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Israel: No Palestinian Labor by 2008
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| By KRISTEN STEVENS, Associated Press Writer |
March 08, 2005 |
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Israel plans to phase out Palestinian labor in Israel by 2008
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TEL AVIV, Israel - Israel's strategic goal is to phase out Palestinian labor by 2008, the army chief said Tuesday.
Israel made the decision in response to more than four years of fighting with the Palestinians, Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon told a security conference. Before the outbreak of violence in 2000, more than 150,000 Palestinians worked in Israel, most in menial jobs Israelis refused to fill.
The Palestinian economy has traditionally relied heavily on work in Israel. During the recent round of violence - when workers were barred from entering Israel - unemployment in the West Bank and Gaza Strip skyrocketed, leading to high poverty rates.
"Our goal is to stop any kind of Palestinian working in Israel" by 2008, Yaalon said in halting English. "This is our policy, this is our political directive and this is because of what has happened here over the last four and a half years."
However, Israel will allow goods to flow freely through Israel's borders with the West Bank and Gaza Strip, a military official said on condition of anonymity.
Yoram Gabbay, an Israeli economist who was involved in Israel-Palestinian peace talks in the 1990s, says the policy of phasing out Palestinian laborers would be detrimental to both sides as Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas tries to stabilize his government.
"I think the permitted, supervised entry of laborers is imperative," said Gabbay, who estimates that 60,000 to 70,000 Palestinians still work in Israel, whether legally or illegally. "The Palestinian economy relies so heavily on it."
The militant Hamas group currently supports many weak Palestinian families, and that's not in Israel's favor, he said. "It's preferable for us that the Palestinian economy depend on UNRWA (the U.N. relief agency), the Palestinian Authority and us, and very little on Hamas," he said.
In the 1990s, the entry of Palestinian laborers rarely led to terror, Gabbay said. "So I don't know why to bar it."
Yaalon encouraged the European Union to provide economic assistance to the Palestinian Authority and help the new leadership produce jobs.
In the meantime, Israel is willing to help the Palestinians reform and train their security forces, as well as share intelligence information about militant groups, Yaalon said.
"We are ready to share intelligence, to allow them (Palestinian forces) to deploy ... in Gaza. We're ready to allow them to operate in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank)," Yaalon said. "But they did it so far too slow and not effectively."
Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said he would meet later Tuesday with Abbas to discuss dismantling militant groups. The two will also discuss Israel's planned transfer of security authority to the Palestinians in some West Bank cities.
Yaalon said Abbas has adopted a policy of "rejecting terror as a political tool."
"The ability of the new Palestinian leadership to develop into an effective and responsible player depends on its ability to advance the policy of one authority, one law and one legal bearer of arms," he added.
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