Precarious labour in precarious times: the impact of the war in Israel/Palestine on non-citizen workers

Through a study of the impact of the war in Israel/Palestine on non-citizen workers, this article contributes to a new area of research: the impact of a political crisis on labour migration policies. It considers key developments around the replacement of Palestinian workers with migrant workers and the adoption of problematic recruitment mechanisms discarded in the past. These developments reflect a tension between three logics underlying the political economy of non-citizen labour in Israel/Palestine: a capitalist, an ethno-nationalist, and a colonial logic. They show how events since October 2023 have shaped the relationship between the three logics. Conflicts around the use of national security rhetoric following the 7 October attack to promote a far-right political ideology and around domestic and international checks and balances that used to offer (limited) protection of workers’ rights demonstrate these tensions.