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Israeli settlers are attacking Palestinians in the occupied West Bank at a record pace, according to the U.N. As of last month, 76 Palestinians had died at the hands of settlers and Israeli soldiers this year. Yet amid this violence, many thousands of Palestinians continue to work for Israelis in the West Bank. NPR's Frank Langfitt reports on how Palestinian workers balance their need to make money with their anger toward Israel's occupation.
FRANK LANGFITT, BYLINE: Nael Amer (ph) works in an Israeli factory that makes cleaning wipes. We speak through his car window in a factory parking lot to avoid attention. Nael is 51. He hates the Israeli occupation.
NAEL AMER: (Through interpreter) The settlements are like an octopus. It spreads its tentacles, chokes you, and gradually encroach on your space.
LANGFITT: Amer is referring to the Israeli settlements consuming land where Palestinians hope to build a future state. His dilemma, Amer earns twice as much working for Israelis as he did at a Palestinian gas station. I ask him how he feels about working for the Israelis.
AMER: (Non-English language spoken).
LANGFITT: "I'm forced to," Amer says.
Israeli companies began setting up factories in the West Bank in the 1980s. Over time, businesses benefited from low-wage Palestinian labor. And Palestinians made more than they could elsewhere. After Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, that bargain became harder for many Palestinians. Israel revoked work permits, citing security. At least 18,000 people lost their jobs working for Israeli factories and settlements here.
MAHER ABDULLAH: (Non-English language spoken).
LANGFITT: Maher Abdullah (ph) runs a grocery store in a village near the factory.
ABDULLAH: (Through interpreter) People used to buy on credit before, and then when they get paid, they would come and pay up. After October 7, I realized people would ask for credit but then wouldn't pay. I'll show you.
LANGFITT: He's taking out a notebook and showing me all the debts.
ABDULLAH: (Non-English language spoken).
LANGFITT: Abdullah says his customers, fellow Palestinians, owe him $33,000 he'll never get back. He's had to cut his staff from 15 to three. Abdullah says he can shoulder the loss because he has other businesses.
ABDULLAH: (Through interpreter) Thank God, I didn't have to work in the settlements.
LANGFITT: Erez Maggor is a sociology professor at Ben-Gurion University, who studied the settlement economy. He says, historically, this work arrangement is not unusual.
EREZ MAGGOR: In the past where you had colonialism and colonies, you had the local population working. If it's agriculture, if it's mining or if it's construction, whatever it is, working for their occupiers, right?
LANGFITT: The Israeli government denies that the West Bank is a colony. Instead, it sees the area as part of a Jewish biblical heartland. Regardless, Maggor says the arrangement can be bitter for some Palestinian workers.
MAGGOR: The settlement housing and these industrial zones are being constructed by the same Palestinians that are losing their land and, you know, seeing the dream of a Palestinian state get farther and farther away from reality.
LANGFITT: Back at the factory parking lot, I meet Shadi Salameh (ph). He's just finished his shift at a chocolate factory. Salameh says his work commute isn't easy. Citing potential terror threats, Israeli soldiers sometimes close giant iron gates across the roads to his village and lock people inside.
SHADI SALAMEH: (Through interpreter) I have called my boss several times while standing at a closed gate. And I said, the gate's closed. And the supervisor says, what can you do? Go home, when it opens, come back.
LANGFITT: When Salameh is able to drive out of his village, he worries settlers might attack. He recalls one especially harrowing drive with his family.
SALAMEH: (Through interpreter) I've had an attack where they broke my window. They threw a stone through my window.
LANGFITT: Did they yell anything?
SALAMEH: (Through interpreter) They were screaming, death to Arabs. And then I had to immediately reverse and get out.
LANGFITT: Salameh's so nervous talking to me, he flaps his knees back and forth as if they were butterfly wings. Hasan Barghouthi (ph) runs a labor rights organization in the West Bank. He says labor law is weak here.
HASAN BARGHOUTHI: There is no minimum wage, no social insurance, medical insurance and other social benefits.
LANGFITT: Barghouthi adds that some factories sometimes simply don't pay some of their workers. But Salameh says he's treated well. He shows me a scar where he cut his hand dismantling a machine.
SALAMEH: (Through interpreter) A while ago, I had a job injury. He treated me and let me have time off until I recuperated. Whatever I ask, my supervisor gives me. If I ask for a raise, he gives me a raise.
LANGFITT: Salameh says, on principle, he doesn't like working with any aspect of the occupation. But good jobs are so hard to find here, he says nobody holds it against him.
Frank Langfitt, NPR News, in the occupied West Bank. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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