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OPINIONS

Sat 03 May 2025 11:06 am - Jerusalem Time

Palestinian workers at the heart of the disaster


Baha Rahal

The class that was crushed during the months of war was the working class. It had fallen below the threshold of poverty and destitution, was ravaged by long days and months, was deprived of the most basic elements of a decent life, and lived in oppressive and difficult conditions without the most basic rights.

The working class, who used to earn their living day by day, found themselves overnight without work or income, and no one cared about their well-being. They are the workers of my country who fell victim to the raging war, as well as weak government plans aimed at rescuing them from their state of distress. Their conditions deteriorated, they lost their jobs, and were left to face their fates alone, without aid or support, job opportunities, social security, or health insurance. Emergency plans did not do them justice, and those who bear the responsibility of saving them did not come to their rescue.

May 1st of this year came, and the situation of my country's workers was dire, and their economic conditions were impossible, while the workers of Gaza, between martyrs, wounded, and displaced, were living through a catastrophe under the genocide from which no factory or facility, no company or institution was spared. Nothing was spared: not people, trees, or stones.

This is the difficult reality of my country's workers, a difficult and extremely dangerous reality due to the deterioration of these important sectors. They are the backbone of society and one of the pillars upon which the cycle of production and the market in the Palestinian economy depends. Some statistics issued by the Palestinian Workers' Union indicate that, before this war, the number of workers was close to half a million. After the war, they became unemployed, and a large percentage of them entered a phase of destitution and poverty.

Similarly, just as the occupation has bombed and destroyed economic facilities in Gaza with warplanes, military checkpoints, gates, and earth mounds have forced many economic facilities in the West Bank to close or reduce their workforce. This is due to declining purchasing power and a declining economy that is experiencing unprecedented daily decline, threatening more economic sectors.

These are frightening and shocking figures, foretelling dire economic consequences and a clear failure to address the situation, given the imposed blockade, Israel's piracy of Palestinian Authority funds, the cessation of international aid, the ongoing war of extermination in Gaza, and the policies of annexation, Judaization, and confiscation in the West Bank and Jerusalem. This calls for serious, responsible, and practical action, within the framework of urgent solutions.

Saving Palestinian workers is an urgent national and moral responsibility, requiring real action that goes beyond slogans and embraces realistic policies that restore this group's resilience and role in building the nation.

Palestinian workers are not well, workers of the world. They live without work, without health insurance, without rights, without available work. Their sustenance and the sustenance of their children are scarce. In Gaza, they are dying and being killed in displacement camps and shelters. This is the reality of Palestinian workers this year, workers of the world.

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Palestinian workers at the heart of the disaster