The Israeli police carried out recently a large-scale arrest campaign against Palestinian workers in 1948 occupied Palestine and the West Bank.
According to the Hebrew media the Israeli police arrested last week 284 workers with no work permits inside Israel and West Bank areas and 78 citizens accused of hiring them transporting them and providing them with lodging.
52 of those workers were arrested in Israeli-controlled West Bank areas.
According to Israeli human rights group B’Tselem many Palestinian workmen have no choice but to risk entering Israel without permits.
“They are caught between a rock and hard place: On one hand Israel issues permits sparingly based on arbitrarily chosen stringent criteria. On the other hand it prevents the development of an independent Palestinian economy by restricting imports exports industrial development and movement and by taking over land reserves and other Palestinian resources. This leaves Palestinians with no possibility to make a substantial living within the West Bank. This reality serves Israeli interests as it guarantees cheap [and] disempowered labor” B’Tselem says.
