Misery deepens in West Bank amid dearth of permits to work in Israel

Hanadi Abu Zant hasn’t been able to pay rent on her apartment in the West Bank for nearly a year after losing her permit to work inside Israel. When her landlord calls the police on her, she hides in a mosque.

“My biggest fear is being kicked out of my home. Where will we sleep, on the street?” she said, wiping tears from her cheeks.

She is among some 100,000 Palestinians whose work permits were revoked after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, invasion and massacre in southern Israel ignited the war in the Gaza Strip. Confined to the Israeli-controlled West Bank, where jobs are scarce and wages far lower than in Israel, they face dwindling and dangerous options as the economic crisis deepens.

Some have sold their belongings or gone into debt as they try to pay for food, electricity, and school expenses for their children. Others have paid steep fees for black-market permits or tried to sneak into Israel, risking arrest or worse if they are mistaken for terrorists.

Israel, which has controlled the West Bank for nearly six decades, says it is under no obligation to allow Palestinians to enter for work and makes such decisions based on security considerations. Thousands of Palestinians are still allowed to work in scores of Jewish settlements across the West Bank, built on land the Palestinians claim for a future state.

Risk of collapse

The World Bank has warned that the West Bank economy is at risk of collapse because of Israel’s restrictions. By the end of last year, unemployment had surged to nearly 30 percent compared with around 12% before the war, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics.

Before the war, tens of thousands of Palestinians worked inside Israel, mainly in construction and service jobs. Wages can be more than double those in the landlocked West Bank, where decades of Israeli checkpoints, land seizures, and other restrictions have weighed heavily on the economy. Palestinians also blame the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in parts of the territory, for not doing enough to create jobs.

About 100,000 Palestinians had work permits that were revoked after the outbreak of the war. Israel has since reinstated fewer than 10,000, according to Gisha, an Israeli group advocating for Palestinian freedom of movement.

The steep reduction in permits, which was never formally explained by the government, is believed to be predicated on security concerns after thousands of Palestinians streaming across the Gaza border carried out massacres in Israeli communities on October 7.

Wages earned in Israel injected some $4 billion into the Palestinian economy in 2022, according to the Institute for National Security Studies, an Israeli think tank. That’s equivalent to about two-thirds of the Palestinian Authority’s budget that year.

An Israeli official said Palestinians do not have an inherent right to enter Israel, and that permits are subject to security considerations. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

Some 3 million Palestinians live in the West Bank, along with over 500,000 Israeli settlers who can come and go freely.

The international community — with the notable exception of the United States under President Donald Trump — considers settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law. Israel, which conquered the area in the 1967 Six Day War, disputes that position, citing historic ties to the region and a security imperative in holding on to it.

The war in Gaza sparked a spike of settler violence in the West Bank, along with an increase in Palestinian attacks. Meanwhile, military operations that Israel says are aimed at dismantling terror groups have caused heavy damage in the West Bank and displaced tens of thousands of Palestinians.

‘My refrigerator, it’s empty’

After her husband left her five years ago, Abu Zant secured a job at a food-packing plant in Israel that paid around $1,400 a month, enough to support her four children. When the war erupted, she thought the ban would only last a few months. She baked pastries for friends to scrape by.

Hasan Joma, who ran a business in Tulkarem before the war, helping people find work in Israel, said Palestinian brokers are charging more than triple the price for a permit.

While there are no definite figures, tens of thousands of Palestinians are believed to be working illegally in Israel, according to Esteban Klor, professor of economics at Israel’s Hebrew University and a senior researcher at the INSS. Some risk their lives trying to cross Israel’s security barrier, which consists of 9-meter high (30-foot) concrete walls, fences, and closed military roads.

Shuhrat Barghouthi’s husband has spent five months in prison for trying to climb the barrier to enter Israel for work, she said. Before the war, the couple worked in Israel, earning a combined $5,700 a month. Now they are both unemployed and around $14,000 in debt.

“Come and see my refrigerator, it’s empty, there’s nothing to feed my children,” she said. She can’t afford to heat her apartment, where she hasn’t paid rent in two years. She says her children are often sick and frequently go to bed hungry.

Sometimes she returns home to see her belongings strewn in the street by the landlord, who has been trying to evict them.

Work still available in settlements

Of the roughly 48,000 Palestinians who worked in Israeli settlements before the war, more than 65% have kept their permits, according to Gisha.

Israeli officials did not respond to questions about why more Palestinians are permitted to work in the settlements.

Palestinians employed in the settlements, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, say their employers have beefed up security since the start of the war and are far more willing to fire anyone stepping out of line, knowing there are plenty more desperate for work. Two Palestinians working in the Mishor Adumim settlement said security guards look through workers’ phones and revoke their permits arbitrarily.

Israelis have turned to foreign workers to fill jobs held by Palestinians, but some say it’s a poor substitute because they cost more and do not know the language. Palestinians speak Arabic, but those who work in Israel are often fluent in Hebrew.

Raphael Dadush, an Israeli developer, said the permit crackdown has resulted in costly delays.

Before the war, Palestinians made up more than half his workforce. He’s tried to replace them with Chinese workers but says it’s not exactly the same. He understands the government’s decision, but says it’s time to find a way for Palestinians to return that ensures Israel’s security.

Assaf Adiv, the executive director of an Israeli group advocating for Palestinian labor rights, says there has to be some economic integration, or there will be “chaos.”

“The alternative to work in Israel is starvation and desperation,” he said.