Thai traffic in the service of Israeli colonization

UAWC (Union of agriculture Workers Committees in Palestine) in cooperation with the Confederation Paysanne in France initiated a research paper to document the violations against Thai workers in the Israeli settlements.

(Jerusalem, January 2014) The violence and massive strikes of Palestinian workers that took place during the two Intifadas1 paralyzed the Israeli economy, heavily dependent on Palestinian labor, following the closure of the borders between Israel and the West Bank by the occupying army. Employers in sectors such as construction, agriculture and caregiving – despised and known for their gluttony for cheap and exploitable labor – therefore put pressure on the Israeli government to obtain authorization to import non-Jewish hands… and won. Along with the introduction of incentive policies for employment in these sectors towards Israelis, in the agricultural sector since 1995, thousands of Thai workers started to be literally imported by Israel. All of them come from peasant families from the north of the country and left Thailand because the traditional rice cultivation cannot compete with corporate industrial rice culture…

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