(Gatestone Institute) Bassam Tawil - On the eve of Hamas's Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, Israeli authorities had issued permits to work in Israel to 18,500 Palestinians from Gaza. The Palestinians from Gaza received many of the same rights as Israeli workers, including health insurance and pension plans. The workers had far higher earnings in Israel than in Gaza. The Israeli authorities were discussing increasing the number of work permits for Palestinians in Gaza. Oct. 7 forced Israel to revoke the work permits for security reasons, while work permits for Palestinians from the West Bank were also suspended. More than 170,000 Palestinians had been working in Israel, constituting an important source of income for the Palestinian economy. The Oct. 7 atrocities serve as a reminder that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not about improving the living conditions of the Palestinians or strengthening their economy. Instead, the conflict is about the desire of the majority of Palestinians to slaughter Jews and destroy Israel. A massacre was not the outcome many had expected after the Israelis' willingness to help improve the lives of their Palestinian neighbors.
2024-06-20 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive