It will take two years for the Indians to make up the shortfall - and what in the meantime?/ShutterStock
The construction industry in Israel, February 2024, a snapshot: half of the construction sites are paralyzed - 60% of them in the Jerusalem and southern districts, the security system warns of a third intifada and in India a policeman is sent to every worker's home, to examine his past before arriving in Israel;
For the contractors, another scheme is opened: apartments will be delivered at least six months late, without the state giving an outline of compensation or recognition as "force majeure".
Even if the Indian workers arrive in a kind of "air train" with two planes a week and 1,000 people in them, as they hope in the most optimal situation, until they cover the entire quota of workers in the construction industry it will take at least 90 weeks, almost two years.
And what in the meantime?
The sites will remain shut down without working hands, as the shortage of Palestinian workers approaches 100 thousand.
What is sad is that currently barely 250 laborers arrive by flight from India once a week.
Drop in the ocean.
Let's go back for a moment 50 years, the Yom Kippur War, October 73. Some of us surely remember the days of air trains with weapons and emergency supplies from the USA to Israel, following talks between Golda Meir and American President Kissinger. The oil crisis was then in the air. With the letters A to V, and car owners in Israel were asked to choose a day of the week when they would turn off their vehicles for 24 hours, in order to save fuel. At that time, no one was talking about real estate.
Until the 1990s, real estate was off the public agenda in the newly built country.
Golda Meir with Yigal Alon/Government Press Office, Moshe Milner
Back to the present, the October 23 war, and the air trains that arrive from the world to Israel are different and are supposed to contain human material - without which the building of the state would not be possible.
This time, this stuff will come from the east and not the west.
I am of course talking about the foreign workers.
China, until further notice, is out of the cosmopolitan game due to its position in global status.
The government in China is in a trap: on the one hand, it acts against everything the US touches, despite the internal sympathy for Israel. On the other hand, the Houthis have changed the rules of the game in the tremendous economic damage they cause, especially to China, in transporting goods from Hong Kong and the ports of the East towards Europe; until further notice, the Chinese workers who saved Israel in the last decade are no longer taking part in saving the country.
Although there are still Chinese who continue to work in Israel, the new destination is India. Thousands of workers are currently being tested in India, learning Israeli construction methods, and also where to protect themselves and escape During an alarm to a protected area. The demand among Indians for work in Israel is tremendous, mainly due to the conditions and wages. Let's recall that a Chinese laborer here earned NIS 20,000 a month.
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Before we fly to India - what about our neighbors from the Middle East?
This week, three ministers, the Treasury, the Housing and the Interior, called us, the reporters, to a bombastic press conference where they presented the housing plan for 2024, it can be considered the first housing plan since the war in Gaza, and the first sentence they said was about the tremendous shortage of manpower.
It is clear to everyone that the absence of approximately 90,000 Palestinian workers from the West Bank and another 17,000 from Gaza is what shut down the construction sites.
Everyone remembers the massive protests by mayors against the admission of Arab-Israeli workers to the construction sites in the early days of the war. Today, the fear The big thing is not what will happen to the Israelis, but what will happen to the Palestinians under the wrath of a few. Let's remember that some of them went on the roofs and went out into the streets to rejoice at the massacre; on the other hand, there are good people who wish to return to work here since their home economy lies in this. Most of the workers are financially stable and at a higher level Their neighbors, therefore, also committed themselves to loans with the banks, which they are now unable to repay.
The IDF is currently focusing on the refugee camps in northern Samaria with the perception that this is the Achilles' heel and the fortified cities of refuge that have developed over the past few years, while at the same time keeping an eye on what is happening in other parts of Israel. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is also faltering on the decision to promote the arrival of the Palestinian workers. About a month ago he said that this was being examined and the direction was positive. Since then there was the stabbing attack in Ra'anana, and now nothing has moved. A senior official in the security establishment even said: "There is a situation where political
parties
are consciously leading us to the third intifada, perhaps even intentionally";
This is not a new opinion among the securityists.
In August before the war, in an interview with Radio North, Major General (Res.) Gershon HaCohen ("The Securityists") said: "What prevents the outbreak of a third intifada is over 150,000 Palestinian workers who go to work in Israel every day."
Palestinian workers at the end of a working day, Eyal Crossing, May 2015/Shlomi Gabbai
Let's talk for a moment about the concept that put us to sleep: the average wage in Gaza was NIS 1,200 a month, while a Gazan laborer who worked in Israel earned between NIS 7,000 and 12,000.
Each such worker supported seven other Gazans on average.
On the other hand, contractors watched in horror on television and saw their workers among the perpetrators of the massacre.
It is absolutely clear today that it was a Trojan horse.
It doesn't matter how much they earned, they looked enviously at the Israelis who live better.
The security system is unanimous and the message was conveyed to the security cabinet: "Judea and Samaria are on the verge of an explosion. We may end up there with a third intifada because of the unrest caused by the economic hardship and the lack of laborers entering Israel."
The government housing program ignores the Palestinians
Let's go back to the press conference of Smotritz, Goldknopf and Arbel that took place on Sunday last week;
They deployed the government's plan to solve the housing crisis.
The very next day, the government approved the real estate plan for 2024 in the amount of 2.5 billion shekels. At this stage we will immediately move to the chapter of foreign workers, because the chapter of Palestinian workers was not there
. to Israel of the number of foreign workers for the needs of the industry as soon as possible," they wrote, "and the quota of foreign workers who can be employed in Israel will be increased to 65,000 workers."
Furthermore, as part of the government plan, a call will be published with the aim of expanding the scope of foreign construction companies that work in the residential construction industry in Israel and the number of workers will increase by an additional 10,000 workers.
In addition, in cooperation with the Population and Immigration Authority, a procedure will be promoted according to which the minimum hours required in the salary of a foreign worker will be reduced, so that medium and small contractors can also hire foreign workers, to supplement the missing manpower for continued work.
Also, according to the plan, the government will work to extend working hours at the construction sites.
At the same time, the government will work to encourage the employment of Israeli workers in the construction industry.
"The government believes that local populations should continue to be encouraged to join the construction industry, therefore a grant program will be promoted to encourage employment in the industry with an investment of NIS 60 million," it said.
and we will move to the field.
For the first time, perhaps in years, foreign construction companies, headed by Eldad Nitzan, are working together with the Boni Ha'aretz contractors association, headed by Raul Sargo; most of the work is being done in India. In Sri Lanka, they actually downgraded, despite Miri Regev's "important" visit. For three days in India, Regev and his entourage are expected to fly to nearby Sri Lanka, in order to promote an agreement between the countries to import foreign workers from the country to Israel, for the benefit of work on infrastructure projects. It does not matter that the workers in Sri Lanka are at a lower level, as is revealed during the tests.
The speculation is that we will soon enter a relatively fast pace For them, the arrival of foreign workers. Last week (Tuesday), the first batch of workers from India already landed here. "It's only been a month since the recruitment began, this week the first plane landed and after that significant amounts of workers will start arriving every week," says Eldad Nitzan, Yo R. K. A. foreign construction companies in Israel.
First round of Indian workers in Israel/Ministry of Construction and Housing
In two weeks there will be another selection round in India, and the new government's decision will create more fast avenues for recruiting employees.
In addition, after learning the entire Indian bureaucracy in the first recruitment round, lessons were learned to speed up selections.
The Minister of the Interior, Moshe Arbel, is following all these things closely and is leading improvements in steps to shorten the processes.
The same is true of the Population Authority and its head, Eyal Siso, and the Director General of the Ministry of Housing, Yehuda Morgenstern, who do not rest and are working to speed up the processes and bring in workers in all channels.
Selections are now concentrated in India through the bilateral agreements, while other countries are being examined. At the same time, as mentioned, there are also selections through The bilateral agreements in Sri Lanka. Through the private agreements, 250 workers are arriving this week, and with the flow of approval from India, 400 workers will begin to flow in a week until the arrival of 10,000. Immediately after that, the private route will be accelerated through several additional channels.
Many lessons have been learned from the recruitment in India. In the next rounds, things that have been delayed will be improved The first round of workers, such as a certificate of integrity that took three weeks to issue, from now on the workers will arrive with the certificates of integrity to the screenings in advance. In addition, there will be a shortened route. Up until now, every police officer has been required to come to each worker's home to check him. Also the process of submitting the documents to the Population and Immigration Authority In Israel it will be in one package, and not step by step, which will shorten the process by half.
Still, it must be said honestly that the lack of doctors for physical examinations that the workers in India have to undergo, and difficulty in issuing documents and certificates required for work in Israel, may further delay the arrival of the Indians to Israel , without us being able to do anything to change it.
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