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Palestine: Treatment by Hamas of Palestinians who work in Israel and recruit other Palestinians to work in Israel

No reports of harassment or violence by Hamas against Palestinians who work in Israel or who recruit others to work in Israel could be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate.

One newspaper report indicates that Allan Bani Oudeh, a cousin of a "well-known" Hamas activist Ibrahim Bani Oudeh, to whom he was reportedly "close," legally worked in Israel as a plasterer (Washington Post 2 Feb. 2001). Allan Bani Oudeh was allegedly recruited through pressure by the Israeli intelligence agency Shin Bet when he was stopped at an Israeli checkpoint on his way to his job in Israel (ibid.). Shin Bet sought to take advantage of Ibrahim's trust in Allan. Ibrahim was killed in November 2000 by means of an explosive charge that had been placed in Allan's car and that was detonated while Ibrahim was driving it on loan from Allan (ibid.). The report does not indicate that Allan had ever been subjected to any pressure from Hamas to quit his job in Israel.

A recent book on Hamas states that during the first Intifada (1987-93), both Hamas and the more secular United National Command (UNC) encouraged Palestinian residents of the West Bank and Gaza Strip to boycott the Israeli economy as much as possible, which included not working in Israel; however, Hamas leaders came to recognize that a total boycott of work in Israel was not realistic given the lack of alternative ways for Palestinians to make a living (Michal and Sela 2000, 63). The following extracts are relevant in that regard:

In regard to non-violent activities, the people were asked [by Hamas] (1) to sever their economic ties with Israel and develop local institutions that would provide the same public services ...

The directive to sever ties with Israel included refusing to work in Israel and in Jewish settlements in the occupied territories ... (ibid., 60)

...

On the other hand, the Intifada's endurance depended on the Palestinian people's economic health. Without a self-sustaining economy, the Palestinians were dependent on Israel, thereby neutralizing the pressure to sever their economic contact with Israel. Consequently, to intensify the economic boycott against Israel and disengage from its economy would mean economic hardship for more than 100,000 workers who earned their living in Israel and a huge loss of revenue for many local merchants and factory owners who maintained commercial ties with Israeli firms. In turn, a severe economic downturn in these sectors could weaken the influence of Hamas and the UNC, lead to disobedience, and encourage anarchy. If the Intifada's strength lay in its ability to obtain the cooperation of all social strata and age groups, it is readily understandable how the ideologically heretical suddenly became the economically inevitable.

The inability or unwillingness of merchants, factory owners, and workers to break off economic relations with Israel forced Hamas to adapt to the prevailing conditions. Hence, the number of directives urging an economic break with Israel gradually fell as the Intifada turned into a way of life for the Palestinian population. Instructions in this spirit continued to appear, but more selectively, as in regard to work in Israel and the boycott of Israeli products. Later, Hamas's leaflets announced that the prohibition on working in Israel was confined to general strikes or to persons employed in sectors that competed with products of the territories, such as the citrus industry. In the same vein, Hamas called for a boycott of products for which local substitutes were available, principally milk products, agricultural produce, cigarettes, and soft drinks (ibid. 63).

Sources consulted by the Research Directorate indicate that even with Israel's policy of restricting the movement of workers and products between Israel and the West Bank and Gaza Strip ("closure"), large numbers of Palestinians continue to work and to seek work in Israel. The following is from an article in the Winter 2000 issue of Middle East Report:

Palestinian labor also remains dependent on Israel. Before Oslo, over one third of West Bank and Gaza Workers were employed in Israel, the majority in construction. With closure, the number of workers dropped from a high of 116,000 in 1992 to less than 36,000 in 1996. The reduction in days of closure since 1997 has helped increase the inflow of Palestinian workers into Israel but the strong correlation of closure with unemployment remained. At the beginning of 2000, a total of 125,000 Palestinians were working in Israel, the highest figure registered since 1970. Unemployment meanwhile was less than 11 percent, and the average daily wage for a Palestinian worker in Israel ($27.40) remained twice as high as in the domestic economy ($13.40), enhancing the incentive for people to seek employment beyond the Green Line [i.e. the border that divides the West Bank and Gaza Strip from Israel].

Not all workers seeking to enter Israel can do so. Israeli policies have proven to be more restrictive and selective towards workers from the Gaza Strip than the West Bank. Since 1994, Palestinian labor flows into Israel have been dominated by West Bank workers. Only 30,000 Gazan workers – less than 15 percent of the total labor force – were working in Israel in March 2000. In the West Bank, as much as 25 percent of the work force could rely on work in Israel. Meanwhile, unemployment rates in the Gaza Strip have been typically twice as high as in the West Bank between 1994-2000 (24).

Media sources indicate that during the current Intifada, Palestinian residents of the West Bank and Gaza Strip continue to go to considerable lengths to try to cross into Israel in search of work, even if they do not hold the necessary permits. The following is an excerpt from an article published in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz on 21 July 2001, in which the reporter was describing recent conditions along the road between Jerusalem and Hebron, in the southern West Bank:

An IDF [Israeli army] patrol rounded up 20 Palestinians who had attempted to infiltrate into Jerusalem; the soldiers lined up the detainees at the back of the junction. Using nightfall as their cover, the Palestinians had left nearby villages and headed toward Jerusalem, hoping to snare a day's work. In the past, soldiers pretended not to hear the rustling of infiltrating job seekers. Today, this policy of benign neglect is gone. Any Palestinian caught within the Green Line who lacks required permits is arrested, and eventually tossed back into his village.

On this particular morning, the paratroops patrol unit takes pity. After much supplication and entreaty, the Palestinians are allowed to return to their homes.

The following is an excerpt from a 31 July 2001 article in the Israeli newspaper Jerusalem Post in which conditions at various Israeli army checkpoints throughout the West Bank are described:

The IDF has also put dozens of Palestinian villages and towns under what they call "internal closure" - cutting the village off with deep trenches and huge concrete boulders, so that no vehicles can enter or exit.

To move from place to place, Palestinians must scramble, on foot, through hills, fields and unpaved roads. Unemployed Palestinians, desperate to find some work to feed their families, plead, wheedle and cajole the soldiers at the checkpoints, trying to convince them to let them into Israel. Tired, dusty and overwhelmed soldiers try to keep them back. The tension is palpable.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Please find below the list of additional sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

References

Haaretz [English Internet edition]. 21 July 2001. Daniel Ben Simon. "Primal Passions." <http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=54300 > [Accessed 21 July 2001]

Jerusalem Post. 31 July 2001. Eetta Prince-Gibson. "Crossing the Line." <http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2001/07/26/Features/Features.31291.html > [Accessed 31 July 2001]

Middle East Report (MER) [Washington, DC].Winter 2000. Vol. 30, No. 4. Leila Farsakh. "Under Siege: Closure, Separation and the Palestinian Economy."

Mishal, Shaul and Avraham Sela. 2000.The Palestinian Hamas: Vision, Violence, and Coexistence. New York: Columbia University Press.

Washington Post. 2 February 2001. Lee Hockstader. "Palestinians Battle the Enemy Within; Menace of Israeli Collaborators Spawns Executions, Vigilantism, Revenge Killings." (NEXIS)

Additional Sources Consulted

IRB databases

LEXIS/NEXIS

Internet sites including:

Hamas

Palestinian Information Centre

Search engines including:

Google

Topics: Palestinian, Militias,