Arab women
What it means to be unemployed as an Arab woman in Israel
[:en]The data of the Central Bureau of Statistics indicate enormous
08/12/2013
[:en]The data of the Central Bureau of Statistics indicate enormous
A delegation of activists for social protest from Beit Haam, Tel Aviv, visited the WAC-MAAN headquarters in Baqa al-Gharbiya on January 14, 2012, where they met with Arab women and agricultural workers in order to examine the harsh reality affecting the Arab population under the racist economic policy that drives women out of the labor market.
WAC-MAAN challenges the assertion, made by agriculture sector leaders, that taxing farmers for hiring foreign workers would not persuade them to give jobs to Israelis instead. The union claims that farmers prefer Thai workers, who are cheaper.
At first they marched hesitantly, astonished, perhaps even with envy, as they beheld the typical Tel Aviv scene of wide green boulevards, bustling cafes, children in playgrounds, mothers with strollers, young women riding around on bicycles, and the press. It was Friday, October 28, 2011. Over 70 women agricultural workers in long dresses and headscarves marched along Rothschild Boulevard together with the same number of activists from the protest movement in Tel Aviv and the Workers Advice Center (WAC-Maan, hereinafter WAC). They didn’t know what kind of welcome to expect from Tel Aviv. But step by step, their self-confidence grew, and they began responding to the slogans Asma Agbarieh-Zahalka bellowed into the megaphone, at first shyly but later with all their strength: “Work, yes! Unemployment, no!”, “Bibi, resign, you’re not wanted anymore!”, and in Arabic, “Freedom, democracy, social justice!”
Interview with Sheherezad Issa, agricultural laborer from Furidis (Sheherezad is also among the women who appear in the documentary “Look at Us” by Video 48)
Women and worker’s Organizations invite you to Woman’s day march. Arab and Jewish women call for fair employment and social justice on Tuesday, the 8th of March, in Tel Aviv.
In these very days, marking 100 years of Women’s International Day, a new chapter is being written in history by millions of women and men in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Bahrain and elsewhere. We salute the workers who first raised the banner of revolt in Egypt in 2008, who persisted and who now see the fruit of their sacrifices. This is the springtime of the peoples in the Arab world, opening a gateway of hope for all. At last we may dare to believe that we can determine our destinies, securing the right to live and work in dignity.
Next week we may go shopping at the supermarket, the town markets or the corner store, and find ourselves standing before empty shelves: farmers’ organizations including the Israel Farmers Federation, the Growers’ Union and the Poultry Farmers’ Association are threatening to strike, cutting off all supplies for three days.
