Image from Oxfam Australia
Paper released as West Bank sees escalations in Israeli military and settler violence, killings, injuries, forced displacements, residential demolitions and movement restrictions.
Oxfam has released a briefing paper Palestinian Women Working in Illegal Israeli Settlements: Dependencies, Exploitation, and Opportunity Costs, shedding light on the harrowing daily realities faced by many vulnerable Palestinian women employed in exploitative and harsh conditions in illegal Israeli settlements, where their rights are being systematically violated.
The paper, which draws on data and case studies from two key reports by Oxfam’s partners: the Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute (MAS) and the Mother School Society (MSS), examines the lives of women working in illegal Israeli settlements, highlighting the emotional, physical, economic and social consequences of this growing trend, and the ways in which expanding settlements continue to devastate Palestinian livelihoods, particularly in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem).
Interviewed women spoke of being forced to work without contracts, sometimes in hazardous working conditions, over long hours, with some being subjected to harassment.
More than 6,500 Palestinian women currently work in Israeli settlements, primarily in agriculture (65.5%) and manufacturing (33.3%), with the number steadily increasing.
Key findings of the report include:
43-year-old Dalal, said:
“I’ve been working in the settlement for 8 years, I’m the sole provider for my family. Financially, things are tough and my husband is unemployed. If no-one works, who will take care of the household expenses? We only earn 90 shekels a day ($24), what can you buy with that?”
Bushra Khalidi, Oxfam’s OPTI Policy Lead, said:
“We’re urging the international community to end the exploitative employment of Palestinian women in these settlements and uphold their rights and protections.
“Palestinians living in the West Bank are growing increasingly dependent on settlements for jobs but this is less by choice and more the result of decades of Israeli policies that have eroded the Palestinian economy. Israeli settlement expansion, land confiscation, and restrictions on Palestinian trade, movement, and development have created conditions of poverty and unemployment, forcing more Palestinian women into exploitative labour. The international community must act to dismantle these injustices and ensure Palestinian women have access to dignified and lawful employment within their own economy.”
The report calls for assurances of Palestinians’ access to land and resources, ending the exploitation of their labour, and enabling them to build resilient local economies. Only by addressing these root causes and holding the Government of Israel accountable for its actions can Palestinians reclaim their rights to dignified work, economic security, and self-determination.
Ending the system of oppression requires a just and urgent solution – dismantling the illegal settlements and ending the occupation.
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When you are god's chosen people, set aside as a superior people any one else is somehow less than human and can be abused, used, discarded at will.