Israeli settlements have been a bone of contention in the so-called Israeli/Palestinian peace process but what happens when construction of these settlements becomes a source of income for… Palestinians?
Hisham Jarallah at the Gatestone Institute explains:
As the Arab countries continue to impose strict employment restrictions on Palestinians, Israel is opening its doors to Palestinian workers from the West Bank. Palestinians say, in fact, that Israel is becoming one of the largest employers of Palestinians in the Middle East.
Figures released this week by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics in Ramallah showed that at least 80,000 Palestinians were now working in Israel and even in Jewish settlements.
In the first quarter of 2012, according to the bureau, there were only 77,000 Palestinians working in Israel and the settlements. In the second quarter of the ear, the number grew to 80,000; and earlier this week, the Israeli government issued work permits to another 10,000 Palestinians from the West Bank.
Israel is such a small country amidst a majority Muslim Middle East. Why aren’t these Palestinians finding work elsewhere? According to Jarallah, it’s not for lack of trying…
The Arab world, which once used to absorb hundreds of thousands of Palestinian employees, is beginning to close its doors in the face of Palestinians. Many of the Arab countries accuse the Palestinians of being ungrateful. Others do not want to see Palestinians at all: they consider Palestinians troublemakers and a source of instability.
Some Arab countries such as Lebanon, Egypt, Kuwait and Jordan even impose apartheid-like regulations and laws that prevent Palestinians from earning a decent living.
Arab Apartheid? That would seem to reinforce our belief that when leftists and Islamist complain about repressive regimes, it’s almost always the result of projection.
Projection is a defense mechanism that involves taking our own unacceptable qualities or feelings and ascribing them to other people.
In any case, read it all.
h/t Keith