Workers and business owners operating in Israeli settlements in the West Bank have cautioned that Labour’s proposed ban on goods from the area could end up damaging the very people it is intended to help.
Unveiling the sanctions this week, Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said the measures were designed to take aim at “illegal settlements and settlement expansion”. He also accused “settler terrorists” of carrying out what he described as the “ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in areas of the West Bank”.
The announcement comes amid mounting calls for tougher action over violence in the West Bank, following reports of around 1,400 attacks by Israeli settlers this year, alongside continuing fears over Palestinian violence and wider security threats.
Central to the dispute is the highly contentious E1 development, a plan to construct more than 3,400 settler homes across 4.6 square miles of land directly east of Jerusalem.
Britain, along with many international governments and observers, fears the project would effectively split the West Bank in two and seriously weaken the prospects for a viable future Palestinian state.
Backers of the scheme reject that argument, citing a proposed transport link known as the “Fabric of Life Road”, which they say would allow Palestinians to continue travelling between the northern and southern West Bank.
Yet for many people living and working in the area, the immediate concern is not diplomacy but income. They fear Labour’s sanctions package could threaten jobs and businesses rather than improve conditions for Palestinians.
Although the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, the militant group that rules the Gaza Strip, have both welcomed the British measures as an “important step”, opinions among those directly affected on the ground are far less clear-cut.
Pictured: The area east of Jerusalem where the E1 settlement homes are planned to be built
“The British Government is making a big mistake,” said Samech, an Arab-Israeli businessman from Jerusalem. “They are punishing 7,000 Palestinians who come to work in just this commercial centre every day.”
Samech runs Aleph Samech, a West Bank construction company that employs 20 Palestinians and eight Israelis and is expected to be affected by the trade ban. He said the firm helps sustain more than 28 families. “It’s terrible,” he said.
Although his company does not export goods directly, it supplies other businesses that do, leaving it exposed to the wider fallout from the restrictions. “Politics doesn’t interest us; it’s ugly, everyone else’s meddling and politics is what causes all the problems for us. We all live here side by side, we all look out for each other,” he added.
The sentiment was echoed by dozens of Palestinian workers who told Our News Outlet they were worried the measures introduced in their name could instead cost them jobs and leave families without vital income.
Ibrahim, from the city of Jericho, has worked at Maya Food Industries in the West Bank’s Mishor Adumim industrial park for 20 years. ‘Politics should be kept separate. There are going to be a lot of problems from this,’ he said.
It was also of little surprise to anyone in the area that the British embassy in Tel Aviv had reportedly warned the Government that it was ‘not possible’ to implement trade restrictions on West Bank settlements without hammering the 17,600 Palestinians who work here.
Mr Miliband has also said his plan will not be implemented for six to nine months, raising questions about how such a ban could even work, creating more uncertainty.
Ilan Amoyel, marketing manager of Maya Food Industries, said he was furious at Britain’s meddling.
Plea: Ibrahim and Ilan at Maya Food Industries in the West Bank
‘I would invite him [Mr Miliband] to come here and look at the employees who will actually be hurt in the end,’ he said. ‘They are at the bottom of the food chain, and ultimately they are the ones who get hurt.’
Maya Food Industries is a major Israeli food manufacturer that employs hundreds of people including around 350 Palestinians. It is typical of the businesses Mr Miliband’s sanctions appear designed to target.
The company exports around one million euros (£860,000) worth of goods to Britain alone each year. But uncertainty over the sanctions has already prompted the company to reduce working days for some employees.
‘If our exports go down, obviously there is less work, and the majority of our employees are Palestinian,’ Mr Amoyel said.
For workers such as Ibrahim, the political battle being fought over Israeli settlements could have a devastating effect on his life. He is not only supporting his family but numerous others in the West Bank.
Ten other employees at the warehouse, who did not want to be named, said they were ‘upset’ and ‘worried’ by the news of the sanctions, describing the Government’s policy as ‘misguided.’
Guy Yifrach, the mayor of the West Bank city of Ma’ale Adumim, said: ‘Our industrial zone is a hub of employment and coexistence for Jews and Arabs.
‘Behind every factory are workers and families. Anyone seeking to harm our industry is harming livelihoods on both sides.’
Mr Amoyel said Palestinian employees could earn substantially more at his company than they would in Palestinian-controlled areas.
‘We pay them double, and some people here make three times as much,’ he said.
‘They get all the benefits, they get the holidays, they get everything. We treat them exactly as we treat ourselves.’
At this, Ibrahim put his arm round the manager and said warmly: ‘All this man does is smile every day.’
One imagines if Mr Miliband took him up on his offer of a visit, this cheerful marketing manager would not be smiling any more.
