Israel looted tens of millions of shekels from Palestinian workers

Jerusalem24 – The Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, has looted tens of millions of shekels from Palestinian workers over the past 50 years. This was done by deducting an amount from their salaries over the course of several years.

According to a report published today, the Jerusalem District Court decided that the deduction of these amounts was against the law. However, the Israeli authorities exempted themselves from compensating the workers through termination notices they submitted to the court. The report indicated that the Israeli government in 1970, deducted a welfare allowance of 0.75% from the salaries of Palestinian workers in agricultural sectors and transferred the funds to the General Labor Union (or Histadrut).

This went on for the past 50 years, while the Palestinian workers were not a party to the deal under the pretense that they were not members of the Histadrut. Hence, the deduction was considered a violation of Israeli law under the Paycheck Protection Act.

Haaretz reported that the sums were deducted from tens of thousands of Palestinian workers, amounting to tens of millions of shekels every year, and were transferred to the Histadrut in violation of the law. Fines reaching the tens of thousands of shekels were imposed on employers who did not deduct these sums from their workers’ salaries.

Last year, the associations “Ma’an,” and the Worker’s Adress filed a lawsuit against this procedure at the Israeli Labor Court, stating that Palestinian workers did not receive compensation for the huge sums they paid; as the Israeli authorities do not recognize the Palestinian Trade Unions, while the Histadrut did not allow Palestinian workers to be members of it.