Israel Plans to Replace Tens of Thousands of Palestinian Workers with Foreign Laborers

The television network "Kan" reported that Israel intends to carry out a "major action" aimed at what it calls "liberation from the security threat to the country" by expelling all Palestinian workers and permanently replacing them with foreign workers. According to a plan reported by the Israeli ministries of finance, interior, and labor, 25,500 workers from Sri Lanka, 20,000 from China, 17,000 from India, 13,000 from Thailand, and 6,000 from Moldova will be employed. This plan is said to have been approved by the Israeli finance minister, and the economic cabinet is set to discuss it in the next two weeks, after which the government must ultimately agree to it. Thousands of construction and agricultural workers from the West Bank have been banned from entering Israel for work following Hamas's deadly attack on October 7. Israel believes that Hamas gathered part of its intelligence for the attack from a group of Gazans who had work permits in Israel. This decision by the Israeli government comes at a time when the country's Ministry of Economy announced last summer that it had issued 3,500 additional permits for Palestinian professional workers to work in Israel's manufacturing and service sectors. According to statistics provided at that time, 8,500 Palestinian professional workers were allowed to work in Israel's manufacturing sector, and with the new permits, the number of Palestinian professional workers employed in Israel's manufacturing sector would reach 12,000.