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Source: https://jcpa.org/unemployed-west-bankers-also-express-ire-against-the-palestinian-authority/
Disgruntled Palestinian Laborers Turn Against Hamas
(Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) Khaled Abu Toameh - Public opinion polls may indicate an increase in Hamas' popularity among Palestinians in the West Bank after the October 7, 2023, massacre, but a growing number of Palestinians living there have begun speaking out against the Iran-backed Palestinian terror group. Most of those are Palestinian laborers who used to work inside Israel before the carnage. More than 140,000 Palestinians from the West Bank used to cross into Israel every day to work in a variety of jobs, including construction and agriculture. They have not been able to return to their workplaces since the Hamas attack. Many fear they may never return to work in Israel and that they will be replaced with foreign workers. A Palestinian earns much more in Israel than with Palestinian employers in the West Bank. Four months after the start of the Israel-Hamas war, most of the laborers remain unemployed. The PA is not able to provide them with work, and they are beginning to vent their anger and frustration at both the PA and Hamas. "Many laborers have been forced to work as vendors in their cities and villages," said a construction worker from Nablus. "Some sell vegetables and fruit, while others sell clothes and sandwiches....They used to make a lot of money working in Israel. Some built themselves new houses with the money they made in Israel, while others bought new cars. Now, these laborers are complaining that they can't feed their children." A shopkeeper from Tulkarem, whose son also used to work in Israel before Oct. 7, said even people who were previously known as Hamas sympathizers have begun criticizing the group. "I meet many people every day who are complaining that Hamas has brought a new nakba (catastrophe) on the Palestinians in both Gaza and the West Bank," he said. The writer, a fellow of the Jerusalem Center, is a veteran Israeli journalist.