Let them work!

Outside industrial parks in the West Bank, thousands of Palestinians work for Israeli-owned farms.

In the news article,” Israel detains hundreds amid fierce crackdown on illegal Palestinian workers” by Killian Redden, there has been a recent outbreak with illegal Palestinian workers in Israel.  Just recently, there was over 1,200 illegal Palestinian workers caught by the Israeli police in just two weeks.  However though, the recent uproar of these illegal workers are thought to be part of a political game, and as stated in Redden’s article, “ few Palestinians attackers were in fact workers in Israel, and the recent crackdown has been condemned by rights groups as a political game, unlikely to affect the violence, yet economically harmful to both Palestinians and Israelis.” (Redden)  Many believe that the Israeli government is taking advantage of the illegal workers issue to scare and frighten the Israeli people, telling them there is some sort of security threat.  This uproar came into full throttle once a Palestinian who illegally crossed the border of the West Bank, resulting in his death.

The reason why Israel is having such a problem in regards to the illegal Palestinians working there is due to many factors.  One is the amount of allowable work permits to be issued in Israel.  The issue is  that there is tight limit on how many work permits, yet with higher amounts of workers entering the nation and looking for work, it is getting harder to compensate for this.  According to Redden’s article, “Last year, there were as many as 112,300 Palestinians employed in Israel and Israel’s illegal settlements -- about 12 percent of the Palestinian workforce -- according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics” (Redden).   Because of the huge amount of workers trying to get employed, while not having enough work available for them, many have become forced to enter the country illegally in order to start working.  It was estimated that there were over 36,000 illegal workers in 2015.  A very small amount of illegal workers live inside Israel,  however most of these illegal workers have to commute to and from work.

Checkpoint for Palestinians entering/exiting Israel

 As stated from Redden’s article, ““For Palestinian workers who regularly enter Israel illegally to earn a living, life is a constant struggle for survival and returning home safe and sound from work cannot be taken for granted...they live in constant anxiety, fearing arrest or injury. In such a reality, labor rights such as a minimum wage, reasonable work hours, and a pension scheme seem like a distant dream.” (Redden)

The article presented by Redden are very concurrent with the reality of the living conditions faced by many Palestinians.  Having these work permit laws set in place makes it harder for both Palestine and Israel.  This is because for the Palestinians, work is provided for them but at the same time, there is risk if one does not have a work permit, where they end up risking their lives to get to and from work.  On the Israeli side, having the Palestinians do the work that they would not want to do seems to be in favor to them, and as stated by Redden, “the crackdown on illegal workers is ultimately harmful to Israel. “It’s in Israel’s interests to have these cheap workers,” he said. “We are talking about the kind of jobs most Israeli Jews would not do.” (Redden)  

The author of the article, Killian Redden, is a definite believer in promoting economic wellness to the Palestinian people.  Many of her statements focus on showing the struggles and hardships every Palestinian who does not have a work permit must go through in order to make a decent living.  Redden uses facts and interview quotes from B'Tselem (The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories), and uses these resources to provide facts about the Palestinian workers.  

The Palestinians have a bit of hardship when it comes to making ends meet.  Many have resorted to going to Israel to find work.  Many do not have legal status to work there, but decide to regardless due to survival needs.  

Gun laws of Israel

The news article, “'A reservist gets a gun to defendthe state - but not himself?', by Ari Soffer gives focus to the issue of gun licensing laws in Israel.  The recent uproar of why gun control has been a debating topic in Israel is because of the constant and violent attacks by terrorists on the citizens of Israel; alongside the murder of IDF Sergeant Yanai Weissman.  In addition, the larger debate is on how a reservist is allowed to carry an automatic weapon during a certain time of the year, and the rest of the year, one cannot carry a simple handgun. 

If one was to walk around Israel, the first thought that would come to mind regarding defensiveness would be confidently high because of the large amount of guns being carried throughout the streets.  However though, the majority of people who are permitted to carry a weapon openly are soldiers, police, and security guards, and this has been more prominent because of the recent murder of IDF Sergeant Yanai Weissman.  Resulting from his murder, military members are required to have their military issued weapon on them, even while off duty.  Citizens can carry open weapons too, but there are only a select few, and it equals to only 2-4% of the entire population.  Currently in Israel, the gun laws are only applicable to the citizens who live in designated dangerous zones within Israel, like Judea and Samaria, and some areas of Jerusalem. 

According to the news article, that in order to keep the entire country safe from terrorist attacks on its defenseless people, gun ownership needs to be less restrictive towards its citizens.  The man behind this movement is Amir Ohana.  Amir Ohana, is a politician that serves on the Knesset for Likud, and he is also the first openly gay person to serve on the Knesset.  Amir Ohana’s is arguing that the current laws regarding gun

Amir Ohana at a pride event

proprietorship is unfair towards its citizens and needs to be modified in order to keep everyone safe.  Ohana points out that in comparison to the United States, Israel has hardly anything in terms of gun ownership.  As stated from an interview with Ohana, “Gun ownership in the United States stands at 112%, when taking into account the fact that many people own more than one gun (in Israel, licensed gun owners can only own a single handgun).  (Soffer) Ohana compares Israel to the United States because he thinks that we are almost spoiled in the fact that we have so much lenience with our gun laws when there is no threat to actually qualify the need to guns.  In Israel, there are terrorists constantly attacking defenseless citizens, and as Ohana stated, "We cannot expect our citizens to defend themselves with umbrellas and shopping carts.” (Soffer) 

When reading this article, the points being made about how guns can be a benefit to the country of Israel seem to be very logical and practical.  Without a doubt the country is under random acts of terrorism, and civilians are many times subjected to this without any forms of defense.  The author of the article, Ari Soffer used Ohana as the main protagonist for the fight for gun rights in Israel.  Within the article, Soffer takes interviews from Ohana describing his thoughts on the gun control issue.  The accuracy of this article is solely based on an interview with a Ohana, leaving Soffer as just an informant as to what Ohana’s opinions are about the concern.  Soffer is very against having gun control within Israel and is a supporter of Ohana’s beliefs on the matter. 

Gun control in Israel is currently very restrictive, and only allows a select few carry them under specific conditions.  In Soffer’s article he explains a great deal about politician Amir Ohana and his recent uproar on the current gun control policy in Israel.  The article goes into Ohana’s thoughts and what should be done in order to make Israel a safer place for its citizens.