Head of Palestinian trade unions: Israel putting Palestinian workers “in the 1948 territories” in danger of catching Coronavirus

Headline: “Sa’ad warned against the consequences of the lack of medical aid for laborers who were allowed to work and stay within the 1948 territories”

“Secretary-General of the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions Shaher Sa'ad warned against the dangerous medical consequences for the health of the Palestinian laborers who are working and were allowed to stay in the 1948 territories (i.e., Israel), given the lack of necessary medical aid for them from their employers.Sa’ad said in a press release he published yesterday, Friday [March 20, 2020], that not supplying preventative treatment and a medically secure place to stay for laborers constitutes shirking  [off of the responsibility] by employers and the occupation state, which do not relate to our laborers like the Israeli laborers or foreign laborers who are staying in Israel. This indicates that the racist criteria regarding them have remained as is, despite the sudden danger that will affect everyone.

He added that the Israeli racism is endangering the laborers’ lives and their welfare, and exposing them to the danger of being infected with diseases – whether infectious diseases or the Coronavirus that has begun to spread in the Israeli occupation state, and this is an intentional racist step that contradicts all of the international regulations concerning the health and welfare of the laborers…

Sa’ad warned against the possibility that the occupation state will treat the laborers as it has treated those of them who became ill even before the Coronavirus epidemic – in other words, that it will keep those who it suspects are sick at the military checkpoints, as it kept the injured laborers [there] in the past and left them to bleed to death without providing them with the necessary medical aid.He mentioned the shocking report published by the Israeli Channel 11 [news station] on the residential and living conditions of the laborers who are allowed to live and stay in the 1948 territories, after they received promises from their employers that they will provide them with accessorized residential apartments.”