Awad, the Palestinian Home Builder
By Hanitizer
Awad is a 51 year-old Palestinian refugee who has no mentionable education, a homeowner, and a father of eleven. Awad has been effectively unemployed since the year 2000. In the early eighties and late nineties Awad used to work inside Israel and built many homes that rewarded him generously. In a bad day our guy here used to make thirty dollars a day, yet he averaged fifty a day. Life was good. He used to spend and do what the other hundred thousand Palestinian laborers like him do, stimulate both the Palestinian and the Israeli economies. In essence the Palestinian laborers working in Israel were our own bailout as they were the best customers who spent, rarely haggled, and paid in cash.
Things changed. Israel figured that many of the Palestinian laborers were a security risk. Before figuring that out, Israel used to routinely run a security check on those who would work in Israel. They would reject, monthly, a dozen as a high risk. For example, if you worked in Israel and someone reported that your son was a regular at the local mosque, this could cause your work permit to be revoked. But in the late nineties, Israel started importing foreign labor mainly from Eastern Europe and Asia to replace Palestinian labor. For the Israelis, that was a change with unexpected consequences as some of the Asian laborers started feeding on the Israeli cats and rodents. The economic impact was more serious as the foreign laborers did not do what the Palestinian laborers did: consume Israeli goods. Instead they opted to send the money to their home countries. Perhaps the most dangerous outcome of this decision is a problem Israel is facing now. The unintended security consequence in revoking the carrot Israel used to have on the Palestinian laborers and their children. When a Palestinians laborer knows if his/her child’s political orientation could get them in trouble, they would make sure their kids stay away from politics and militancy. Now there is nothing to deter young Palestinians from joining groups like Hamas; no one will revoke the work permit of their father.
For Palestinians like Awad, this was a disaster as their main source of income was gone and lost for good. If a day of work in Israel can earn Awad fifty dollars, a longer day in Gaza can earn him only fifteen dollars. Awad is one of a hundred thousand Palestinian laborers who had construction, retail, and agricultural jobs that have been given to imported labor. On the other hand, there is not a significant local need those rejected workers can meet. Things will get worse for the laborers in the Palestinian territories. Egypt and Jordan will also enter the game and rob Palestinians form their jobs. The closure on Gaza not only prevents the movement of labor, it also makes the movement of goods a pain at best. The Israeli clothing factories used to outsource their work to the Palestinians who met their deadlines; but because of the closure, their goods never make it on time making Israeli factories lose orders.What is starting to happen is the rerouting of outsourcing to the “safer” countries with cheap labor, proximity, and reliable crossings. Egypt and Jordan were ideal to build Israeli factories there. That led to about forty thousand Gaza tailors to lose their jobs. It’s fair to mention that in many instances the Israeli boss will work with his Palestinian partner who used to do his work prior to the closure; the Israeli boss will put him— the aforementioned Palestinian contractor—in charge of his plants in Jordan and Egypt, as he is better at dealing with Arabs and knows the nature of the business.
The hundred and fifty thousand unemployed Palestinian laborers experience this nightmare while they sit at home and ask for handouts that rarely give them anything of significance. Awad complained of the lack of attention they get as there are other priorities for aid in Gaza, and they tend to overlook the laborers. He told me that he recently received a food stamp from the Hamas government that gave him a bag of sugar. Awad is now bitter towards the Ramallah government because in his words, “they’ve abandoned us.” What makes matters worse for Awad is the siege on Gaza. Since cement never makes it via the legal outlets, he and his peers never get local jobs. The construction sector in Gaza is all but dead. It’s hard not to have it that way when a bag of cement costing 5 dollars before the siege now sells for 20.
With no jobs and no welfare, it is hard to see life continuing for Awad and the other laborers. Any future arrangement with the Israelis must find a way to deal with the chronically unemployed. I know Tony Blair has worked and studied the problem, and I think he is the best equipped to address this problem, if Israel will let him work his magic. Blair and other investors expressed interest in an industrial zone that will provide jobs for Gaza and the West Bank. While this remains an unfulfilled promise, Awad has to figure out a way to get more aid as no one has a need for his set of skills at least for now.