In front of an Israeli-guarded fenced passageway, prospective Palestinian workers struggle to be among the few to enter the Israeli industrial work zone, at the Erez checkpoint on the Israel-Gaza border. (AP)
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| By: Associated Press |
| Published: April 6, 2005 |
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Firyal Ibrahim leaves her West Bank home before dawn each day to work in a greenhouse in Israel a job that pays only 65 shekels ($15) a day but keeps her from sinking into poverty.
If Israeli leaders have their way, however, the Palestinian woman will soon be out of the job that supports her, her unemployed husband, four daughters and a sister.
The government wants to bar all Palestinian laborers from the country by 2008, a plan that Palestinian officials warn will spell disaster for their already battered economy. The World Bank encourages an end to Palestinian dependence on Israel, but says ties are being cut too soon.
For now, Israel is ignoring the warnings, pushing forward with plans to impose a de facto border, with or without a peace agreement, and largely close its doors to Palestinians.
Ibrahim says she has few alternatives; most of her neighbors in the Tulkarem refugee camp are either unemployed or work in the West Bank, earning a third of what she makes.
"If I don't work in Israel, we either live off charity or we die of hunger," she said.
Banning Palestinian labor is part of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's "disengagement" plan, which aims to separate the two peoples by withdrawing from the Gaza Strip and part of the West Bank this summer, and completing a massive barrier separating Israel from the West Bank.
The phase-out of Palestinian labor will mark the end of an era.
The AP contributed to this report.
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