Victims of Israeli exclusivity
Migrant workers and their horror stories are keeping the Israeli press busy, says Emad Gad
The Israeli media dealt with many issues this week, both domestic and foreign. The most prominent domestic issue was the ongoing investigation of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on charges of corruption, receiving bribes from Israeli businessmen and covering up shady business deals involving his sons Omri and Gilad. As a result, the spotlight is now on Sharon's political future. In addition, the media dealt with Sharon's plan to unilaterally separate Israel from the Palestinians, to evacuate settlements in the Gaza Strip, and the impact all this will have on the current coalition government, especially given the threats of the Nationalist Union Party (seven seats) and the National Religious Party (six seats) to quit the government.
On the foreign front, much attention was given to relations with the United States and regional interactions between Turkey and Israel. The media also dealt with the notable improvement in Israeli-Egyptian relations compared to the last few months.
Among the issues that received press attention was migrant workers in Israel, particularly foreign workers and the problems they face.
How does a state deal with illegal migrant workers? Workers may have their freedom restricted or their legitimate rights to work in a safe environment for fair wages violated. There are other problems, such as the exploitation of workers' illegal status to coerce them to work in harsh conditions comparable to indentured servitude.
Immigrant labour, legal or otherwise, was not much of an issue in Israel in the past. The main reason for this is that before the outbreak of the Intifada, Israel depended largely on Palestinian worker who commuted daily from the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Even though Palestinian workers were deprived of their right to health insurance, social security and fair wages compared to their Israeli peers, the exceptional case of workers who return to their homes every evening exonerated Israel for the charge of inhumane treatment of migrant labour.
But persecution of migrant workers in Israel began to appear with Israel's decision to forgo Palestinian labour and replace it with workers from Asian, African, and East European countries. Only then did Israeli society experience the phenomenon of resident alien workers. Since Israel had been dealing with non-resident, commuter Palestinian labour, it applied the same rules to migrant workers who came from abroad to settle in Israel for work.
Here, for many reasons, is where the tragedy of migrant workers in Israel began. The current ruling Israeli right has deep misgivings about non- Jews in general, and Israel combats the mixing of migrant workers (non- Jews) with the Jewish population, which is difficult to do in any democratic society in which mixed marriages exist. At the same time, state institutions began to be suspicious of non-Jewish foreign workers residing permanently in Israel. In the end, they are Gentiles, which raises fears of underming the Jewish nature of the state.
Arabs Against Discrimination (AAD) has monitored this phenomenon as it appears in the Israeli media, preparing a file that includes information about migrant workers in Israel, the difficult situation in which they live and their treatment by the Israeli state, which depends overwhelmingly on police methods in dealing with migrant workers.
Among the issues raised is the exploitation of migrant workers by Israeli companies, particularly contracting companies, which exploit workers' fear of deportation. At times, workers' passports are confiscated by private employers to prohibit them from moving beyond the work environment. Mixed marriages between Israeli citizens and foreign workers often go unrecognised and children of such marriages are not given citizenship or residency rights in Israel. This is in addition to the arrest of migrant workers by the Israeli police and their internment in camps and other facilities until they are deported from the country.
The Israeli media is filled with tragic stories involving those who came legally to Israel for work. Hundreds of women from Eastern and Central Europe have fallen prey to human traffickers, are forced into prostitution and are often locked up and the key thrown away. Men from Asia and Africa are often forced to leave Israel after having lost much of their dignity and humanity, deprived of even their most basic rights.
You can read more about migrant workers in Israel, including some of their own stories, on AAD's Web site in Arabic, English and French (www.aad-online.org).
