Mr. Mounir Kleibo, a Jerusalem-based expert on labour market issues and workers’ rights, delivered an intervention grounded in objective criteria aimed at identifying conditions that can safeguard Palestinian workers’ rights and prevent the severe exploitation and violations they often face.
Today, on October 7, 2025, MAAN is calling the Israeli Authorities to seize the moment for ending the war and open the gates for 200,000 workers who can be a force for economic recovery and peace.
Following is A field report by MAAN Workers Association on the plight of Palestinian workers from the West Bank who lost their jobs and were left without any support or social safety net since then.
This important report by Times of Israel journalist Nurit Yohanan sheds light on a forgotten crisis: thousands of Palestinian workers from the West Bank are barred from their workplaces since October 2023. Published 21 months into the Gaza war, the report—produced in collaboration with MAAN—provides a far-reaching account of these workers’ plight, while contextualizing the Palestinian economy’s heavy dependence on Israel.
With no work, and no Israeli or Palestinian social safety net, 200,000 Palestinian workers in the West Bank paid a heavy price for the October 7 war.
In light of the total lockdown on the entry of Palestinian workers since the beginning of the war, two major labor organizations in Israel adopted a negative stance towards the return of Palestinian workers to their work in Israel.
We enter the year 2024 in the shadow of a war that is changing the face of the Middle East. Hamas’s attack of October 7 has plunged the Israeli and Palestinian peoples deeper into what seems an endless conflict. The current phase has so far claimed the lives of 1300 Israelis and over 20,000 Palestinians. About 70% of homes in Gaza have been made unfit for habitation, and more than a million and a half Gazans are now crowded into the south of the Strip hungry for food. Over 160,000 Israelis have been displaced from their homes, and 136 are held hostage by Hamas under inhumane conditions.
Due to the blockade imposed on the territories since the outbreak of the war, approximately 100,000 Palestinian workers cannot work in Israel and are left without income or a social safety net.
Jerusalem after October 7 is a city marked by suspicion and fear. The city economy has been hit hard, and many in both the Jewish and Palestinian communities prefer to avoid public spaces…
On Saturday, October 7th, a crime against humanity was committed in southern Israel. Armed members of Hamas invaded homes and massacred families. At the International Nature and Peace Festival in Re’im Forest, they killed hundreds. In all, more than a thousand civilians were murdered in cold blood. Thousands more were injured. Over a hundred, including infants, children, women, disabled, and elderly were dragged into Gaza as hostages. Women were raped. Women were also displayed in the streets of Gaza and on media platforms.
