In the West Bank, Palestinian unemployment is now Israeli policy
Israeli forces prevent the residents of the Palestinian village of Az-Zuweidin from grazing on their private pastures and arrest three Palestinians, southern West Bank, 4 May 2024
Haitham S. reports in +972 on 21 January 2025:
Ever since the beginning of Israel’s assault on Gaza in October 2023, Palestinians in the occupied West Bank have been suffering from an acute unemployment crisis. In the first six months of the war, the unemployment rate nearly tripled, with over 300,000 workers losing their main source of income.
Over half of those people were working inside Israel until the authorities revoked their work permits following the Hamas attack of October 7. Palestinian workers have repeatedly demanded that their permits to enter Israel be reissued so they can provide for their children and live a decent life, but their requests have so far been denied.
In my village of Umm Al-Khair in the South Hebron Hills, most families no longer have any source of income. On top of a frightening uptick in settler attacks and home demolitions in our community, most residents now find themselves in financial ruin. Already well into the second year of this reality, we are still without solutions or adequate financial assistance.
Historically, our community subsisted on shepherding and agricultural farming. But over the years, the expansion of the Jewish settlement of Carmel — which seized half of the village’s land when it was established in 1980 — and violence from Israeli settlers and soldiers have rendered the vast majority of our land inaccessible. Forced to find alternative sources of income, many young men in the community began working as laborers inside Israel — until the war put a stop to that.