Democratic Palestine : 16 (ص 14)
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- Democratic Palestine : 16 (ص 14)
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the Zionist state after the 1948 occupa-
tion, were ‘integrated’ into the Israeli
labor force. Segregation would be a
more correct description. Racist dis-
crimination barred them from many
white collar jobs, while security pretexts
ruled out employment in military and
other industries considered strategic by
the Zionist leadership. Other forms of
discrimination mitigated against the
Palestinians forming a stable, concen-
trated industrial proletariat. Industry was
not established in Palestinian com-
munities. Rather, Palestinians had to
commute to work sites placed according
to Israeli socioeconomic needs.
The Histadrut played a pivotal role
in this official policy. It controls 25% of
Israeli industry, but has not established
a single factory in Palestinian com-
munities. Though it runs hundreds of
vocational schools for Jews, there are
only two for Palestinian Arabs, showing
the intention to keep the latter in unskil-
led jobs. These discrepancies are obvi-
ous in the Galilee: Nazareth is the home
of 28,000 Palestinian workers, but has
no factories; 61% must commute to
work. In contrast, the nearby Jewish set-
tlement, Upper Nazareth, has a work
force of only 11,000, but 160 workplaces
and factories (A/ Fajr, June 21, 1985).
Institutionalized discrimination oc-
curs under many guises. Though Pales-
tinian workers in the Zionist state can
now hold health and unemployment
insurance, they are cut off from many
other benefits (especially in child sup-
port and housing) which are reserved for
those who have served in the Israeli
occupation army. No Palestinians live in
the 150,000 flats built by the Histadrut.
Palestinians are also subject to arbitrary
treatment when seeking to use benefits
to which they are entitled, due to the
racism of the Israeli officials and civil ser-
vants.
Pay is patently unequal. A repor-
tage in A/ Fajr, May 20, 1983, related a
typical pattern: «A young worker
described a situation in the Kitane fac-
tory in Beit Shan, inside the ‘green line’.
All the employees who worked there
manufacturing curtains were Israeli citi-
zens, half were Arabs with Israeli citizen-
ship. Men and women, both Arabs and
Jews, worked side by side at the same
machines but it was commonplace that
wages for Jewish men were the highest,
followed by Palestinian men, then
Jewish women and finally, at the bottom
of the heap one again - Palestinian
women...Following a series of labor dis-
putes led by Palestinians, and at the
insistence of the predominantly Jewish
workers’ council of the Histadrut, it was
decided that rather than bus in Arab vil-
lagers, the unemployed locals, all
Jewish, should have priority.»
That Palestinians in the Zionist
state are used as a cheap labor reserve
is seen even more clearly under the
impact of the economic crisis. By
January 1985, Nazareth’s unemploy-
ment was at 25%, among the highest in
‘Israel’. The number of unemployed in
Um al Fahm rose from 160 to 250 work-
ers from November to December 1984
alone. The head of the local council,
Hisham Mkhmid, protested that people
were being dismissed «merely because
they are Arabs.» Hundreds of Palesti-
nian Druze in Galilee villages are
unemployed after completing military
service, although the Zionist authorities
have tried to make the Druze community
feel privileged, in an attempt to divide the
Palestinians. 1985 was full of dismissals
of Palestinians, some long-time em-
ployees. The Histadrut doesn’t fight
such firings. On the contrary, it complies
in efforts to alleviate the economic crisis
without impinging on the privileged
status of Jewish workers.
The slogan «Jewish labor only»
was discarded in practice some time
ago, due to the needs of Israeli capitalist
growth, but with the economic crisis, it
was resurrected as a way of disciplining
Palestinian workers. Besides Kach's
violent attacks on Arab workers, this ten-
dency is supported by !sraeli officials,
such as Nasim Narah, head of the Israeli
National Insurance Association. In
October 1985, he declared that Palesti-
nian Arab workers in Tiberius restaur-
ants should be dismissed and replaced
by Jews.
To be continued...The next issue of
«Democratic Palestine» will contain the
conclusion of this article, focusing on
Palestinian workers in the 1967
occupied territories. @
JDEC — A Political Issue
With the Zionist occupation of the remainder of Palestinian lands in
1967, the authorities launched a campaign aimed at destroying the
Palestinian economic infrastructure. In recent years, the Jerusalem
District Electric Company (JDEC) has been targeted for liquidation.
Most recently, the IREC (Israeli
Regional Electric Company) has taken
legal measures to collect an $ 11 million
debt owed by the JDEC. If the Jerusalem
company doesn't pay its debt within the
next several weeks, it will be passed into
the hands of a court-appointed receiver.
This would mean confiscation of all its
funds in Israeli banks and the auctioning
off of other properties to pay the IREC.
In 1980, a similar attempt was made
when the occupation authorities de-
12
clared their intentions to liquidate the
JDEC once and for all, by purchasing all
its concessions. However, under the
pressure of local and international pro-
test, the Israeli High Court was forced to
modify the court order, allowing the
Ministry of Energy to purchase conces-
sions only for areas officially annexed to
the Zionist entity. The West Bank was
thus off limits.
Ever since the June 28, 1967 anne-
xation of Jerusalem to the Zionist entity,
the occupation authorities have worked
on a plan to take over the JDEC, along
with all Palestinian national institutions.
They started by confiscating the shares
in the company held by the Jerusalem
municipal council prior to the occupa-
tion, which amounted to 8.3% of the total
shares. This was followed by the depor-
tation of the president of the JDEC’s
administrative council, Rouhi al Khatib,
to Jordan. Two new members were - هو جزء من
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