-Caveat Lector-
>From http://www.metimes.com/2K2/issue2002-31/methaus.htm
Israelis idle as foreign laborers do the work
By Christopher Slaney, Special to the Middle East Times JERUSALEM
PALESTINIAN BOYS LOOK FOR COVER AS ISRAELI TANKS FIRE DURING THEIR RAID TO THE NORTH OF
GAZA STRIP ON MONDAY AFTER PALESTINIAN GUNMEN SHELLED THEM WITH MORTAR MISSILES.
In a report just out from the Bank of Israel, it emerges that half of all Israelis
of working age are simply not
part of the work force. For a country already in the grip of unemployment, led by a
government unable to
agree on a plan to rescue the economy, this latest statistic is a shocker.
Reading the small print of the report, it turns out the folks at the Bank of Israel
count anyone over the age of
15 "of working age," a bit of fuzzy math in a society where few teenagers leave school
before age 18.
Nevertheless, the bank's findings break down as follows: 2.4 million Israelis are not
working. Of these, 2.2
million are not even looking for work. In the 25- 64 age group, generally considered
to be the most
productive years, close to a million are idle.
To get people back to work, the bank recommends a series of measures similar to those
already tabled by the
government as part of its rescue plan. Job number one, the bank and the cabinet agree,
is the repatriation
of legions of foreign laborers. These men and women, it seems, are the ones who
actually do much of the
work in Israel.
On Sunday morning my wife wanted to have breakfast in a cafe overlooking the sea in
Herzliya, north of Tel
Aviv. I parked near a huge construction site where I could hear the workers shouting
to each other and
chatting on a nearby pay phone. They were all speaking Romanian.
After breakfast, I got stuck behind a garbage truck making its rounds. The driver
looked like an Israeli but the
guys picking up and emptying the bins were either from Ukraine or Moldova.
Waiting for a light to turn green, I watched a contractor supervise a gang of Chinese
laborers who were
tidying up the flowerbeds in a small public park.
This phenomenon is not unique to the up-market suburb of Herzliya. A recent trip into
the Negev desert
revealed communities where there are so many Thais working on farms that road signs
like "Low bridge
ahead" and "Danger when flooded" have been translated into the Thai language.
Country stores are stocked with noodles and sauces from Bangkok, and Thai television
channels are available
on local cable.
Officially there are 150,000 foreign workers in Israel. That is 150,000 men and women
who have been
brought to the country by personnel agencies, have valid work permits, and will return
to Asia or Eastern
Europe when their short- term contracts expire.
In reality, tens of thousands prefer to disappear from the farms and construction
sites where they are
supposed to be working, overstay their visas and go underground.
Israeli officials familiar with the situation reckon there are probably over 300,000
foreigners working in the
country. Few if any are idle, fewer still are paying income tax.
These people have traveled far to make a modest income and send home as much of it as
they can. If there
was no work, they'd up and leave in a flash.
A run-down area in south Tel Aviv is a magnet for foreigners who stay on illegally. On
July 17 a pair of
suicidal Palestinian terrorists detonated bombs there near a popular cafe. Two of the
five dead and most of
the 140 wounded were foreign laborers.
Rescue workers could not persuade some of the injured to get into ambulances: they had
no papers and
feared deportation.
The government of Ariel Sharon is in a bind. It knows this situation is unhealthy and
will lead to even bigger
problems.
Many illegal foreigners are concentrating themselves in ghettos. Although they are
generally hard working
and law-abiding, some are raising families. Their children have neither documents nor
nationality and fall
outside the Israeli systems of health care and education.
The cabinet recently took a decision to deport 50,000 illegals without delay, but at
the same time personnel
agencies are flying in another 50,000 the agricultural sector says it cannot do
without.
The prime minister has first-hand knowledge of this dilemma; Sharon is himself a
farmer and employs 16 Thai
workers on his ranch near Ashkelon.
The foreigners fill the jobs Israelis are unwilling to do for poor wages. Cheap Asian
labor lets farmers in the
Jordan Valley and northern Negev export products competitively priced for European
markets.
Apart from 2.2 million Israelis there is another huge group of people who are not
working. Around 300,000
Palestinian men of working age have seen neither a pay slip, nor a dole check, for six
months. Somewhere in
the background are hundreds of thousands of families subsisting on charity handouts.
Some of these men used to work in Israel at the same jobs now filled by Thais and
Romanians.
As part of an easing of restrictions imposed on the Palestinian civilian population,
Israel has announced it will
issue 12,000 travel permits to laborers in the West Bank and Gaza. The plan is for the
Palestinians to reclaim
their old jobs as the foreigners are rounded up and deported. Israelis hope they will
go quietly.
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