Mick Hartley

Interesting interviews on, of all places, Al-Quds Al-Youm (Palestinian Islamic Jihad TV in Gaza) last week. These men are applying for permits to work in Israel. From MEMRI TV:

Transcript:

Ayman Abu Karim: "As I said, we have 223,000 unemployed people. Their prospects for employment are slim. New prospects for employment have emerged – work in Israel, the lands occupied in 1948. We are talking about the possibility of registering these workers. First, we announced that we are opening the registration. We are now talking about registering workers for employment opportunities in the occupied lands."

Man 1: "Our workers are not going [to Israel] in order to volunteer for the IDF or to become a fifth column. No! They are going in order to improve their economic situation, and survive, as you can see. Half the people are scattered abroad, and are completely lost. They might become Christians, or Catholics, or become collaborators of the CIA or the [Israeli] intelligence services and kill their own people. Remaining here and working inside the Green Line [Israel within the pre-1967 borders] is the lesser evil for Palestinians. It doesn’t even harm our people, it benefits our people, because while the conditions are harsh, and all the economies in the world are crashing, Israeli society is prospering, and we are close to Israeli society. I wish all our people worked inside the Green Line once again, so that we could build the cities that we once built, when Israel was occupying us."

Man 2: "If the opportunity [to work] in Israel opens up, it will be the best thing for the Palestinians, because the situation here is very tough. People are going to get moving, good thing are going to happen to them. Things are going to move here in Gaza. Gaza is linked to Israel, not to other countries around here, like Egypt and Jordan. It is linked to Israel and the West Bank."

Man 3: "I think that all the young people should go to Israel. If they allow us to go to Israel, we will go there, because there is no work in Gaza. You can see how things are here. If I get the chanve to go to Israel, I will. Our government should stand with us in this. The people are eating shit, the situation is tough."

Man 4: "People should go to work outside of Gaza, that is better for them. [In Israel] they get 400 shekels per day, while here it is 10-15 shekels. People in Gaza are fighting each other over worthless jobs. People here are going around with nothing to do. You can see people who don’t even have 10 shekels in their pockets. Life is very hard here in Gaza. What more can be said?

Man 5: "We support going to Israel to work. All the people who claim to be traders are not really traders. They are all workers. They obtain [trader] permits, but in reality they are workers. They go [to Israel] as if they were traders, but in reality they are workers. They go to Israel to work so they can provide for their children and their families. I work here for 20 shekels [per day], but I can earn 300-400 shekels per day in [Israel]. The wages [in Israel] are a lot better than those in Gaza. Gaza is good, it is not that it is not good, but you can earn a lot [in Israel]. You can earn a nice sum in a month, and then you go home and build your future. If your brother is about to get married, you can help him, or if you have a child that you want to send him to school, you can do that."

Man 6: "We hope that the relevant authorities put thing in order, so we can go to work in Israel, because it is very hard here. People work 12-14 hours in bakeries, falafel stands, and anywhere in Gaza, and earn 25 shekels per day. You can see for yourself how the drivers are doing. I have been working as a driver for 5-6 months, and I make 30-35 shekels per day, working from 7 or 8 in the morning until the evening call to prayer. I registered [to work in Israel], and I hope I will get a chance to do that."

It seems that Israel has loosened restrictions and increased the number of work permits for Gazans as a gesture in recognition of the continued quiet along the border.

Some Gazans are now studying Hebrew.

More from the Times of Israel last month:

Thousands of Gazans apply today for work permits for Israel, which has been reopening its gates to laborers from the Palestinian enclave following the latest military conflict in May.

In Jabalia, a refugee camp in northern Gaza, a crowd of men holding their identity papers lined up hoping to obtain a permit to work in Israel, AFP journalists say.

“There is no work in the Gaza Strip,” says Fathi Abu Nur, a 40-year-old unemployed man.