The military government is drawing up plans to find alternative jobs for thousands of Arabs on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip who may be thrown out of work as a result of the anticipated increase in unemployment in Israel resulting from the government’s new austerity economic program. Most of the West Bank Arab labor force is employed in the construction trades which will be hardest hit by cutbacks in government spending.
Plans call for absorbing them in agriculture, road building and other public works. A large number of Arab construction workers presently employed in Israel would be diverted to building housing for refugees in the Gaza Strip. The construction workers may be the first to he dismissed as a result of government economics.
Their importance to Israel’s construction trades was felt last week when building activity was brought to a virtual standstill as thousands of Arabs stayed home to celebrate the Moslem id-el-Idha (Feast of the Sacrifice) holiday. There was also a large-scale slowdown in agricultural production and in factories where West Bank and Gaza Strip workers are employed.
PREFER TO WORK IN ISRAEL
Except for a small number who find work in the Persian Gulf oil states. Arabs in the administered territories prefer to stay there and work in Israel, military government circles said.
The reason is the high living standards they have come to enjoy under Israeli administration. They receive good wages in Israel and some of the most modern and expensive household appliances and furnishings can be found in Arab homes on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. In the latter territory, virtually all Arab car owners have traded in their old models for new ones during the past two years.
Many Arabs in the administered territories have been buying Israel government bonds linked to the cost-of-living index to secure the real value of their savings. Some, however, try to accumulate foreign currency, mainly Jordanian dinars bought with Israel Pounds. Inflation is a problem, felt more on the West Bank than in the Gaza Strip, the military government circles reported.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
