.
Palestinian labour unions played a vital role in the Great Revolt of 1936 against British rule and Zionist colonisation. Palestinian workers launched a general strike lasting 6 months, one of the most prolonged strikes anywhere in the world. Palestinian unions led strikes and boycotts of Israeli products throughout the first intifada.
More recently, Palestinian unions have campaigned against falling compensation levels and other attacks on conditions in the Palestinian public sector.
All of the major Palestinian trade unions were signatories to the 2005 call for BDS and are members of the Palestinian BDS National Committee.
In 2011, Palestinian trade unions came together to appeal for international trade unions to join the BDS movement and form the Palestinian Trade Union Coalition for BDS (PTUC-BDS).
The Histadrut
The Histadrut is Israel’s trade union federation. The Histadrut played a key role in Israel’s early colonisation of Palestine and continues to play a vital role in Israel’s oppression of Palestinians. It does this by:
- Publicly supporting Israel’s attacks on Gaza and other war crimes.
- Maintaining active commercial interests in Israel’s illegal settlements.
- Allowing Jewish Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank to join the organisation.
- Illegally withholding over NIS 8.3 billion (approximately $2bn) from wages earned by Palestinian workers from the Occupied Palestinian Territory. This money was deducted by the Israeli state and transferred to the Histadrut for ‘social and other trade union benefits’ that Palestinian workers have never received.
In its founding statement, the Palestinian Trade Union Coalition for BDS (PTUC-BDS) called on international trade unions to sever all ties with the Histadrut. Many unions have done exactly that.
LATEST IMPACT
Throughout the second half of 2024, trade unions continued to answer the BDS call and played a crucial role in supporting our movement (some indicators of BDS impact among trade unions are mentioned in the above sections):
In July, seven major US labor unions representing 6 million workers called on the Biden administration to halt all military funding to Israel. Also in July, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) announced its complete divestment from Israel Bonds.
In July, OPSEU SEFPO, representing 180,000 workers in Ontario, Canada, adopted a resolution supporting BDS.
In October, as part of the #BlockTheBoat campaign, Greek dock workers and trade unionists at the Piraeus port in Athens stopped a container suspected of carrying bullets for Israel’s use in its genocide from being loaded onto the MV Marla Bull. The vessel was forced to leave without the cargo. In November, Moroccan dockworkers refused to load a Maersk ship with military cargo for Israel’s genocide.
In December, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) called on the South African government to go beyond statements of solidarity with Palestinians and take concrete action by severing diplomatic ties with Israel and imposing sanctions on it.
Also in December, the Swedish dockworkers’ union, Svenska hamnarbetarförbundet, voted in favour of a “blockade against handling war material to and from Israel’s apartheid and genocidal regime.” This decision will impact Swedish’s import of weapons from Israeli companies such as Israel’s largest arms manufacturer, Elbit Systems.
