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Dec. 28, 2020
“I’ve worked in the Carmel Market in Tel Aviv since I was a kid,” Issam Barakeh told me on the phone, and I pictured him as a young boy hauling crates, husking corn, culling overripe tomatoes, sweeping the shop at the end of the day, and picking up Hebrew all the while.
In the 1970s and ‘80s, Israel respected the Palestinians’ right to freedom of movement: With a few exceptions, and except for during periods of curfews, they could freely move between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, and back and forth from the occupied territories to Israel. Israel had its own economic and political incentives to permit the freedom of movement, but still many youths from Gaza, like Barakeh, who is now 56, were able to use their school vacations to help support their families. Many Israeli families owe their own wealth to Palestinian workers and the low wages they were paid.