Palestinian Jobs in Settlements: Vital, Illegal

MODI'IN ILLIT, West Bank (June 23) -- Younnes Salah, a tall, broad-shouldered Palestinian father of five, spends his days building new homes for Jewish settlers in this ultra-Orthodox West Bank settlement. He says he'd rather be building homes for his own people, but for him and thousands of other Palestinians, practical considerations win out over patriotic ones.

"There is no alternative whatsoever in the Palestinian areas," Salah told AOL News as temperatures of more than 100 degrees baked the construction site, where he supervises 50 Palestinian laborers and brings home $1,300 a month. "I have to bring food to the table. I have a 5-year-old daughter who needs special medical treatment. Where could I make this much money anywhere else?"

That's no idle question, since Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad last month announced a new law making it illegal to work in Jewish settlements.

Israeli officials say there are 25,000 Palestinians working in Jewish settlements, most in construction. Salah says that number is too low, as it does not include temporary workers who sneak in through back roads because they lack the special permits needed to enter settlements openly.

Palestinian Authority statistics show that each worker supports 10 family members, meaning at least 250,000 Palestinians in the West Bank are dependent on these jobs.

Fayyad says the Palestinian Authority plans to offset those earnings with a $50 million fund to provide employment alternatives.

"The idea is to disconnect economically from the settlements," Deputy Labor Minister Hassan Al-Khatib told AOL News in an interview in his office in Ramallah. "By 2011, we hope there will be nobody working in the settlements."

But when pressed for details about when the fund will start paying out, Khatib is vague. He says the fund will merge with an existing fund to tackle unemployment, which is about 25 percent in the West Bank and 40 percent in Gaza.

Workers in Modi'in Illit say they've heard about the fund, but they won't leave their jobs until they know they have an alternative.

"If they are capable of providing proper work for us with a good wage, I will leave my job here tomorrow," Salah said. "But I do not want to hear they're offering $100 or $150 a month. That won't work for us."

The efforts to get Palestinians to stop working in the settlements is part of a larger push to boycott Jewish settlements and their products. The settlements, with their population of 300,000 Israelis, are built on land that the Palestinians say must be part of the future Palestinian state.

Palestinian officials have published a list of hundreds of products made in Jewish settlements -- from furniture to ice cream -- that Palestinians are asked not to buy. Last month, thousands of university students went door to door asking Palestinians to sign a pledge not to buy settlement products. Those who signed received stickers that read, "My conscience is clear. I have no settlement products in my house."

Israeli officials estimate Palestinians buy about $200 million worth of settlement goods, so the boycott could hurt settlement-based firms, especially small ones. Business owners caution that Palestinians will be hurt as well: If the boycott succeeds, settlement businesses will cut back on labor, including Palestinian labor. But many Palestinians say that sacrifice is necessary as a matter of national pride.

"I've seen children reading the fine print on products to see where it's manufactured, and that means this campaign is succeeding," says Hafez Barghouti, the editor-in-chief of the Palestinian newspaper al-Hayat al-Jadida. "This is the only way for us to feel we are getting our dignity back."

The boycott campaign has been effective because alternative goods manufactured in Israel or the West Bank are available. But getting Palestinians to quit their jobs will be a much tougher sell. The law that makes it a crime to work in a settlement threatens violators with prison terms and up to $14,000 in fines. Deputy Labor Minister al-Khatib says it won't be enforced until at least 2011.

Back in Modi'in Illit, Salah says the Israeli contractor is pressuring him to build faster, afraid that U.S. pressure on Israel to stop settlement expansion might put the project on hold. He works his men hard and says the four apartment buildings, each with 22 apartments, should be completed by the end of the year. After that, his own fate, and those of his workers, is unclear.