AhlulBayt News Agency: The General Federation of Palestinian Trade Unions announced that Israeli policies since the beginning of the genocidal war on Gaza have caused more than half a million Palestinian workers in the West Bank and Gaza to lose their livelihoods.
In a statement released on Saturday, the Federation condemned the systematic siege, ongoing closures, and daily raids endured by Palestinian workers in the occupied West Bank.
It stressed that these policies “constitute a compounded crime” against Palestinian workers and violate their natural right to employment and a dignified life.
The Federation explained that “over two years of continuous aggression have led to more than 500,000 Palestinian workers losing their income sources, with unemployment rates surpassing 50 percent in the West Bank and exceeding 84 percent in Gaza.”
It further noted that “economic losses suffered by Palestinian workers have surpassed $9 billion, due to being barred from workplaces inside the 1948 territories (Israel) and settlements, as well as the destruction of local productive sectors such as agriculture, construction, and services under the ongoing siege for the past 27 months.”
The Federation revealed that “44 workers have been killed and hundreds injured after being targeted by occupation forces with live fire at workplaces or while crossing the apartheid wall, in addition to the arrest of more than 34,000 workers.”
It held the Israeli occupation government “fully responsible for these massive financial losses and for the killing of dozens of Palestinian workers at checkpoints or by settler attacks, in clear violation of international labor conventions and the Geneva Conventions.”
The Federation called on the International Labor Organization, the International Trade Union Confederation, the Arab Trade Union Confederation, and free labor unions worldwide to “take urgent action to pressure the occupation authorities to stop collective punishment policies, guarantee freedom of movement and workplace access, provide international protection for workers, and hold the occupation accountable for crimes against the Palestinian working class.”
This comes as occupation forces and settlers have escalated attacks in the West Bank since the start of the genocidal war on Gaza two years ago, killing more than 1,100 Palestinians, injuring around 11,000, and arresting over 21,000.
Meanwhile, the genocidal war on Gaza has killed approximately 71,000 Palestinians and wounded 171,000, mostly women and children, with massive destruction and reconstruction costs estimated by the United Nations at $70 billion.
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