Jewish Groups Deplore U.S. Inquiry into Conditions of Arab Workers

An umbrella group of U.S. Jewish organizations has issued a statement expressing outrage at the decision of U.S. Trade Representative Clayton Yeutter to investigate Israel’s treatment of Palestinian laborers.

The statement was issued in Washington on Friday by the Israel Task Force of the National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council, which represents 11 national organizations and 114 community relations councils.

The task force criticized Yeutter for launching the investigation in response to a request from the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.

If Israel is found to have violated internationally recognized standards in its treatment of Palestinian workers, it could lose its ability to export products duty-free to the United States under the Generalized System of Preferences program.

The NJCRAC task force noted that this issue has been investigated for more than a decade by internationally respected organizations, including the International Labor Organization.

None of these organizations has ever found any basis in the allegations made by the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.

“It is incomprehensible to us how a democratic country such as Israel, with a strong tradition of trade union activity, should be put on a list along with countries that do not permit or severely restrict labor movements,” said Michael Pelavin, national chairman of the NJCRAC.

The American-Arab group accused Israel of impinging on the rights of Palestinian workers to organize, to work under basic standards of health and safety, and to earn a reasonable minimum wage.

The NJCRAC statement expressed confidence that as the investigation goes forward, Israel would be vindicated. The Jewish Labor Committee will testify on behalf of NJCRAC.