West Bank checkpoints will open tomorrow for one day only to allow Palestinian workers to enter Israel before closing again, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) announces.
Palestinian workers who arrive will be asked to remain in Israel for three weeks. Any worker wishing to return to the West Bank during this period can do so, but they will not be able to return, COGAT says.
The restrictions aim to prevent the daily movement of tens of thousands of workers back and forth across the Green Line, which the Palestinian Authority has said is a primary vector for the coronavirus outbreak currently raging in the West Bank.
Palestinian workers enter Israel through the Meitar checkpoint near Hebron in the West Bank, May 5, 2020. (Wisam Hashlamoun/Flash90)
According to a Supreme Court order, employers must provide adequate lodging for Palestinian workers staying inside Israel during the three-week period, although some reports have raised questions about whether businesses are fulfilling that obligation.
Approximately 100,000 West Bank Palestinians are legally employed in Israel or in West Bank settlements, according to the Kav LaOved worker’s rights group. They constitute a large part of the Palestinian economy — approximately 15-20 percent of employed Palestinians work in Israel.
— Aaron Boxerman
We can't do this work alone.
The war with Iran has been draining for all of us in Israel. But when I heard about a high casualty incident – ballistic missile impacts in Arad and Dimona that left nearly 200 people wounded – I drank a cup of coffee, packed a bag, and headed south.
There, I spoke with Shilgit, the head of an after-school program for underprivileged youth. Standing outside her destroyed center, Shilgit said it was a miracle that no children were hurt and spoke about the community coming together in the hours since.
As a Times of Israel reporter, I’m committed to telling stories of resilience like Shilgit’s. But my colleagues and I can't do this alone. If you value work like this,please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community. Your financial support is essential to keep real human reporting like this going.
We’re really pleased that you’ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month.
That’s why we started the Times of Israel - to provide discerning readers like you with must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world.
So now we have a request. Unlike other news outlets, we haven’t put up a paywall. But as the journalism we do is costly, we invite readers for whom The Times of Israel has become important to help support our work by joining The Times of Israel Community.
For as little as $6 a month you can help support our quality journalism while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.
Thank you, David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel
From the Liveblog of
Monday, August 3, 2020
