Gaza Patti: Ibrahim helper One can point to three great moments of happiness in his life in the Gaza Strip: his graduation from university, his marriage, and last year when he received a six-month permit to work inside Israel. The permit – a small piece of paper wrapped in protective plastic – allows the 44-year-old to work at a grocery store in Southern Israel, made 10 times what he could do in Gaza. That means better education for your six kids, bigger family meals and treats like pastries, fruit yogurt and chocolate milk.
Without it, it would have to seek meager wages inside the narrow coastal strip, which has been subject to a crippling Israeli-Egyptian blockade since the Islamic terrorist group. Hamas The capture of power 15 years ago with unemployment hovering around 50% could mean scraping debris from years of conflict or trapping birds to sell to pet shops.
“It’s incomparable,” says Sleh. “One month’s work there is equal to three years’ work here.”
Israel acknowledges that the permit is also a powerful tool to help maintain calm or – in the eyes of its critics – control.
Israel has issued 15,500 work permits since last year, allowing Palestinians like Sleh to enter the country from the Gaza Strip and working mostly male jobs that pay far higher wages than those available inside Gaza. does.
They are among the first Gazan workers to officially work inside Israel since Hamas took over the region in 2007. More than 100,000 Palestinians from the occupied West Bank have similar permits that allow them to enter Israel for work.
The permits give Israel a form of trust in those Palestinians and on Hamas. Gaza’s militant rulers may be to blame if the border is closed and workers are forced to stay home – as they were during the latest flare-up in violence earlier this month.
Hamas, which has fought four wars and countless smaller battles with Israel over the years, fought the latest round – apparently to preserve permits and other economic understandings with Israel that have provided the region with an economic lifeline. is of.
Last week, Israel’s Defense Minister Benny Gantzo Announced 1,500 more permits “provided that the security situation remains calm,” once again stating the conditions on which permits are issued.
Israel often describes permits and other measures that provide economic opportunities to Palestinians, as goodwill measures. Critics see the permit as another means of control, part of Israel’s decades-long military rule over millions of Palestinians, which shows no signs of ending. Israel also considers peaceful forms of Palestinian protest a threat to public order – something that could lead to the revocation of permits.
Maher al-tabasan officer with Gaza Chamber of Commerce, says the permits have had little effect on Gaza’s broader economy, which has been heavily limited by the closure. He says people working in Israel invest a total of $1 million a day in Gaza’s economy.
Before the acquisition of Hamas in 2007, approximately 120,000 Gazans worked inside Israel. Almost all lost their permits when Israel tightened the blockade that year. Since then, the population has doubled to about 2.3 million, even though the economy has completely collapsed.
Israel says the blockade is needed to prevent Hamas from building up its arsenal, while human rights groups see it as a form of collective punishment.
Al-Taba said only doubling or tripling the current number of permits would lead to an economic recovery in Gaza.
On Sunday morning, Saleh awoke before dawn, waved goodbye to his girls and waved to his sons through a window as he walked down a fortified dirt road arezzo Leading cross in Israel.
After crossing, she is sometimes picked up by her employer. Other times, he shares a taxi to the southern city. Beersheba, about 40 kilometers (25 mi) away, along with other workers. He spends three weeks in Israel before returning home for a week.
Before getting his permit, Sleh said he had never lived in Israel.
She has recently started learning Hebrew. He works in a store in Beersheba owned by a distant relative and says that many of the buyers are Palestinian citizens of Israel.
Like many workers in Gaza, Sleh said he keeps to himself partly to avoid jeopardizing his permits and partly by being expensive to move out. He sometimes mingles with other Gazans or goes to the local mosque to pray.
“I work long hours and get paid overtime, so I do it. In Gaza, we work these hours for only 30 shekels (about $10) a day,” he said.
Some permits renew automatically, while other workers have to reapply periodically, in the hope that they will remain in the good qualities of Israel’s security system.
Slaih’s permit expires in December.
He says the prospect of his permit not being renewed is “terrible” and he is already losing sleep over it. He says he is saving as much as he can out of about $75 a day to bring home from his job in Israel.
If his permit is denied, he said his only hope is to start a small business in Gaza.
He said his father had not saved money while working in Israel two decades ago. When Israel closed the border in 2007, tens of thousands of workers suddenly lost their jobs, including Sleh’s father. His father had died six years earlier.
“I don’t want my kids to go through our experience,” he said.
Without it, it would have to seek meager wages inside the narrow coastal strip, which has been subject to a crippling Israeli-Egyptian blockade since the Islamic terrorist group. Hamas The capture of power 15 years ago with unemployment hovering around 50% could mean scraping debris from years of conflict or trapping birds to sell to pet shops.
“It’s incomparable,” says Sleh. “One month’s work there is equal to three years’ work here.”
Israel acknowledges that the permit is also a powerful tool to help maintain calm or – in the eyes of its critics – control.
Israel has issued 15,500 work permits since last year, allowing Palestinians like Sleh to enter the country from the Gaza Strip and working mostly male jobs that pay far higher wages than those available inside Gaza. does.
They are among the first Gazan workers to officially work inside Israel since Hamas took over the region in 2007. More than 100,000 Palestinians from the occupied West Bank have similar permits that allow them to enter Israel for work.
The permits give Israel a form of trust in those Palestinians and on Hamas. Gaza’s militant rulers may be to blame if the border is closed and workers are forced to stay home – as they were during the latest flare-up in violence earlier this month.
Hamas, which has fought four wars and countless smaller battles with Israel over the years, fought the latest round – apparently to preserve permits and other economic understandings with Israel that have provided the region with an economic lifeline. is of.
Last week, Israel’s Defense Minister Benny Gantzo Announced 1,500 more permits “provided that the security situation remains calm,” once again stating the conditions on which permits are issued.
Israel often describes permits and other measures that provide economic opportunities to Palestinians, as goodwill measures. Critics see the permit as another means of control, part of Israel’s decades-long military rule over millions of Palestinians, which shows no signs of ending. Israel also considers peaceful forms of Palestinian protest a threat to public order – something that could lead to the revocation of permits.
Maher al-tabasan officer with Gaza Chamber of Commerce, says the permits have had little effect on Gaza’s broader economy, which has been heavily limited by the closure. He says people working in Israel invest a total of $1 million a day in Gaza’s economy.
Before the acquisition of Hamas in 2007, approximately 120,000 Gazans worked inside Israel. Almost all lost their permits when Israel tightened the blockade that year. Since then, the population has doubled to about 2.3 million, even though the economy has completely collapsed.
Israel says the blockade is needed to prevent Hamas from building up its arsenal, while human rights groups see it as a form of collective punishment.
Al-Taba said only doubling or tripling the current number of permits would lead to an economic recovery in Gaza.
On Sunday morning, Saleh awoke before dawn, waved goodbye to his girls and waved to his sons through a window as he walked down a fortified dirt road arezzo Leading cross in Israel.
After crossing, she is sometimes picked up by her employer. Other times, he shares a taxi to the southern city. Beersheba, about 40 kilometers (25 mi) away, along with other workers. He spends three weeks in Israel before returning home for a week.
Before getting his permit, Sleh said he had never lived in Israel.
She has recently started learning Hebrew. He works in a store in Beersheba owned by a distant relative and says that many of the buyers are Palestinian citizens of Israel.
Like many workers in Gaza, Sleh said he keeps to himself partly to avoid jeopardizing his permits and partly by being expensive to move out. He sometimes mingles with other Gazans or goes to the local mosque to pray.
“I work long hours and get paid overtime, so I do it. In Gaza, we work these hours for only 30 shekels (about $10) a day,” he said.
Some permits renew automatically, while other workers have to reapply periodically, in the hope that they will remain in the good qualities of Israel’s security system.
Slaih’s permit expires in December.
He says the prospect of his permit not being renewed is “terrible” and he is already losing sleep over it. He says he is saving as much as he can out of about $75 a day to bring home from his job in Israel.
If his permit is denied, he said his only hope is to start a small business in Gaza.
He said his father had not saved money while working in Israel two decades ago. When Israel closed the border in 2007, tens of thousands of workers suddenly lost their jobs, including Sleh’s father. His father had died six years earlier.
“I don’t want my kids to go through our experience,” he said.