Palestinian Workers in the West Bank: Labor in the Time of Genocide

Abstract This brief paper aims to consider the impact of Israel’s settler-colonial measures on workers in the West Bank of the occupied Palestinian territories (oPt) after October 2023. Although the ongoing war has been waged on the Gaza Strip, with devastating repercussions for lives and livelihoods in the Strip, Israeli colonial measures in the West Bank have had a grave impact on all segments of Palestinian society, including workers. These measures include: First; closure of the Israeli labor market in the face of tens of thousands of Palestinian workers. Second, broadening the system of movement restrictions within the West Bank which led to disruptions in local production and trade thus damaging private sector operations. Third; Israel’s continued withholding of Palestinian custom duty revenues with adverse impacts on workers in general but particularly public sector workers. To assess the impact of these measures, the paper utilizes a number of indices to assess the situation of these workers; including labor supply, unemployment, wage levels, distribution across sectors, informality, and workers’ rights. The paper finds a grave deterioration in the situation of workers in the labor market at all levels, with dire repercussions for workers and their families.