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MK demands stricter criteria for Palestinian workers in Judea and Samaria

Sukkot believes the government is applying a different standard when it comes to the security of the residents of Judea and Samaria versus those who live in the rest of Israel.

By John Hasten, JNS

Knesset member Zvi Sukkot of the Religious Zionism Party is calling on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reverse a Security Cabinet decision from late 2023 and prevent Palestinian Authority Arabs from working in Israeli communities and industrial zones throughout Judea and Samaria.

Sukkot penned his request in a letter to the prime minster, shared with JNS, following Sunday’s attack in the Bar-On Industrial Zone in Samaria, in which an Arab terrorist used a hammer to bludgeon to death Gidon Peri, 38, a father of three and a resident of the nearby town of Kedumim.

An IDF manhunt continues for the assailant, who worked alongside Peri in an industrial zone factory, the latter serving as a security guard, before killing Peri, stealing his firearm and fleeing the scene.

Sukkot believes the government is applying a different standard when it comes to the security of the residents of Judea and Samaria versus those who live in the rest of Israel.

As he explained in his letter to Netanyahu, “I emphasize that after the bloody events on the 7th of October, and in view of the immediate danger to Jewish life, the Security Cabinet decided to prohibit the entry of Palestinian laborers into the State of Israel.

“As I recall, the vast majority among the Arabs of Judea and Samaria expressed sympathy and support for the murderous actions of Hamas on the 7th of October and believe that the massacre was ‘justified, appropriate and praiseworthy.’”

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Sukkot continued, “Although disturbing and unthinkable, this decision does not apply to the entry of Palestinian workers into communities and industrial zones in Judea and Samaria. Accordingly, tens of thousands of Palestinians enter communities in Judea and Samaria daily, and are located next to kindergartens, schools and the homes of families whose owners were called to the front lines [of the war, and are not present].

Even as a limited number of P.A. Arabs (8,000) were given permits to work in Israel proper as early as late October, Sukkot said the restrictions are tighter than in Judea and Samaria.

“To work in the State of Israel, a Palestinian must be 22 years old and married, or if he is single, over 27. In Judea and Samaria, any Palestinian over 18 can work and regardless of marital status.”

He added, “Unfortunately, today’s attack is the result of this discriminatory policy. … I would ask that the Security Cabinet apply the security criteria equally for Judea and Samaria to remove the immediate threats and ensure equal security for all residents of the State of Israel.”

New protocol

In June, the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee’s Subcommittee for Judea and Samaria, which Sukkot chairs, discussed the need for enhanced security at construction sites and industrial areas in Judea and Samaria that employs P.A. workers.

Shortly thereafter, the IDF announced that it would be tightening security procedures. According to the new protocol, Israeli employers of P.A. workers were required to provide one security guard for every four workers at a small construction site, and one guard for every 10 workers at a large construction site.

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Previous regulations stated that one guard was required for every 10 workers at any sized construction site.

At the same time, according to the updated procedures the security guards must have completed level three arms training as part of their IDF reserve service (and not be currently performing reserve duty), or be an employee of a security company with a security guard certificate.

Also, those designated as guards for the workers must only engage in this role and not be a laborer or a foreman on the site.

Sukkot at the time said he was happy that security was tightened, but nevertheless, “the entrance of Palestinian laborers must be prohibited in general [in Judea and Samaria] as is the case in the rest of the country.”

Mind boggling

The B’yadaim Shelanu (“In Our Hands”) movement, an initiative launched by a group of women in the Etzion bloc town of Efrat that opposes the reinstatement of Arab workers from the Palestinian Authority in the wake of Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre, showed its support for Sukkot’s stance.

Malkah Fleisher, one of the group’s leaders, told JNS, “B’yadaim Shelanu stands behind MK Zvi Sukkot, who has the guts and the clarity to tell the truth so many Israelis have been crying out during this war: We no longer accept in our midst anyone who supports violence against Israelis. We will not build our nation at the hands of people who want to destroy our nation.

“To think that Israel has tolerated for so long a situation in which some people try to save money by hiring people who are so potentially violent that they actually require armed guards on premises is mind boggling. But now we can fix this broken outlook, and begin to run our society in a much healthier and sounder way,” she said.

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“We urge all Knesset members to stand behind MK Sukkot, who is truly and bravely representing the true will of the people of Israel,” Fleisher said.

Hamas’s twin

None of the official authorities representing the Israeli communities of Judea and Samaria touched on the issue of Arab workers in their statements following Sunday’s terrorist attack. Instead they focused on the need for the government to take action against the terrorist infrastructure.

Samaria Regional Council Chairman Yossi Dagan said, “We need to restore deterrence. This attack could not have come without the incitement and terrorist financing by the Palestinian Authority. This terrorist will receive a huge salary when he is caught, for the rest of his life, from the terrorist in a suit Abu Mazen [P.A. head Mahmoud Abbas], the Siamese twin of Hamas.

“And on the day he is released, he will receive a pension on the level of a general in the ‘Palestinian Police,’ which is the branch that is supposed to fight terrorism in the spirit of the withdrawals and the Oslo Accords,” Dagan said sarcastically.

“It’s time for the Israeli government to wake up from this mindset, it’s time for the government to understand who our enemies are and who we are facing,” he said.