Not every day do you have a cosmic experience — but that’s what happened to the women at the biodynamic beekeeping course on April 7th at the Bee Freedom Farm near Jerusalem.
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.
Hadaya, 58, a woman from East Jerusalem, is the sole provider for her family. Her six children depend on her. She did not want to leave her job, but due to her deteriorating health she could not continue working. With the help of MAAN – Workers Association, she received the full severance pay that is due to someone who resigns due to a medical condition, and secured her entitlement to unemployment benefits from day one.
The ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hezbollah, which came into effect on Wednesday, November 27, marks the end of the war in Lebanon. If it holds, a period of reconstruction will begin, bringing a dramatic increase in the need for workers in the construction sector. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Palestinians are waiting for the government to allow them back into construction sites in Israel. Thousands of contractors are also desperate for skilled labor, reporting that the foreign workers they have managed to recruit are too few and insufficiently trained.
Have you ever felt that your supervisor treated you like a piece of trash? Intisar (not her real name) experienced this situation over and over again. She is a Palestinian who worked in a factory located in the outskirts of Jerusalem since August 1, 2023.
On October 6, 2024, the verdict of the Jerusalem Regional Labor Court (presided by Judge Rachel Berg Hirshberg) was published, concerning a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by a former employee of the “Maya Food Industries Ltd.” factory in Mishor Adumim (Area C of the West Bank).
The smiles on the faces of the 17 graduates of the beekeeping course were uplifting. The buzz in the room even resembled the hum of a beehive. Since the course ended in June, these women have been busy maintaining the beehive each received for her home. The certificate ceremony took place on September 9 at the “MAAN Workers’ Association branch in Baqa al-Gharbiya, attended by course graduates, the project’s leading team, and members of the MAAN’s women’s forum.
For years, Israel’s olive harvest has relied on 10,000 Palestinian workers (usually some 3000 families) from the West Bank who receive permits to work in Israel in the season. The sector employs these workers each year to pick tens of thousands of tons of olives from September to December, in groves stretching from the Negev to the Upper Galilee.
Three complaints were filed early August against an Israeli lawyer from Be’er Sheva, alleging that he illegally charged Palestinian workers from the West Bank thousands of shekels and traded work permits in Israel.
A course on biodynamic beekeeping ended in June of 2024 in the village of Baqa al-Gharbia, where 17 graduates each received a hive containing a queen and a swarm of bees. The course, which began in February under the guidance of educator and expert Yossi Aud, founder of the Bees for Peace project, took place at the MAAN Workers Association’s Center in the Triangle region, managed by Wafa Tiara.
