The Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) has strongly urged the Indian government to refrain from sending construction workers to Israel amidst the ongoing genocide in Gaza. This comes after the Israeli construction industry asked the Indian government to allow companies to recruit 1 lakh Indian workers to replace the 90,000 Palestinians whose work permits have been canceled since the war on Gaza began.
The war between Israel and Gaza was triggered by an incursion by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas on October 7. The conflict has resulted in a staggering toll, with 10,812 Palestinians, including 4,412 children, reported dead in Gaza, and at least 182 Palestinians killed in the West Bank. Israel has also reported over 1,500 casualties.
The Israeli Builders Association, facing a shortage of workers, is in talks with India to hire construction workers, aiming to bring the sector back to normal. Haim Feiglin, the association’s vice president, stated, “We hope to engage 50,000 to 100,000 workers from India to run the whole sector since Palestinian workers, constituting about 25% of our human resources, are not permitted to work in Israel due to the ongoing conflict.”
In response to these developments, CITU issued a statement denouncing what it termed “brutal inhuman acts of the Israeli authority” and urged Indian workers to refuse deployment to Israel. The union reiterated its demand for the Indian government to reject any move by Israel and its Builders’ Association, urging support for the latest UN Resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire by Israel and the establishment of a Palestinian homeland with pre-1967 borders, free from occupation.
The Construction Workers Federation of India, operating under CITU, echoed these sentiments in a separate statement. It strongly objected to attempts to send Indian construction workers to Israel, characterizing it as support for “genocidal attacks on Palestine.” The federation called upon its members and the people of India to protest against endangering the lives of the country’s construction workers.
While the conflict is cited as the reason to bring in Indian workers, it’s worth noting that India and Israel signed an agreement in May of the same year to allow 42,000 Indian workers to work in Israel in construction and nursing fields. The agreement aimed to engage 34,000 workers in construction and an additional 8,000 for nursing needs, highlighting a pre-existing diplomatic and economic collaboration between the two nations.
On its part, the external affairs ministry has come out with a clarification, stating that the government is not aware of the specific requests or numbers that are floating in media.
We have been working towards giving our citizens access to a global workplace,” said MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi.
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