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.
Israeli Policy Towards Palestinian Workers is wrong and Full of Contradictions, as it severely harms their need to make a living, and on the other hand, it destroys the Israeli economy without providing realistic alternatives.
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.
MAAN joined other groups in filing a petition to the High Court of Justice against the Israeli government, demanding that authorities be held accountable to prevent the extreme exploitation of migrant workers, which could reach conditions of actual slavery. The petition, filed July 18th warns of the destructive impact of massive and unregulated importation of workers on the overall Israeli labor market, the severe harm to Palestinian workers’ ability to earn a living, and the expected damage to the Palestinian economy and regional security. The petitioners accuse the government of making these fateful decisions in secrecy.
17 inspiring women, both Arab and Jewish, participated in a unique course to learn about biodynamic beekeeping at MAAN’s office in Baqa al-Gharbiyeh (Triangle region, Israel). This project, consisting of six intensive sessions begun in May, and was the result of a longstanding collaboration between Sindyanna of Galilee and MAAN – Workers’ Organization, as part of the “Women and Work” project that MAAN has been running in the Triangle for 19 years.
Susanne B. is a 47-year-old woman, divorced with three children, one of whom is a minor (ages 20, 18, and 17). She lives in the Old City and has been working for over ten years as a seamstress in a monastery.
