Injured and Abandoned: Palestinian Workers Demand Fairer Treatment Palestinian workers force Israeli firm to pledge fairer treatment
When Khalil Shehab first began working for Yamit, an Israeli water filtration company in the Nitzanei Shalom industrial park in 1995, he did not anticipate that he would become a pioneer in the fight for equal labor rights.
The industrial zone, just inside the occupied West Bank and next to Tulkarm city, was set up as part of the Oslo agreement between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization. Its name translates as “buds of peace.”
But while goods there are produced to Israeli standards, working conditions are not up to scratch. This is where Shehab got involved.
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Jan. 14, 2021
Palestinian employees at the Yamit Filtration & Water Treatment plant in the Nitzanei Shalom industrial zone adjacent to the Palestinian city of Tul Karm launched a general strike on December 31, after the company’s owner and CEO, Ofer Talmi, refused to accede to their demands for a collective labor agreement.
For its part, the company said it has agreed to salary increases and other benefits through individual employment contracts with the employees in accordance with Jordanian law prevailing in the West Bank. The concessions follow a series of strikes and labor court litigation over the separate employment terms that Israeli and West Bank Palestinian employees have been subject to at the plant.