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STOP THE
PERSECUTION OF JORDANIAN & PALESTINIAN WORKERS WAC called on local people to treat the workers as brothers, and suggested that it is their national and human duty to stand with all workers, irrespective of where they come from. Recent events in the Arab Village Abu Snan (near Acre) prompted the WAC statement, where the Local Council initiated a campaign of persecution against Jordanian and Palestinian workers who live in the village. The campaign's slogan was "force out the collaborators of the Occupation", describing the workers as strangers who were somehow responsible for drug trafficking, thieving and attacks on a local young woman. Some of
the villagers who participated in this campaign accused
the workers of having two passports (one from the
Palestinian Authority and another one from Following
a special meeting on the 27th of June, the local Council
distributed a copy of the its statement to villagers and
to the local press ,urging all villagers who rent
apartments to the so called "strangers" to The Head of the local Council Mr. Ali Hazima with the support of Hadash bloc asked the Israeli Police to ensure that the workers who do not have legal papers would be expelled. To our knowledge, tens of workers have already been evicted and expelled. The vicious campaign against the workers was also portrayed by local press as patriotic and the leaders of the Village were shown to be fighting against the Occupation and for Palestinian rights. The affair is worrying for the tens of thousands of Palestinian, Jordanian, Egyptian and other foreign workers work in Israel illegally and there is no doubt that it could develop into a major social tragedy if it were allowed to continue in other Arab communities. According to a team of WAC activists who visited Abu Snan village on Thursday 2nd of July, the facts on the ground are radically different to those reported by the local Council. Samia Nasser and Raji Khtib met with a group of Jordanian and Palestinian workers together with some supportive locals. The workers refused to allow their names to be published for fear of reprisals. The result of the discussion can be summarised as follows: The crisis was triggered by a problem between some workers and one of the families in the village on the night of Friday 26th of June. The workers say it started when one of them demanded his salary for two days work 400 INS, which the contractor refused to pay. The Villagers' version says that the workers attacked their house for no reason. One thing is clear - the whole thing had nothing to do with fighting occupation, but was a simple local event. There is not one West bank or Jordanian Citizen in Abu Snan who is a known collaborator of the Occupation and the campaign launched by the local council targeted workers who are known to the community and have lived in the village for more than two years. The accusations of drug dealing, thieving and sexual misconduct were simply not true. Regarding the double Passports, we found out that tens of thousands of West Bank citizens have both identity cards from the Palestinian Authority and Jordanian Passports, it is a common situation which has nothing to do with forged documents. Collaborators who have been resettled inside Israel have all been given Israeli ID cards. They come with their families, are protected by the police and GSS and are often armed. None of the workers who were expelled from Abu Snan lived the lifestyle of a collaborator. The role of the local council and progressive activists in the village should have been to stop the event from getting out of hand and not to escalate the situation. WAC expresses its deep solidarity with foreign workers and in particular workers from neighboring Arab countries who are forced to work in Israel illegally because they cannot find the means in their own countries to feed themselves and their families. The Jordanian and Palestinian workers who were the target of the campaign in Abu Snan are the victims of the American–Israeli system in the Middle East which renders Arab countries dependent on the west. When workers enter Israel without work permits, they become easy targets for Jewish and Arab Contractors and Companies who exploit them and often refuse to even pay their salaries. Contractors have even been known to call the police once a job has been completed, rather than pay workers their wages. The Arab masses in Israel and all supporters of human and workers' rights should stand by these workers against the profit minded companies who exploit local workers also. WAC calls the people of Abu Snan, the local Council and the Arab press to be careful before initiating collective slander campaigns like the one started in Abu Snan. It is our duty as workers, as human beings and as supporters of the Arab cause to stand by these workers' right to earn their living in dignity. ### WAC - The Independent Workers
Association
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