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Gaza – On 8/08/2024, the Democracy and Workers’ Rights Center held a workshop at PNGO office in central Gaza to discuss a field study on “Gender-Based Violence in the World of Work, and the Effects of Israel’s War on Women’s Exposure to Violence & Harassment in the Gaza Strip since October 2023″ conducted by researcher Louay Joudeh for DWRC. The workshop was attended by 35 participants in presence and online.

The field study was conducted with two different samples to capture the situation in workplaces in the Gaza Strip before the start of the war, and the various forms of violence to which women have been exposed since October 7, 2023. The first sample included 203 women in employment before the war in the public sector, the private and non-governmental organizations’ sector, UNRWA, women business owners, self-employed women, and those working in family businesses without financial compensation. The second sample included 200 women, who had been in employment before the war or without employment. Both samples included women with disabilities. The researcher also conducted interviews and focus group meetings to complement the quantitative data.

The study findings indicated that 56.2% of the sample of women in employment before the war experienced violence from a work supervisor or a colleague or another person in the framework of their work before the war. The most common forms of violence women were exposed to were verbal violence (47.4%), followed by economic violence (30.7%) and electronic violence (17.5%), while 4.4% indicated that they were subjected to physical violence. More than half of working women in this sample (64%) said that there are deterrent policies against perpetrators of violence and harassment in the workplace, and 60.8% of them that they are implemented with well-studied and deterrent mechanisms. 30.5% of surveyed working women do not have psychological, physical, material and electronic well-being, organized offices, separate bathrooms and privacy in the workplace. 62.5% of workers surveyed lost their jobs due to the war and its effects, and 81.5% said they have not received any cash assistance and have not participated in livelihood programs during the war. 83.8% of the women workers in the sample used to earn less than the Palestinian minimum wage of 1880 shekels per month.

93% of the women in the second study sample have been displaced. The vast majority have obtained no services: 80.5% said they received no health services or women hygiene products (none said they do not need them), 91% that they obtained no psychological support services, and 83.5% that they received no legal services. 78% declared there are no safe spaces for women where they have been displaced. 64% of the women surveyed have been exposed to violence in shelters, workplaces, and when receiving aid and other services since the start of the war on Gaza. Half of them experienced verbal violence, 35.8% economic violence, 8.8% physical violence and harassment, and 5.4% electronic violence. Most of them have been subjected to this violence continuously (70.3%). 62% said there were no mechanisms to submit complaints against perpetrators of violence, and 26% said they did not know if there were any such mechanisms. Only 11.7% have submitted complaints against perpetrators of violence and/or harassment, and less than half were satisfied with the outcome (40%). 85.5% of women feel uncomfortable (psychologically, physically, and financially) and face the lack of a sufficient number of separate bathrooms and privacy, where they have been displaced. 93.5% said there is an insufficient number of bathrooms and 72% that there were no specific bathrooms for women.

Findings also indicated that 75.5% of the women surveyed in the second study sample have been exposed to violence by the Israeli occupying power since the war has started. Women were exposed to multiple forms of violence; 95.3% had their homes destroyed, 62.3% lost children and relatives, 62.3% lost their jobs, 49.7% were subjected to ill-treatment by the Israeli occupation, 35.9% were injured, 14.6% were exposed to other forms of violence (psychological violence due to communications from the Israeli occupation, physical violence, deprivation from medical care and food), and 13.2% were detained.

A first set of recommendations concerns steps needed to improve women’s situation in the world of work and address violence and harassment. Such steps include activating workplace policies and holding perpetrators of violence accountable, having effective complaints mechanisms, and ensuring the implementation of the minimum wage in the Gaza Strip. All women, who have lost their jobs or means of earning an income due to the war, should be financially compensated for the loss of their source of livelihood to ensure their right to live in dignity. A second set of recommendations concerns steps for protecting women from heightened levels of violence since the war started; these include intensifying efforts to ensure that women have access to basic services and amenities, developing protection mechanisms and encouraging women to lodge complaints. The study also mentioned the importance of filing complaints at the international level against the Israeli occupying power, which has perpetrated multiple forms of violence against Palestinian women, and seeking compensation for the victims.

This study is part of the project for “Contributing to Gender Justice and Women’s Human Rights in the Middle East” implemented in partnership with Fundació Pau i Solidaritat – CCOO Catalunya and funded by the Government of Catalonia and the Catalan Agency for Development Cooperation.

Ramallah, 30/05/2024 – The Democracy and Workers’ Rights Center, in cooperation with EducAid, and in coordination with the National Coalition for Advocating for Women’s Right to Decent Work, the “My Right” Coalition, implemented on May 29, 2024, a policy dialogue session on the rights of women with disabilities in the world of work, which aimed at highlighting the opportunities and challenges facing women with disabilities, how to improve their employment opportunities, and the importance of supporting official bodies and society in providing decent and safe job opportunities to women with disabilities. Among the session’s recommendations participants addressed the need to activate the existing governmental programs to develop the work environment for all types and levels of disability; for the General Personnel Council to mandate governmental institutions to develop facilitating measures to help persons with disabilities to access job opportunities and then carry out related tasks; developing the transportation system and ensuring that persons with disabilities can access training and rehabilitation centers, and workplaces; work to provide more detailed information about the status of persons with disabilities and their employment; raise community awareness to create an inclusive culture of people with disabilities; inclusion of persons with disabilities in cooperatives; harmonize the legislation, policies, and programs in line with the needs of people with disabilities.

Media researcher, Ms. Lubna Al-Ashqar, opened the session by stating that the participation rate of women with disabilities in the Palestinian labor market, does not exceed 4%. Ms. Hadeel Shehadeh, from the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, addressed challenges facing women with disabilities in relation to employment in the private sector including law wages, and the public sector including the weak capabilities of governmental institutions in dealing with various forms of disabilities. She said: “it is important to address gaps in relation to absence of enabling measures that allow persons with disabilities to perform their duties at work, which negatively reflect on their ability to qualify for certain benefits and promotions”. She added: “in 2022, there were 1,055 female and male governmental employees with disabilities, but that there are no women with disabilities in senior positions”.

Mrs. Abeer Hamad, representative of the Star Mountain Rehabilitation Center, spoke about the most important obstacles and challenges facing persons with disabilities in different life aspects, and shared through a video successful experiences related to vocational rehabilitation and employment of persons with mental disabilities, including women, in Palestinian factories, and employers’ positive evaluation of their employees. Mrs. Lama Awad, Head of the Gender Unit at the Ministry of Labor and Rapporteur of the National Committee for Women’s Employment, began her intervention by stressing “the necessity of working with the General Personnel Bureau and the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics to provide detailed data about persons with disabilities, especially women with disabilities, employed in the governmental sector, and to work in a participatory manner and through complementary roles” and involve the private sector in creating jobs for persons with disabilities. She presented the most important obstacles and challenges facing governmental departments in developing policies and systems to protect and integrate persons with disabilities, as well as the challenges facing persons with disabilities in the public sector. She indicated that there is progress fostering access to job opportunities in the governmental sector through allocating special jobs and advertisements for persons with disabilities. She talked about the creation of a National Technical and Vocational Education and Training Commission (NTC) and pointed to the opportunity to provide comments and suggestions to be included in its system and policies to ensure the activation of its role in supporting access and integration of people with disabilities in education and vocational training. Ms. Nibal Abu Hijleh, Director of the Lending Department at the Palestinian Employment Fund, said: “the Fund’s role and programs aimed at creating job opportunities and fostering professional development and self-employment through providing grants and soft loans”. She added: “we have specific mechanism for supporting the income-generating projects of persons with disabilities”.Mr. Ibrahim Burnat from EducAid gave a brief introduction about the organization, its activities, and its programs in support of persons with disabilities. Then, Ms. Amira Abu Arqoub and Ms. Walaa Al-Jamal, two women with disabilities, talked about their successful experiences of working for the organization, the challenges and obstacles they faced, and the mechanism for overcoming them.

This event is part of the project: “Gender Equality in the Economic Sphere: Our Right, Our Priority”, which is implemented by DWRC in partnership with Italian NGOs, COSPE and EducAid, and the Palestinian Working Woman Society for Development (PWWSD), and is funded by the European Union.

Ramallah – 1 May 2024 – As workers worldwide have commemorated May Day by reaffirming their demands for the respect of their fundamental rights, Palestinian workers have continued to experience death, injury, displacement, fear and the inability to care for and protect their families. This May Day, we have been mourning thousands of professionals in key sectors for the Palestinian economy and Palestinian society, in health, education, culture, the media, sports, law and engineering, and many other professions and occupations. As many remain buried under the rubble, mass graves continue to be uncovered, and findings of attempts at identification and investigations are pending, the true extent of these unbearable losses and the crimes that have been committed against Palestinians in Gaza, including health workers, are yet to be brought to light. Devastating losses have also been accompanied by a worsening of the socio-economic situation in the entire occupied Palestinian territories, as Israeli repression, collective punishment and colonization policies have increased significantly in the West Bank, adding yet more brutality to an already highly coercive environment aimed at forcing Palestinians to leave their lands.

Since October 7, 2023, the unemployment rate among the Palestinian labor force has risen sharply, from an average of 24% before the war to an estimated 50% or more in the first months of 2024. Latest ILO estimates based on data from the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) were that the number of unemployed reached over half a million as of January 31^st, 2024. As most of the Gaza Strip has been turned to rubble during seven months of relentless Israeli bombings, shelling and ground assaults, 201,000 jobs or 71% of employment had been estimated as lost in Gaza, as well as 306,000 jobs in the West Bank. The closure of the Israeli labor market to most West Bank workers has caused an immediate and exponential increase of unemployment among male workers. PCBS indicated that the percentage of West Bank wage workers employed in Israel and Israeli settlements dropped from 26.6% in the third quarter of 2023 to 5% in the fourth quarter of 2023. The number of employed persons in the local market in the West Bank decreased by about 8% and the percentage of wage workers paid less than the Palestinian minimum wage, which is over three times lower than the Israeli minimum wage, increased from 12% to 15%. It should be noted that 45% of women wage workers in the West Bank were paid less than the minimum wage in 2022, compared to 13% of men. The current situation is likely to exacerbate issues inherent to the Palestinian labor market, which is a captive market subject to the whims and policies of the Israeli Occupying Power, such low labor market participation of women, high unemployment among women and youth, especially the most educated, low wages in local establishments and feminized occupations, and high informality of employment. In the fourth quarter of 2023, informal employment concerned 56% of employed persons in the West Bank.

Already prior to the current war on Gaza, Israel’s decades-long regime of settler-colonial occupation and apartheid, financed and armed by the US, doomed the Palestinian economy to stagnation at best, and recurrent phases of de-development, and robbed Palestinian workers of having their own sovereign and democratic state that can be held accountable for its social and economic policies. Despite the bitter losses, the shattered dreams and the failure of the international community to protect the most basic rights of Palestinians and enforce international law, more than ever, Palestinian workers aspire to and are determined to achieve freedom and independence in their homeland.

DWRC calls on workers and unions worldwide, labor movements and parties, to stand with the Palestinian people to stop this genocidal war, forced displacement and ethnic cleansing, and end Israel’s settler-colonial occupation, which cannot and should not continue to be accepted as if it were a “fait accompli”.  

We are deeply grateful to all those, who have been speaking up and holding solidarity actions for the past months. Your engagement is an engagement for peace and humanity, and it will not be forgotten. We call on those, who have been silent, to join them. International human rights and humanitarian law must be upheld at all times and in all circumstances. We demand nothing more, and nothing less.  

Ramallah – 28 April 2024 – Since October 7, 2023, the occupied Palestinian territories and in particular the Gaza Strip have become the most dangerous and deadliest place on earth for journalists and media workers, health workers, civil defense workers, United Nations staff members, and humanitarian aid workers in general, on and off duty. There have been numerous incidents of journalists, paramedics, other health professionals and relief aid workers being directly and deliberately targeted by the Israeli armed forces, while performing their professional duties of reporting about the situation or attempting to save lives, and being subject to various forms of abuse, including during military assaults and occupation of hospitals. In fact, WHO has reported 435 health attacks in the Gaza Strip and 421 in the West Bank by April 2nd, 2024. Off duty, the continued indiscriminate bombing and shelling of civilian facilities, including hospitals, homes and designated shelters for displaced persons have caused hundreds of deaths among professionals in these sectors, as well as many other vital sectors in the Gaza Strip. Thousands have been injured, and hundreds have been forcibly disappeared by the Israeli occupying forces. Those who have been released after being held incommunicado for varying periods of times have given horrifying accounts of torture and systematic mistreatment of detainees, which are substantiated by the physical state of released detainees, often extremely emaciated and suffering from various injuries.

Utter disrespect for the rules of international humanitarian law by the Israeli Occupying Power has caused an unprecedented number of casualties among media professionals and humanitarian workers. This sets an extremely dangerous precedent that could have negative consequences for all workers operating in conflict and war zones. UN OCHA has reported that at least 251 aid workers had been killed since October 7, 2023, including 245 Palestinians and 6 foreign nationals. These include: 183 UN staff (UNRWA: 180; WHO: 1; UNDP: 1; UNOPS: 1), 27 Palestinian Red Crescent Society staff and volunteers, including 17 killed while on duty, and at least 41 other aid workers. In addition, 490 health workers have been killed, and 310 forcibly disappeared according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza. The same sources indicate that 67 civil defense staff have been killed on duty, and 140 journalists and media workers.

Other professions have also registered terrible losses. The Ministry of Education and Higher Education has reported that 296 educational staff of schools and 90 staff members of universities have been killed, and that over 1990 have been injured. The Ministry of Culture and PCBS indicated that 45 writers, artists, and cultural heritage activists had been killed by mid-March 2024. While the total number of legal professionals killed remains unknown, on International Women’s Day, the Bar Association mourned 10 Palestinian female lawyers killed in Gaza. Fishermen and farmers are trying to continue or resume their work amidst an acute lack of food for Gaza’s population despite the constant risk of being killed or injured by Israeli fire. 

Due to heightened Israeli repression, military operations and Israeli settler attacks (under full protection of the Israeli occupying forces) against Palestinians and their property, workers are not safe either in the West Bank, particularly since Israeli soldiers and civilians enjoy a near total impunity for any acts committed against Palestinians. The hundreds of checkpoints, metal gates, cement blocks and earth barriers erected by the Israeli Occupying Power between Palestinian localities and at all their entrances considerably restrict the movement of Palestinians within the occupied West Bank and render any trip, including to and from work, a lengthy and unsafe ordeal; access to East Jerusalem has become almost impossible for Palestinian ID holders. Daily Israeli incursions and recurrent military operations into Palestinian cities, villages and refugee camps have resulted in widespread damages and destruction of infrastructure, businesses and homes. A rapid assessment conducted by DWRC with workers in the West Bank in March 2024 indicated that half the respondents have faced restrictions in commuting to and from their workplaces, 24.6% reported having been targeted or deliberately attacked by Israeli soldiers, and 10.6% reported being assaulted by Israeli occupation soldiers at work or in their workplace. Between October 7, 2023, and 31 March 31^st, 2024, OCHA recorded 1,096 settler attacks against Palestinians. Farmers, herding and Bedouin communities are particularly at risk of being attacked to force them to leave their lands. Many farmers were prevented from harvesting their olive trees last autumn, while one olive farmer was killed. Since October 7, 2023, 23 herding and Bedouin communities, comprising 1,227 people, including 494 children, have been forcibly displaced (OCHA).

This year’s chosen theme for the World Day for Safety and Health at Work 2024 was climate change and safety and health at work. Sadly, this is not a topic we are able to focus on right now. Palestinian workers may face the impact and consequences of the climate change crisis too, especially as its effects are exacerbated by the Israeli Occupying Power’s confiscation of Palestinian land and other natural resources, and the environmental pollutions and degradation generated by decades of occupation and military operations, including the devastating effects of the current war, but right now, Palestinian workers are facing a survival crisis. In Gaza, the vast majority of homes (60%) and workplaces have been destroyed or damaged, as well as key water, sanitation and solid waste disposal infrastructure, causing an acute lack of access to clean drinking water and the rapid spread of waterborne and infectious diseases, such as diarrhea, hepatitis A, and chickenpox, particularly among over 1.3 million displaced persons living in overcrowded and sweltering tents or self-built shelters in makeshift sites in southern Gaza. Chronic to acute malnutrition and the destruction of most of the healthcare facilities render people, especially young children, the elderly and the ill, particularly vulnerable to disease outbreaks. The Israeli Occupying Power has also created an increasingly coercive environment in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, aiming at accelerating the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians through making it impossible for them to live and earn a livelihood in safety and dignity.

Therefore, we call upon the international community to take immediate measures to impose a ceasefire in Gaza and provide international protection to the Palestinian people in the entire occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem. The international community should ensure that the rules of international humanitarian law are applied by enforcing sanctions for systematic and grave violations, including those that are committed against media and humanitarian workers, and end Israel’s impunity that has made such widespread violations possible. We also call on trade unions and civil society worldwide to continue mobilizing in solidarity and support of Palestinian workers, and to advocate for enhanced protections for workers in conflict/war situations, particularly media and humanitarian workers.

Ramallah –08/03/2024 – International Women’s Day 2024 will be saddest on record for Palestinians in the midst of the ongoing mass killing, maiming, displacement and starvation of the population of the Gaza Strip by the Israeli Occupying Power. On January 26^th, 2024, the International Court of Justice’s landmark ruling found it plausible that Israel’s acts could amount to genocide and issued six precautionary measures. Despite the ICJ ruling, the situation in Gaza has continued to worsen.

UN Women’s latest estimates are that over 9,000 Palestinian women have been killed by Israeli bombing, shelling and sniper fire in Gaza, with countless still missing, as well as thousands of girls. Overall, more than 5% of Gaza’s population has been killed, injured or is missing. Over 3000 women may have become widows, and are new heads of households and sole providers for their children, while having no source of income. Around 1 million women and girls have been displaced. 37 mothers are killed every day in Gaza and 155,000 women are pregnant or breastfeeding. As the overwhelming majority of Gaza hospitals and medical facilities have become non-operational or remained barely functional due to repeated Israeli attacks, destructions, lack of fuel and supplies, many pregnant women have been forced to give birth in the most unsanitary and unsafe conditions imaginable. According to PCBS, 60 thousand women in Gaza are currently pregnant, and 15% of them are most likely to suffer from complications during and after giving birth. Miscarriages have increased by 300%.

UN Women also stated that “More than 4 out of 5 women (84 per cent) report that their family eats half or less of the food they used to before the war began, with mothers and adult women being those tasked with sourcing food, yet eating last, less, and least than everyone else.” As a consequence of the general famine caused by Israeli measures, which include severely restricting entry of international humanitarian aid into Gaza and its distribution to northern Gaza areas, fifteen infants have already died of malnutrition and dehydration at Kamal Adwan hospital in North Gaza. Prior to the war on Gaza, women in the West Bank and Gaza were facing multiple forms of violence and discrimination, but nothing can compare to the level of violence against Palestinians in general and women in particular since October 7, 2023.

UN experts have denounced the deliberate targeting and extrajudicial killing of Palestinian women and children, the arbitrary detention of hundreds of Palestinian women and girls, and the use of sexual violence against Palestinian women detained by Israel, saying “We are particularly distressed by reports that Palestinian women and girls in detention have also been subjected to multiple forms of sexual assault, such as being stripped naked and searched by male Israeli army officers. At least two female Palestinian detainees were reportedly raped while others were reportedly threatened with rape and sexual violence […]” The UN experts also expressed concern over the fact that “an unknown number of Palestinian women and children, including girls, have reportedly gone missing after contact with the Israeli army in Gaza”.

Countless dreams and hopes of a better future have been shattered. Prior to the war, due to the crushing impact of the blockade, less than one woman of working age out of 10 in Gaza was in employment, with a labor force participation of 16.5% and an unemployment rate of 67.7%, and now most of them have lost their jobs or their businesses, workshops and tools during the massive destruction of residential and commercial areas. Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor indicates that 2,120 industrial facilities have been destroyed since the start of the war until March 5. A 37-year-old divorced mother, Samaher, who sought refuge in Rafah after losing two of her children, said: “Me and my children did not get enough food, I had to work under these conditions in displacement camps. Now I am cutting children’s and women’s hair earning an equivalent of 40 shekels per day”. Another beauty salon worker, Wafa, had finally managed to open her own hair salon after working for many years as an employee. She spent about 20,000 US$ in renting a space, remodeling, buying equipment and supplies, adding to pre-existing debts for fertility treatments that enabled her to conceive a child after twenty years. She said: “Unfortunately, this dream quickly evaporated after the seventh of October, when the entire store was bombed and my house was bombed. At that time, I was displaced in Rafah and was not even able to recover anything from the store. I am now homeless, with no housing and no source of income. We face suffering and difficulty to obtain anything these days, and the extremely high prices deprive us of the most basic components of our rights to food, water, housing and work.”

As we share in the commemoration of women’s rights-based struggles worldwide, we ask our sisters and brothers, our comrades and colleagues in trade unions and fellow civil society organizations to continue speaking out and pursue their actions for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, and for liberation, justice, peace and security for Palestinian women and men.

On this special day, we call on all States and international organizations to fulfill their obligations under international law, and first and foremost secure a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, ensure that all required humanitarian aid reaches Gaza’s population, and that a recovery process can start as soon as possible.

Ramallah – 20/02/2024 – On the World Day for Social Justice, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip continued to face the most destructive war in recent history, without any hope of relief or finding a safe area. Nine out of ten Palestinians in Gaza are experiencing hunger, eight out of ten have been internally displaced, and about 110,000 have been injured, killed or are missing. A quarter of Gaza households are starving. For most of those who have survived until now, there are no homes to go back to, 60% of housing units have been damaged or destroyed. Factories, farms, shops, places of worship, schools, universities, medical facilities have been damaged or razed to the ground. Many areas of Gaza literally look like ground zero. Gaza’s children have already lost half a school year, while schools have become overcrowded shelters for the internally displaced. 17,000 children are estimated to be unaccompanied or separated from their parents, and many have to fend for themselves, as no surviving relatives have been found yet.

Prior to the war, over half the population in Gaza was living in poverty, 80% were already aid-dependent, and the unemployment rate reached 45% (68% for women and 73% for young graduates) due to the blockade imposed on Gaza since 2006. 93% of those employed as wage workers in the private sector in Gaza earned about 2.5 times less than the Palestinian monthly minimum wage, which itself is three times lower than the minimum wage in Israel. The average daily wage was 31 shekels in the private sector. Thus, most of Gaza’s working people were living from day to day on meager wages, without any savings or resources to deal with emergencies. Almost all economic activities have now been halted for four months. Those who have continued working, such as health workers, humanitarian workers, journalists, have done so at great risk for their lives. The poorest of the poor are the most affected. Any remaining food commodities are sold at exorbitant prices that few can afford. In the West Bank, 32% of jobs had been lost by the end of November 2023 as per ILO estimates. Prior to the war, the unemployment rate was 13%. The vast majority of Palestinian workers in Israel have been prevented from returning to their jobs by Israeli governmental decision, without having the benefit of unemployment allowances, as Israeli workers do. Workers in other sectors have been affected too, due to a generalized halt down or slowing of economic activities, such as in the tourism sector. Governmental sector workers have been affected by even greater salary cuts since the war started due to the growing fiscal deficit driven by withholding of increasing amounts from the monthly remittances that Israel should transfer to the Palestinian Authority.

While the absolute priority remains an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, in order to preserve lives and allow humanitarian aid to reach the 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza, who depend on it for their very survival, this unprecedented human rights and humanitarian crisis should be a wakeup call. Rules of law are only effective if there is a commitment to abide by them and enforce them on all parties and all actors, and this is also valid for international law. Blatant double standards in the application of international law erode the credibility of the entire system, and seriously jeopardize the pursuit of international peace and security, economic and social progress, and the realization of fundamental rights for all. Decade after decade, the Israeli Occupying Power has been allowed to commit grave violations of international humanitarian law, and systematically violate the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of Palestinians in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, without being held to account. This has resulted in a deepening of inequalities and discrimination for Palestinians, and a worsening of socio-economic indicators in the context of a captive economy subjected to the restrictions and collective punishment measures imposed by the Occupying Power.

Settler colonial occupation, and the necessary system of oppression and repression that allows it to sustain itself and expand, is truly incompatible with the pursuit of social justice, as it contravenes all its underlying principles. On February 19^th, 2024, the International Court of Justice started its proceedings to examine the legal consequences of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem at the request of the UN General Assembly. Although non-binding, we hope that when the court renders its opinion, it will guide the international community towards finally taking actual measures to end the occupation and ensure that Palestinians are able to exercise their inalienable human rights, including the right to self-determination.

As an organization established to defend workers’ rights and promote social justice, the Democracy and Workers’ Rights Center in Palestine has striven for the past thirty years to empower female and male workers in the occupied Palestinian territories and beyond to defend and advance their rights. We are now facing the most severe and daunting challenges ever in our work, but with the support and solidarity of our partners, we are committed to continue serving and supporting our target groups, our partner unions and organizations under all circumstances, for the realization of the right to decent work and a decent life, and ending all forms of inequality and discrimination.

We are deeply grateful and appreciative of all the solidarity actions that have already taken place around the world, and we call on the international labor movement, labor organizations and other progressive forces to pursue their mobilization for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, the recognition of the State of Palestine by countries that have failed to do so until now, and the end of the decades-long Israeli occupation and oppression.

Ramallah – 25/10/2023 – The Democracy and Workers’ Rights Center in Palestine denounces the continued illegal detention of an estimated 4000 Palestinian workers from the Gaza Strip by Israel, and calls upon the international community and the international labor movement to intervene for their immediate release.

Since October 7, 2023, Israeli police and border guards have been arresting Gazan workers and detaining them in police station and then in army camps in crowded, unsanitary conditions, often withholding food and water for long periods of time according to the testimonies of workers, who have been subsequently released and deported to the West Bank[1]. On October 10, Israel collectively cancelled about 18,500 work permits of Palestinian workers from the Gaza Strip employed in Israel, instantly turning thousands of Gazan workers living and working in Israel at the time into “illegal aliens” from Israel’s perspective[2]. Furthermore, at least a 100 workers from Gaza, who had reached the West Bank, were arrested from their temporary lodgings during Israeli army raids last week in Hebron and Bethlehem governorates. In total, it is estimated that about 4000 workers are currently detained by Israel, in Anatot military camp near Anabta and Ofer camp near Betunia in the occupied West Bank, and possibly in another Israeli military camp in the Negev desert as well[3].

We are extremely worried about the conditions of detention of Gazan workers, and their fate, as they are kept incommunicado and isolated from the world. Workers have not been allowed to talk to lawyers, nor has the International Committee of the Red Cross confirmed whether it has been able to visit them or not. Neither the Palestinian Authority nor human rights associations have been able to obtain a list of workers detained by Israel and where each of them is detained. In fact, six human rights organizations in Israel, namely HaMoked, Gisha, the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, Physicians for Human Rights Israel, Adalah and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, have submitted a petition to the Israeli High Court of Justice on October 23, 2023, asking the court to order the Israeli army, Prison Service and the Israel Police to disclose the workers’ names and location and release them[4]. Their family members, who remained in Gaza, are frantic for news of their loved ones. Thus, for the past two days, DWRC has attempted to locate M., a worker from Al-Shuja’ia in the Gaza Strip, at the request of his wife, who has lost all contact with him over ten days ago.

Israel has not clarified the status of the Gazan workers it has arrested, nor given grounds for their continued internment, other than declaring that they cannot be returned to Gaza. These workers are civilians, and are considered as protected persons under the Fourth Geneva Convention. They went through a thorough Israeli security wetting before being issued work permits to Israel, which means that they are not considered as presenting even the slightest security risk.

In light of the above, we are deeply concerned that the conditions of internment of Gazan workers do not meet the minimum requirements set by international humanitarian law, and that they are exposed to various forms of collective and individual abuse and mistreatment. Furthermore, we fear that Gazan workers have been interned for the purpose of being used as leverage by Israel, i.e. that they are actually being held hostage. Citing Hamoked’s press release: “Testimony received by the petitioners from a Palestinian man who was held in Anatot indicate that the holding conditions in the detention centers are extremely dire. The man was detained in Israel on October 8 and held for three days in a cage-like structure, exposed to the elements, with no food, water, medication or a mattress and without access to a toilet. He was later transferred to another encampment, which he described as a “livestock pen,” where he was held with hundreds of workers from Gaza. At a certain point, an officer told the detainees that they were being held because there were Israeli hostages in Gaza, and that as long as the Israeli hostages were in Gaza, there was no prospect of the workers’ release.”[5]

In consequence, we call upon the international community and the international labor movement to demand the immediate release of Gazan workers detained by Israel, and ask that they are returned to Gaza or to the West Bank until their safe return to Gaza and their families can be ensured. For inquiries and further information, please contact: maryam@dwrc.org

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[1] You can refer back to DWRC’s statement issued on 11/10/2023 “DWRC denounces beatings and humiliating treatment inflicted by Israeli police, border guards and civilians on Gazan workers employed in Israel and calls for urgent labor movement solidarity”

[2] https://hamoked.org/document.php?dID=Updates2378

[3] https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2023/10/21/number-of-palestinian-prisoners-in-israel-doubles-to-10000-in-two-weeks#:~:text=The%20number%20of%20prisoners%20has,holding%20them%20in%20military%20bases.

[4] Ibid footnote 2

[5] Ibid footnote 2

International humanitarian law prohibits the targeting of healthcare personnel and health facilities and transport during hostilities and warfare. They must be protected at all times, as do the patients in their care.

Since October 7, 2023, through its uninterrupted bombing and shelling campaign on the Gaza Strip, #Israel has:

– killed 28 healthcare personnel while on duty or through the bombing of civilian homes

– of them, 10 paramedics have been killed and 27 injured will attempting to save lives

– targeted ambulances, of which 23 have been destroyed or damaged to the point that they can no longer be used

– damaged 15 healthcare centers

– fired white phosphorous shells at a children’s hospital (Al-Dura hospital), which had to be immediately evacuated

– damaged another two hospitals, Beit Hanoun hospital and Hamad rehabilitation hospital, which had also to be evacuated

– ordered 23 hospitals in the northern area of Gaza to evacuate, affecting about 2000 patients. Massive evacuation of hospital patients is not possible in a context where much of the civilian infrastructure has been destroyed and many patients cannot be moved.

– Gaza’s hospitals have been running out of medical supplies and fuel for generators, there is no space and no capacities to adequately care for the flow of injured

DO NOT STAY SILENT, especially if you are a #unionist and/or a #healthcareworker. Please share and speak out against the targeting of Palestinian #healthcareheroes , call for their protection, for an immediate ceasefire and for humanitarian aid to get into Gaza immediately.

PSI – Public Services International

النقابة العامة للعاملين في الخدمات الصحية – محافظات غزة

Sources of information: Palestinian Ministry of Health, UN OCHA Opt

* Humanitarian aid must be allowed into the Gaza Strip to provide medical supplies, food, drinking water, sanitation to the civilian population

* The week-long uninterrupted aerial bombing and shelling of Gaza had already killed 1537 Palestinians, among them 500 CHILDREN and 273 women by last night according to the Ministry of Health, and injured 6612 persons, including 1644 children and 1005 women. The Ministry also indicated that 44 families were in their homes by Israeli bombs.

* 423,000 Palestinians have been internally displaced according to the UN

* A couple of hours ago, Israel ordered 1.1 million Palestinians to leave the northern and Gaza governorates with 24 hours and not to come back before it says they can. This concerns about half the population of the Gaza Strip. The UN said it would be impossible. Furthermore, the forcible transfer of protected persons is prohibited under international humanitarian law. All member States of the UN and the Geneva conventions need to intervene urgently to stop any attempt by Israel to undertake a massive #EthnicCleansing of Palestinians in Gaza and prevent a new #Nakba.

We call upon the labor movement, civil society organizations and citizens worldwide to speak up and ask their politicians and governments to uphold international law and protect Palestinian civilians.

Please keep us informed about your solidarity steps and initiatives, and do not hesitate to contact us for any info you may need.