For the second time this week, the Rosh Haayin Yemenite immigrant camp was surrounded today by unemployed workers from the labor exchange in Petach Tikvah who complained that the new arrivals from Yemen were competing with them unfairly in the labor market and were accepting wages below the standards set by the Histadrut, Israel’s labor federation.
The “blockade” of the immigrant camp was lifted only after arrival of police forces. The dispute between the organized workers and the Yemenites is likely to grow since the labor exchange has demanded action to “halt employment methods detrimental to the interests of the Histadrut.”
Meanwhile, representatives of the Israel Attorney-General, Jewish Agency, Chief Rabbinate and police today attended a meeting of Yemenite immigrants in the Beit Lid reception camp to explain to the new arrivals the recently-promulgated law prohibiting child marriages, traditionally practiced among the Yemenites. Some of the Yemenite immigrants complained that their wives were displaying a “rebellious spirit” and urged that their food ration cards be withdrawn as punishment.
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