Interviews over the past few weeks with several Palestinian workers revealed that hundreds of Palestinian workers are being seriously exploited by their Israeli settler employers.
The agricultural area in the Jordan Valley is home to about 20 settlements, each of which has its own farms. Labor conditions differ from one farm to the next; the employers do not comply with Israeli labor laws and completely ignore Palestinian labor laws. In order to work in one of the settlements, Palestinians workers must obtain entry permits from the Civil Administration. Thus, if the Civil Administration wanted to, it could easily monitor labor conditions and wages. As stated previously, labor laws are not enforced, and in fact no laws of any kind are enforced.
Daily wages are far below the legal minimum wage in Israel, ranging between NIS50-60 for an eight-hour workday in any of the settlements. For one hour of overtime, workers receive an additional NIS10, and they do not receive a pay stub for their wages. Employers believe that Palestinian workers do not deserve rights like compensation, vacations, and sick leave, which violates rulings issued by the Israeli labor courts regarding Palestinian workers in settlements.
Most of these Palestinians work with grapes, date palms, or flowers, and a few of them work in vegetable farming. Much of the produce is earmarked for export. Shoppers in England or Belgium who go to the market to buy “Israeli” agricultural products know nothing about the flagrant exploitation of Palestinians workers, and they are unaware that the produce is not of Israeli origin, but produced in the occupied territories. Grapes are marketed in Western countries by the Arba and Agrexco companies, and flowers are marketed especially in the Netherlands.
One Palestinian worker we spoke to said that he has been working in agriculture in one settlement for 15 years, and he says his salary has not changed in all those years. He receives NIS50 a day, and works from 6 am until 2 pm. He is one of six full-time workers who work throughout the year for his employer. There are other seasonal workers who only work for short periods of time. Palestinians are also employed to spray insecticides and do not wear appropriate attire or masks when doing so. One worker said that he was fired after he was injured in the eye on the job. As we have said before, in the occupied Jordan Valley region is workers are exploited like they were in the areas established in Gaza before Israel’s withdrawal.