Occupied Jerusalem- On May 1 of every year, the world celebrates Labor Day, and this day is an official holiday in about 100 countries, in memory of the fallen workers and their leaders who called for setting working hours at 8, and the success of the struggle of the “proletarians” and their huge demonstrations in America and Europe during 19th century.
Although more than a century has passed since the workers’ revolution and their rights were taken away, the people of Jerusalem are still subject to the harshest apartheid regime that the occupation authorities are using against them in all areas of life, including the labor market, according to a legal expert who spoke to Al Jazeera Net.
The young man from Al-Maqdisi (B.G.) graduated from the university about two years ago, and he hoped that he would be able to join Jerusalem schools as a teacher, but his arrest from Al-Aqsa Mosque during its raid in Ramadan in 2021 prompted the intelligence officer to threaten him by saying, “Don’t dream of working in your field of specialization one day.” what”.
This is what actually happened, as this young man worked in an institution in western Jerusalem that deals with the category of “children in distress” as a guide for them, and after he accepted and continued to visit it for 4 months, the occupation police sent on the second day of the war on Gaza, that is, on October 8 The first, last, was a letter to the director of the institution stating that this young man is “a subversive and poses a threat to the security of the State of Israel and is not fit to work in this institution.”
Separation and prosecution
(B.G) was immediately dismissed from his job on a racist basis and because he is a Jerusalemite, according to his statements. Since then, he has been unemployed due to his inability to obtain a “good conduct” certificate from the occupation police, due to the presence of “security issues” in his file. Although what he was asked when he applied for the job was to present a certificate of “good conduct” free of civil cases such as theft and rape, and this is what he actually provided.
But the iron-fist policy followed by the occupation authorities in Jerusalem, in the first moment of the outbreak of the war on Gaza, forced many Jerusalemites to lose their livelihood, due to a wave of dismissals, random dismissals, and vague allegations.
(B.G) commented on what happened to him by saying that the occupation attacks Jerusalemites at every opportunity that allows it, adding, “My rights are being violated as a Jerusalemite, and I feel great injustice… I am not able to complete my educational career under the claim of having security records, and I am not able to practice any work.” Now, despite my concession and acceptance to work in fields far from my university specialty.”
This young man indicated, while speaking to Al Jazeera Net, that he tried to apply a while ago to work as a guard in western Jerusalem, and Israeli officials told him, “We want to appoint a guard to protect us from people like you.”
🔴 Follow Safa| Palestinian Trade Unions: We demand that the activities of May 1 be devoted to supporting Gaza
▪️ We call on the Arab and international labor unions to turn the activities of International Labor Day “May 1st” into a day of support for the workers of Gaza and the cause of their people who are being subjected to extermination, torture, abuse and devastating bombing by the army…
– Safa Agency (@SafaPs) April 30, 2024
Jurist and international law expert Munir Nusseibeh told Al Jazeera Net, “Because Israel is an apartheid state and has worked to institutionalize racism in all aspects, it does not protect the Palestinian worker, even if he is Jerusalemite, if he loses his job just because he is Palestinian.”
Nusseibeh stressed that the countries of the democratic world protect the worker from arbitrary dismissal or discrimination against him, based on gender, race, religion, color, national origin, or disability, but Israeli law does not provide this protection to the Palestinians, and this is part of the system of apartheid that exists in the laws of this country.
In a report recently issued by 4 Israeli human rights organizations on the occasion of the half-year anniversary of the Israeli war on Gaza, it was stated under the title “Employment and Food Security” that before the outbreak of the war, 75% of the population of East Jerusalem lived below the poverty line, and many of them were suffering from a lack of food. Basic food. During the war period, there was a significant increase in unemployment rates, and many families found themselves without a source of income.
The human rights report added that many East Jerusalem workers lost their source of livelihood in Israeli workplaces, either because they were dismissed or put on unpaid leave, or because their Jewish colleagues and customers feared them, pushing those towards their dismissal.
As for the other part of the Jerusalemites who lost their jobs, according to the report, they are those who left their jobs because they felt that they were being persecuted in mixed workplaces (which include Arabs and Jews), or because of the military checkpoints in the vicinity of Jerusalem, which were closed, and thus the movement of Jerusalemites living behind them was restricted.
In the first months of the war, according to the human rights report, Jerusalemites faced violence from the Israeli security services and the Jews themselves, and this prompted some of them to fear using public transportation to reach their workplaces in western Jerusalem.
According to information from the “Israeli Labor Office,” there was a 150% increase in the “employment or unemployment benefits” service at the beginning of the war.
As for East Jerusalem, there was a 300% increase in new members joining this service in October 2023, compared to the previous September. This led to significant damage to the food security of a large number of Jerusalemites due to high unemployment rates, according to the office.
