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Why Israel should expand work permits for Palestinians

In order to end the situation where Palestinians pay thousands of shekels to obtain work permits in an illegal manner, Israel should expand the number of permits and offer job seekers some hope.
Palestinian workers wait to cross the Israeli-controlled Al-Jalama checkpoint as they head to work in Israel, near Jenin in the Israeli-occupied West Bank May 2, 2019. REUTERS/Raneen Sawafta - RC1A7B3BA450
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Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz may be aware of the problem of phony work permits for Palestinians from his many long years of service in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Or maybe he isn’t. Still, he was given a mandate Oct. 23 to try to form a new government. Should he succeed and become the next prime minister, he should dive right into this issue. It won’t be too hard for him to make the necessary changes, which would benefit all parties. He would have to do it with the same urgency that he would have to declare the Hilltop Youth to be a terrorist organization. The Hilltop Youth, a group of violent settlers active in the West Bank, not only harm the Palestinians, their mosques, and their olive groves, but also the IDF, which the group regards as jackbooted occupiers.

The issue of these illegal permits to work in Israel was raised by the Palestinian government when it met in Ramallah at the beginning of October. The problem was presented in all its severity at the meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh. The entire process is completely illegal as far as the Palestinians are concerned, but it is equally illegal from the Israeli side of things.

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