Closure of Sderot factory to leave hundreds jobless

The looming closure of Sderot-based Negev textile will not only lead to the immediate firing of its 50 employees, but may spell the end of Israel’s once flourishing homegrown textile industry.

The factory, established in 1987, is the last fabric dying plant operating in the country and closing its doors will likely cause a domino effect that will leave hundreds of related businesses jobless, industry experts told Yedioth Ahronoth on Sunday.

The experts said that government support in the form of NIS 3 million ($830,000) in energy subsidies would likely be enough to make the plant profitable again after the plant’s owner gave up on sinking hundreds of thousands of shekels of his own money into the business venture. The factory operates out of the southern city that in previous years has come under relentless rocket attack from the nearby Gaza Strip.

“Unemployment pay for the hundreds of industry workers who will be laid off will cost the state NIS 3 million a month. So why shouldn’t the government spend the money in a single grant rather than pay the same amount every month in unemployment?” asked Tanya Spector, who works as a laboratory assistant at Negev Textile.

Spector, who recently returned to work from maternity leave, said she was pessimistic about finding another job in the region, which suffers from high unemployment.

Shalom Zoubib, 47, who began working at the plant a month after it opened, said he spent the last 26 years at his workplace, even during two wars.

“I don’t know what I will do in the future. I plan to claim unemployment because I am not a young man and it will take time for me to find something new to do,” said Zoubib.