Manpower shortage in construction fails to reduce Arab unemployment

The relative stability of unemployment in Arab communities in the Triangle region is partly related to the manpower shortage in the construction sector caused by the ban on Palestinian workers from the Palestinian Territories. However, the massive hiring of Arab citizens by contractors did not benefit the Arab communities most badly affected by unemployment.

Al-Sabbar's reporter Khitam Na'amne noticed that these past weeks, a number of alarming declarations were made by building contractors over the collapse of the Israeli construction industry because of manpower shortages, upon the outbreak of the Intifada and the subsequent closure of Occupied Territories. According to figures published by the Contractors' Union, Palestinian workers lately still represented 32% of the workers in the Israeli construction sector.

"On the background of this story," Na'amne explained, "there is an ongoing argument between the contractors and The Labour Ministry about the import of foreign workers ,the Intifada provided the contractors with a new pretext to snatch from the Ministry the approval to bring in a large number of foreign workers. These can work 12 hours a day for -at best- the minimum wage and spare the contractor costs of health insurance and social benefits, thus increasing their profits. This is why they prefer them to Arabs from the West Bank, Gaza, or Israel". The Labour Ministry had a different plan to solve the crisis: "the Minister Raanan Cohen saw in it an opportunity to reduce unemployment among Arab workers [in Israel]," Na'amne explained. "He demanded that the unemployment offices send to the contractors lists of unemployed construction workers".

The situation at the employment services of Umm Al-Fahm showed that to a certain extent, this solution benefited a few Arab communities. "In the beginning the contractors offered minimum wages, and of course nobody responded. But as the crisis deepened, they started raising the salaries. As a result, approximately 400 of the 600 workers registered here were hired in the building sector", the director of the local office confirmed to Al-Sabbar. On the other hand, the situation in the most densely populated Arab areas of Galilee, which are also the worst affected by unemployment, did not improve as a result of the contractors' offers. In the Nazareth employment services, for example, barely a few dozens of men were hired. "All the contractors come from the centre of the country, and they are not ready to cover the costs of transportation", an employee of the Nazareth office observed. "I am ready to work in any place where I can enjoy respect and dignity," an unemployed construction worker from Nazareth told Al-Sabbar, "but you cannot propose for me to work anywhere.

Two weeks ago, a contractor from Rehovot (south of Tel Aviv, 130 km from Nazareth) contacted me. He offered me NIS 170 (US$ 40) a day, but refused to cover expenses for a daily journey of several hours. I had to decline the offer". Another worker concluded with despair: "All that we hear is empty promises. The truth is that there is no work for Arabs. Actually, what happened is that after the Intifada, the image of the Labour Party among Arabs became disastrous. Therefore [the Labour Party] now tries to bring Arab workers back to Barak with declarations and promises!" The latest unemployment statistics published Monday by Ha'aretz (Hebrew edition) confirmed the tendency highlighted by Al-Sabbar (for statistics table, click here).

The figures showed a sharp increase in the unemployment rate of Galilee Arab communities. The number of registered jobseekers in Nazareth and its satellite villages of Ein Mahel, Kafr Kanna, and Yafa rose by 1 to 3%. A clear deterioration of the situation was noticed in the large Western Galilee towns, such as Shafa'amr, Tamra, Kabul, and I'bilin. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate in the Northern Triangle (Wadi Ara) Arab towns remained relatively stable, or slightly decreased. In the rest of the Triangle region, unemployment remained at the level of, or beneath, the national average. It is worth mentioning that this average in November decreased by 0.5%.