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Non-citizen workers still exploited in Israel, despite court ruling [1]

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Date: 2025-05

Until 2020, Palestinian workers were bound to the employer listed in their work permit. This measure existed to supervise their whereabouts and control their movement. But in practice, trade in permits, subcontracting and work for other employers were common. Workers were also subject to constant surveillance while in Israel, reflecting the state’s perception of their presence as a threat to national security.

In 2020, a new arrangement was adopted to end the binding of Palestinian construction workers. This arrangement redefined the employment model in the construction sector, and under the new model permit-holding workers were to be able to move freely between different employers within the construction sector, subject to registration. The new model also included a mechanism which enabled permit-holding workers to enter Israel to seek employment. The construction sector, like all sectors employing Palestinian workers, was still subject to a set quota limiting the number of Palestinian workers it could bring into the country.

These measures were expected to reduce binding and the high recruitment fees paid by the Palestinian workers, who relied on brokers to find them a job. However, research conducted in 2021 following the adoption of the new model showed it did not significantly improve labour market mobility and many workers were not aware of the policy changes.

Migrant workers post-1990

The history of non-Palestinian migrant labour in Israel is intimately connected to these same Palestinian workers. Migrant workers were first recruited in significant numbers in the early 1990s, to replace Palestinian workers following the first Intifada (the Palestinian uprising which began in the Occupied Territories in 1987).

But their binding, unlike that of Palestinian workers, was not meant to serve national security interests. Rather, it was adopted as a migration control measure to supervise their presence and ensure departure from the country, as well as to restrict their work to specific sectors and jobs. The binding to specific employers – accompanied by the risk of loss of status, deportation, and unpayable debt in the country of origin – led NGOs to successfully challenge the arrangement in court.

In 2006, the Supreme Court of Israel struck down the binding arrangement. Its harshly worded judgment held that such arrangements violated the basic rights of migrant workers and infringed upon their liberty and their dignity. The judgment led to the adoption of a “sectoral binding” model, providing migrant workers with permits to work in a specific sector – agriculture, construction, care – and permitting them freedom of movement between employers within that sector.

This development was significant as a defence of the constitutional rights of non-citizens, but the judgment achieved little on the ground. A substantial percentage of non-Israeli workers continue to be bound to their employers.

Refined binding

Strangely, the same supreme court that rejected the binding arrangement as “a modern form of slavery” has subsequently and repeatedly approved new forms of binding.

In the construction industry, the court approved the binding of thousands of workers to foreign construction companies that operate in Israel and directly employ the migrant workers who work for them. Workers in foreign construction companies are subject to restrictions on changing employers.

The first attempt to challenge the binding to foreign construction companies at the supreme court involved the Turkish construction company Yılmazlar. That case was still pending when the court gave its groundbreaking judgment on the binding agreement. But despite strong evidence concerning poor working conditions, economic coercion, restrictions of movement, threats, and violence, the court did not remain consistent with the ruling it had just given. It considered those working for Yılmazlar to be safe from coercion and exploitation, and allowed their continued binding to the company.

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[1] Url: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/beyond-trafficking-and-slavery/non-citizen-workers-still-exploited-in-israel-despite-court-ruling/

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