Op-Ed: Government task: Encouraging an economic growth

International Labor Day comes on the first of May of this year in exceptional circumstances whose effects are reflected on the Palestinian working class in a way that burdens it, especially as it faces two imminent dangers, one of which is no less a threat than the other to the reality of life, which is experienced by Palestinian workers in particular and all classes and social groups. In general, they are the danger of the rise of fascism in Israel and its domination of decision-making centers in everything related to the future of life in the Palestinian territories occupied by the aggression of June 1967 and its calls for resolving the conflict on the basis of its project inspired by the legends of Joshua bin Nun and the sayings of fortune-tellers and false prophets, and the danger of the continuation and escalation of settlement activity Continuous attacks in the West Bank, including occupied Jerusalem, the Palestinian Jordan Valley, and the northern Dead Sea areas, in a manner that warns of dangers that have become clearly visible. On an occasion like this, whoever is on the left and on the side of the labor and trade union movement stands in the position of defending the rights and interests of workers, the forefront of our national struggle, in facing the dangers the country is exposed to and in the face of the injustice and exploitation they are exposed to at the hands of employers, whether the circumstances are normal or not. Exceptionally.

With the rise of fascism to power in the State of Israel, many questions remain about its impact on various classes and social groups, especially on Palestinian workers, whether those working in Israeli projects inside Israel or in the settlements, or working in Palestinian projects in the private sector, especially with the continued rise in In unemployment rates as a result of work restrictions in Israeli projects or as a result of the government’s failure to assume its responsibilities and the failure of the Palestinian private sector to fulfill its obligations towards these workers
At the same time, regardless of the challenges of the circumstances in which we live, our national economy stands at a crossroads, as a result of its exposure to two imminent dangers as well. Their differences and the danger of continuing to rotate in the vicious circle of dependence on the Israeli economy, which places heavy restrictions on the chances of moving towards broader horizons that open up opportunities for independent development.

The performance of the Palestinian economy is still poor according to the data of the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, and despite the increase in the number of workers in a number of economic activities, the unemployment rate is still high. In the labor force, 45% are unemployed, compared to about 20% in the West Bank, in addition to the large disparity in the unemployment rate between males and females; 21% among males and 39% among females. Unemployment among young graduates (20-29) years of intermediate diploma holders and above reached 48%, 28% in the West Bank and 73% in the Gaza Strip. The data indicates a continued slowdown in the performance of the Palestinian economy for the second year in a row, driven by the increasing state of uncertainty resulting from the government's financial situation, the noticeable rise in local price levels, and the decline in the purchasing power of per capita income, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics data.

And in such difficult economic and national circumstances that we are going through, I do not find, from my position as a Palestinian leftist, an embarrassment in defending the Palestinian working class and the Palestinian industrialists and the Palestinian industry at the same time. This does not violate the ideological commitment that I hold towards the working class and not others. It is true that I do not belong to the “party or class of capitalists and industrialists” that lacks a party to represent it, but to a party that steadfastly defends the rights and interests of workers, poor peasants, and other toilers. Between defending the rights and interests of workers and defending the national industry, whose conditions have deteriorated alarmingly, not only because of the occupation policy, but also the wrong policy practiced by successive governments in the Palestinian National Authority.

There is a clear correlation between the state of stagnation and poor performance, which the national industry is going through in particular, the national economy in its various branches, especially productivity in general, and the state of frustration and congestion experienced by the Palestinian working class. It is true that the national industry in our country is a simple industry, and in its basic structure it is a manufacturing industry, some of which made its way with great difficulty in light of the enormous restrictions and pressures of the Israeli occupation policy and the restrictions that were shackled by the Paris Economic Agreement, which was signed with the government of Israel in 1994. With a single economic market, a single customs cover, and a financial policy dictated by the Central Bank of Israel between a simple economy and a developed one that is led by the revolution of science, technology, and communications, and in light of a helpless economic-social policy of the government that constantly generates restrictions and pressures that cannot be ignored with its negative repercussions on the performance of the Palestinian economy and the development of Palestinian industry and other sectors. National production, where there is no protection for national markets and no protection for the national product in light of intense competition with Israeli products, including settlement products.

In light of this, the suffering of the Palestinian workers from the policy and practices of the occupation was exacerbated. The occupation is not only a military occupation, but also a settlement occupation. In the settlements that Israel established in the occupied Palestinian territories since June 1967, Israeli settlers and investors built relatively modern industrial and agricultural areas that depend on Palestinian labor. In these projects, which were established on the lands of Palestinian citizens, employers practice oppression and exploitation in the worst way against Palestinian workers. Only a few years ago, and after a 14-year legal battle in the Israeli courts, the Israeli Supreme Court recognized the applicability of Israeli labor law to Palestinian workers who work officially in these projects, including social rights, minimum wages, annual vacation entitlements, sick leaves, holidays, and retirement benefits. Despite this, not much has changed in the conditions of these workers, who fall victim to labor brokers and accept little in order to preserve the workplace and source of income in the face of intense competition in the labor market due to the high rates of unemployment in the Palestinian labor market.

And if this is the case with our workers under the occupation, its policies and practices, then what is the situation of these workers in the Palestinian labor market in national projects? With an objective view of things, no one can underestimate the difficulty and seriousness of the conditions that the national economy is going through and the Palestinian private sector operates under. The national economy is still a prisoner of the Paris economic agreement and a prisoner of the policy of blockade and economic suffocation, not in the Gaza Strip, but also in the West Bank.

The suffering experienced by the Gaza Strip has no limits and cannot be described. Things worsened and deteriorated for the worse after Hamas took control of the Strip, where the closure became suffocating to the extent that it resulted in a noticeable decrease in exports as well as in imports, and a large number of industrial facilities stopped working, and the productivity of the rest of them decreased to the limits of half of their production capacities. Poverty rates increased. In a sharp way, as well as unemployment rates, and more than 70 percent of families in the Strip live below the poverty line. The same is the case of the national economy in the West Bank. It is better than in the Gaza Strip, but the unemployment rate is high and poverty rates are high as well. As for the labor force in the private sector, the percentage of employees who live below the poverty line maintains itself at best in conditions of relative stability and rises significantly in conditions of tension and instability.

If the Palestinian governments continue to follow the same approach in managing the affairs of the national economy and its job-generating sectors, then the citizen, especially the workers, will not find a space of hope. The citizen wonders what is the percentage, which has been allocated from the total financial resources available to the Palestinian Authority over the years, whether from the various tax revenues or the funds of countries and donors to invest in development to improve the conditions of the private sector. The answer is really alarming, as this percentage did not exceed 5 percent over these years. Beyond that, the Palestinian governments have practiced a policy that has contributed to inflicting the greatest damage on the industrial, agricultural and service sectors of the Palestinian national economy, when it opened the national markets for everything that is imported at the expense of encouraging national products and providing an acceptable level of requirements for their protection.

We realize that the private sector has a role in development, and in our circumstances it is a vital role, not a marginal one, and the requirements for it to fulfill its responsibilities and role should be provided in this regard. At the same time, we realize that injustice should be lifted from workers in this sector by respecting the provisions of the Palestinian Labor Law, despite its gaps and shortcomings.

Here, the government must intervene in two main directions: the first is to oblige the private sector to respect a minimum wage in the private sector that was agreed upon among the social partners to approach the average wage for workers in the government sector and to link wages to the cost of living schedule and to reinforce this step by providing support for basic commodities that reduce the cost of living. The impact of the exorbitant rise in their prices is on the conditions of the weak social strata, and the second is the push towards national consensus on a law for social insurance and the Social Security Fund, with all the consequent obligations that the government performs, as well as those of employers and employees in the private sector, because of this’s great impact on providing security career and the simplest requirements of a decent human life for these employees, foremost among them are the workers.

In addition to all this, the role of the Palestinian labor and trade union movement should be upgraded and rehabilitated to defend the rights of the working class, organize its role in the struggle against the occupation, strengthen its steadfastness and develop its struggle in the face of the widening scale of unemployment, poverty and destitution and the deterioration of living standards as a result of the Israeli control tools and by the government policy and its imbalance in the distribution of The burdens of steadfastness on the various classes of the people and their different social groups, and to the preservation and protection of trade union freedoms, and the development of laws for social security and trade union organization, in a manner consistent with international legislation and laws and all applicable agreements from the Arab and international labor organizations, to which the PLO and the Palestinian government declared their commitment, this In addition to activating the National Fund for Employment and Social Protection, which contributes to reducing poverty and unemployment rates among workers, and developing the Palestinian Labor Law in order to provide protection for the rights of male and female workers in the Palestinian labor market.

And the establishment of specialized labor courts to settle and resolve labor disputes between workers and employers away from procrastination and procrastination. This is in addition to the urgent need for full equality in wages between male and female workers in private projects, combating discriminatory politics and all violations against Palestinian working women, and implementing the minimum wage agreement. Particularly on working women and obligating all institutions, companies, offices, clinics and other places of work in the private sector to this agreement, and to end the injustice of these workers, men and women, and liberate tens of thousands of workers, especially women, from working conditions and conditions that are closer to forced labor and servitude.