Thursday, November 21, 2013
Elder of Ziyon
Last year, the PCBS said that 15,000 Palestinians worked in the settlements. Now, the number has increased to 20,000.
Last year, some 90,000 worked for Israelis on both sides of the Green Line. In the second quarter it increased to 96,000, it has now increased to 103,000.
Nearly one in seven West Bank Arabs work for Israelis.
61% of them work in construction.
The average daily wage for those working in PA-administered areas in the West Bank is NIS 88.3 compared and NIS 59.3 in Gaza Strip. In contrast, the average daily wage for those working for Israelis increased from NIS 172.1 in the 2nd quarter to NIS 178.9 in the 3rd quarter, over double the wages of those that work in the PA areas,and a 10% increase in wages over last year. In PA areas, the wage during the same time period increased only about 1%.
I believe this is the first time that Israeli wages have doubled Palestinian Arab wages.
This means that about one third of total wages in the PA ruled areas come from Israeli employers. The impact to the PA economy if there was an international border between their state and Israel would be devastating, although the World Bank never looks at that statistic when it blames Israel for the PA's economic woes.
Somehow, over a hundred thousand people manage to travel to Israeli-controlled areas every day, past all those checkpoints and "apartheid walls" and guard towers we keep hearing so much about. While they do have to wait in long lines to enter Israel, it is clearly worth it.
