Friday, August 19, 2011

Occupy, colonize, exploit: the economic uses of the separation barrier

Occ. Pal. 19 Aug -- In the occupied territories people are divided into two groups -- masters and natives. The masters in the settlements have a certain law, Israeli, and they are subject to Israeli courts -- outside of Israel. They are an enclave floating over the occupied West Bank. So what happens when the Palestinian natives work for the masters in the settlements? Ostensibly, Israeli labor laws -- such as they are -- should apply to them: they must pay the minimum wage and respect some rights. But the employing masters in the settlements don’t want that: a native is a native, and his price -- the price of a native. 90 NIS (=$25) a day, 120 NIS ($34) a day: that’s how much is paid for hard work in the Solor gas industries factory. And the natives work. They work with hazardous materials – they work with bromide but without gas masks; in the paint department they work without ventilation and with deafening noise -- and they pay for this with serious damage to their health. All this has been documented by our friends in “Kav L’Oved” who have been accompanying the worker’s struggles for their rights here and in other settlements in the West Bank for years. On October 19, 2010, the workers went on strike.
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