Over six thousand Palestinian women work in Jewish settlements

Palestinian Labor Minister Nasri Abu Jaish announced a program to try to fund jobs for Palestinian women, as he announced the news that 6,250 women work in Jewish settlements.

About 20,000 Palestinians altogether work in the settlements, out of roughly 140,000 who work for Israelis altogether. This contributes a significant proportion of the Palestinian GDP, since 18.6% of all West Bank workers are working for Israelis. 

In the Palestinian labor market altogether, only about 22% of workers are women, which means that proportionately, the hated settlements provide more opportunity for women than the local market.

On average, Israelis pay Palestinians more than double the salaries they receive for local jobs. The Q4 2020 Labour Force Survey for Palestinians shows that the average daily wage for those working in Israel and in settlements was 260.8 shekels compared to 123.5 shekels in the West Bank and 65.6 shekels in Gaza.

The Palestinian Labor ministry is alarmed at so many women working for "settlers" so they announced yet another program to encourage the women to work locally. They started a program worth 10 million shekels to provide jobs for women in the Jordan Valley. 

Every previous time that they tried to discourage Palestinians from working for Israelis they have failed, badly. There is no reason to think this initiative will do any better - the average Palestinian is not going to take a 53% pay cut because the PA wants them to be more patriotic.

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