NEW DELHI: The outbreak of the conflict between Israel and Hamas on October 7 has led to a shortage of Palestinian workers in Israel. After sending thousands of Palestinians back to war-torn Gaza as it pursued a crackdown on labourers from the territory, Israel is now looking to fill this gap in blue collar jobs with Indian workers.
“We are considering getting Indian workers to work in Israel, starting with around 20,000. We need them for construction activities and other jobs related to infrastructure. However, nothing has been formalised yet. It has to go through the proper channels, where the Indian government is approached, and a final go-ahead is received,” said a source.
Work permits for nearly 90,000 Palestinians are said to have been cancelled, which has led to an urgent requirement for workers to complete or continue their ongoing projects. According to a report, Haim Feiglin, Vice President of the Israeli Builders’ Association, has said that they need close to 100,000 workers to continue their projects, and they have sought to get them from India.
Almost an equal number of Palestinians have lost their work permits amid the ongoing war between the Israeli military and Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. Feiglin said that they are negotiating with India in this regard and are currently waiting for a decision from the Israeli government to approve this.
“We hope to engage some 50,000 to 100,000 workers from India to work across the sector and bring construction and other activities back to normalcy,” he said. The outbreak of the conflict and the high casualty rate has eroded confidence between Israel and Palestine, and hence, large numbers of Palestinian workers had to leave Israel.
Meanwhile, in May of this year, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar and Israel’s Foreign Minister Eli Cohen. The agreement stated that nearly 34,000 Indian workers could be engaged in the construction sector and around 8,000 for nursing needs.
There were over 18,000 Indians in Israel when the conflict began on October 7. Around 1,000 Indians returned, and the majority continue to work there. Whether the Indian government agrees to Israel’s request and when they actually permit Indian workers to go to Israel, will be clear in the coming days.