Israeli settlements are exploiting Palestinian child labor

[RFS_Br]

Israel: Settlement Agriculture Harms Palestinian Children | Human Rights Watch

(Jerusalem) – Israeli settlement farms in the West Bank are using Palestinian child labor to grow, harvest, and pack agricultural produce, much of it for export, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The farms pay the children low wages and subject them to dangerous working conditions in violation of international standards.

The 74-page report, “Ripe for Abuse: Palestinian Child Labor in Israeli Agricultural Settlements in the West Bank,” documents that children as young as 11 work on some settlement farms, often in high temperatures. The children carry heavy loads, are exposed to hazardous pesticides, and in some cases have to pay themselves for medical treatment for work-related injuries or illness.

“Israel’s settlements are profiting from rights abuses against Palestinian children,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director. “Children from communities impoverished by Israel’s discrimination and settlement policies are dropping out of school and taking on dangerous work because they feel they have no alternatives, while Israel turns a blind eye.”

Human Rights Watch interviewed 38 children and 12 adults who work on seven settlement farms in the Jordan Valley area, which covers about 30 percent of the West Bank and where most large agricultural settlements are located.

Discriminatory Israeli restrictions on Palestinian access to farmland and water in the West Bank, particularly in the Jordan Valley, a traditional center of Palestinian agriculture, cost the Palestinian economy more than US$700 million each year, according to World Bank estimates. Palestinian poverty rates in the Jordan Valley are up to 33.5 percent, among the highest anywhere in the West Bank. Some Palestinians lease agricultural lands from Israeli settlers, to whom Israel allocated the lands after unlawfully appropriating them from Palestinians.

Israeli policies that support the transfer of civilians into occupied territory and Israel’s appropriation of land and resources there for settlements violate Israel’s obligations as the occupying power under the Fourth Geneva Convention. These violations are compounded by rights abuses against Palestinians working in the settlements, including children, Human Rights Watch said. Israel should dismantle the settlements and, in the meantime, prohibit settlers from employing children in accordance with Israel’s obligations under international treaties on children’s rights and labor rights.

Virtually all the Palestinian children Human Rights Watch interviewed said they felt they had no alternative but to find work on settlement farms to help support their families.

Israel has allocated 86 percent of the land in the Jordan Valley to settlements, and provides vastly greater access to water from the aquifer beneath the valley to the settlement agricultural industry than to the Palestinians living in the valley. Israeli agricultural settlements export a substantial amount of their produce abroad, including to Europe and the United States.

Official statistics are not available, but Israeli and Palestinian development and labor rights groups estimate that hundreds of children work in Israeli agricultural settlements year-round, and that their numbers increase during peak harvesting times.

The children whom Human Rights Watch interviewed said they had suffered nausea and dizziness. Some said they had passed out while working in summer temperatures that frequently exceed 40 degrees Celsius outdoors, and are even higher inside the greenhouses in which many children work. Other children said they had experienced vomiting, breathing difficulties, sore eyes, and skin rashes after spraying or being exposed to pesticides, including inside enclosed spaces. Some complained of back pain after carrying heavy boxes filled with produce or “backpack” containers of pesticide.

Israeli labor laws prohibit youth from carrying heavy loads, working in high temperatures, and working with hazardous pesticides, but Israel has not applied these laws to protect Palestinian children working in its settlements. Israeli authorities rarely inspect working conditions for Palestinians on Israeli settlement farms. The Israeli Defense, Economy, and Labor Ministries all say that they are studying how to apply more labor protections for Palestinians working in settlements, but that in the meantime no authority has a clear mandate to enforce regulations.

Of the children interviewed for the report, 33 had dropped out of school and were working full-time on Israeli settlements. Of these, 21 had dropped out before completing the 10 years of basic education that are compulsory under Palestinian as well as Israeli laws.

“So what if you get an education, you’ll wind up working for the settlements,” one child said.

Teachers and principals at Palestinian schools in the Jordan Valley said that children who worked part-time on settlements during weekends and after school were often exhausted in class.

Israeli military authorities state that they do not issue work permits for Palestinians under 18 to work in settlements. However, Palestinians do not need Israeli work permits to reach the settlement farms, which are outside the gated areas of settlements that Palestinians need permits to enter.

All of the children and adults working for the settlement farms whom Human Rights Watch interviewed said they were hired by Palestinian middlemen working for Israeli settlers, were paid in cash, and did not receive pay-slips or have work contracts. Israel denies Palestinian authorities jurisdiction in the settlements as well as much of the Jordan Valley, but they should do more to enforce laws against child labor by prosecuting middlemen, Human Rights Watch said.

According to news reports and settlement and company websites, Europe is a significant export market for settlement agricultural products, and some products are exported to the US. The EU has moved to exclude Israeli settlement products from the preferential tariff treatment it provides to Israeli goods, and EU member states have issued advice to businesses that they needed to consider the legal, financial, and reputational risks of involvement with settlement trade, but have not instructed businesses to end such trade. The US in practice continues to grant preferential treatment to Israeli settlement products under the US-Israel Free Trade Agreement. The US should revise the agreement to exclude settlement products. The US Department of Labor maintains and publishes a list of more than 350 products from foreign countries that are produced with the use of forced labor or child labor in other countries, but has not included Israeli settlement products on the list.

Other countries and businesses should uphold their own responsibilities not to benefit from or contribute to the human rights abuses against the Palestinians in the West Bank by ending business relationships with settlements, including imports of settlement agricultural produce, Human Rights Watch said.

“The settlements are the source of daily abuses, including against children,” Whitson said. “Other countries and businesses should not benefit from or support them.”

 

[Solomon2]

HRW 'Lies' About Abuse of Palestinian Minors at Jewish Farms
Jordan Valley head debunks accusations after leftist NGO claims 'hundreds of children' are put in danger in Jewish farms in the region.

By Arutz Sheva Staff

First Publish: 4/13/2015, 2:25 PM

QUICK WATCH1:05

The Jordan Valley regional committee head rejected reports on Monday by the leftist NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW), which claimed that Palestinian Arab children were being abused working on Jewish farms in the Jordan Valley.

HRW alleged that "hundreds of children," some as young as 11, work for low wages and in "hazardous" conditions in Jewish farms.

"Israel's settlements are profiting from rights abuses against Palestinian children," HRW's Middle East director Sarah Leah Whitson claimed. "Children from communities impoverished by Israel's discrimination and settlement policies are dropping out of school and taking on dangerous work because they feel they have no alternatives, while Israel turns a blind eye."

The report is based on the statements of 38 Palestinian Arab children and 12 adults who said they worked on Jewish farms, with it claimed that minors worked over 60 hours a week at times.

Jordan Valley head David Elhayani, himself a former farmer, thoroughly debunked the claims while speaking with AFP.

"They've made up lies. The entire goal of this organization (HRW) is to sully Israel's image. If they'd show me a farmer employing a child, I'd report it to police immediately," said Elhayani.

Elhayani pointed out it is simply not worth it for Jordan Valley farmers to hire minors due to the relative complexity of the agricultural work there.

A farmer would also lose his exporting license if he were caught employing a minor, Elhayani said.

Further disproving HRW's claims, a study released in February found that Palestinian Arab workers enjoy much better salaries and working conditions under Jewish employers than under Arab employers in Judea and Samaria.

Elhayani noted that there are "Palestinian contractors who come for very specific jobs for a short period of time, when increased manpower is needed. ...If some child infiltrates, I have no way of knowing."

The Jordan Valley head stressed that no Jordan Valley farmers directly employ minors.

In releasing its report, HRW also called on the US and Europe to exclude "settlement produce" from the preferential tariffs provided to Israeli export products.

"The EU has moved to exclude Israeli settlement products from the preferential tariff treatment it provides to Israeligoods...but (member states) have not instructed businesses to end" trade with Judea and Samaria-based entities," it said. "The US in practice continues to grant preferential treatment to Israeli settlement products under the US-Israel Free Trade Agreement."

HRW has a somewhat problematic record, highlighted when its head Kenneth Roth was exposed last August condoning Hamas war crimes.

 

[RFS_Br]

Israel National News is a right-wing website operated by extremist Israeli settlers. The article posted by Solomon is basically Israeli settlers saying that Israeli settlers are innocent. Impressive, huh.

Not only is his source operated by extremists for an extremist readership, it's also known to try to get away with hoaxes to help protect Israel's reputation. Remember when Hezbollah attacked Israel in retaliation earlier this year, and Israel responded by idiotically murdering a Spanish UNIFIL peacekeeper? Well, IsraelNationalNews covered the incident by initially reporting that it was Hezbollah that had killed him, even when all other media outlets - including Israeli and pro-Israeli ones - were from the beginning pointing the finger at the IDF, as they should have.

So guess which side I'm on - that of Human Rights Watch, a widely known human rights group based in the West and whose bias, if anything, is pro-Western, having therefore no special motivation to unfairly defame Israel; or that of an extremist website directly operated by Israeli land thieves to an extremist readership that regularly leaves pro-Arab genocide comments on its comments section?

Oh and Solomon. What a nice avatar. Everywhere else on the internet, Zionists are seen making common cause with all sorts of Islamophobic crazies (Hindu nationalists, for example). On a Pakistani site, however, they try to pander to the majority readership with pro-Pakistani avis. Zionists sure are versatile in their propagandizing, I'll give you that.

 

[C130]

let me see go work for the Zionists or throw rocks and possibly be killed by the Zionists. this is a hard choice.

Palestinian kids future is already destined to be a hard life.

 

[Solomon2]

Did Human Rights Watch and The Telegraph use a misleading photo in report on illegal Palestinian child labor?
BY ADAM LEVICK ON APRIL 14, 2015 • ( 15 COMMENTS )
Robert Tait of The Telegraph published a story on April 13th based on a new 74-page report by Human Rights Watch (Israel: Settlement Agriculture Harms Palestinian Children) claiming that Palestinian children “as young as 11″ are being employed under dangerous conditions in Israeli settlements “in breach of international law”.

Tait cites the HRW report’s claim that “hundreds of child labourers are working in farms and agricultural businesses in the strategically sensitive Jordan Valley for just £13 a day”, and includes an accusation by HRW’s Sarah Leah Whitson that “Israel’s settlements are profiting from rights abuses against Palestinian children.”

David Elhayani, head of the Jordan Valley regional council, denied the allegations, according to The Telegraph, and said “there were no children among the 6,000 Palestinians employed by the [council].”

Both The Telegraph article and the HRW report used the same photo to illustrate the alleged illegal use of child labor by Israeli settlement farms in the Jordan Valley.



The child in the photo appears to be perhaps 11 or 12.

However, a look at the original photos taken by a Reuters photographer suggests that the photos used by The Telegraph and HRW may be misleading.

The series of photos, which include the photo of the boy used by The Telegraph and HRW, were taken by Reuters’ photographer Mohamad Torokman in 2010, and appear to illustrate work at a Palestinian farm.

Here’s the first photo in the Reuters series (taken on May 24, 2010), the one used by HRW and The Telegraph:


click to enlarge
Here’s the second photo in the Reuters series (also taken on May 24th, 2010) of what appears to be the same boy at the same farm.


click to enlarge

Now, here’s the third photo in the series also taken on May 24th. The caption notes that the owner of the date palm orchard is aPalestinian named Naeem Issawi.


click to enlarge

It certainly appears that the photo of the underage boy seen in the HRW report (and in the Telegraph story) is working illegallyon a Palestinian farm. (The boy is quite possibly Mr. Issawi’s son.)

So, a 74-page report by HRW on the Israeli use of illegal Palestinian child labor appears to have misled readers by using a photo which actually illustrates the Palestinian use of illegal Palestinian child labor.

The significance of this misleading photo would not be lost to those who read a series of articles by former AP Jerusalem correspondent Matti Friedman. Friedman argued that journalists covering the region learn very quickly that “what is important in the Israel-Palestinian story is Israel” and Israel’s alleged abuse of Palestinian human rights.

Facts concerning the abuse of Palestinian human rights by other Palestinians (including Palestinian leaders) is not part of the MSM story.

The alleged problem of Israeli settlements illegally employing Palestinian children is consistent with the media’s myopic focus on Israel. However, the problem (unexplored by HRW or The Telegraph) of Palestinian children being illegally employed (per the photo) by fellow Palestinians is certainly not consistent with the desired narrative.

We’ve contacted HRW and Telegraph editors seeking comment on the photo, and will update this post when they reply.

April 14, 2015
Low-Hanging Fruit: Human Rights Watch and Palestinian Child Laborers

"Israel's a sort of low-hanging fruit" a Human Rights Watch (HRW) board member acknowledged in an illuminating 2010 interview, and the organization's latest report "Ripe For Abuse: Palestinian Child Labor in Israeli Agricultural Settlements in the West Bank" exemplifies HRW's skewed and distorted treatment of Israel.

Take, for example, the report's accompanying publicity video, which got picked up by the Sydney Morning Herald. In the video, HRW researcher Bill Van Esveld claims that Palestinian children "have no option to work on Palestinian farms. Most of them don't exist anymore."

But this claim is belied by the facts. The Palestinian date sector has enjoyed significant growth in recent years. According to a report published by Paltrade and the Ministry of National Economy, among others ("The State of Palestine National Export Strategy 2014-2018"):

Palestinian fresh fruit exports have grown at a rate of 52%, compared to global import growth of 21% over the same time period.

The main fruit exports from the State of Palestine are nuts, dates, grapes, strawberries and almonds. The bulk of export growth for the sector has been driven by a rise of exports of dates. Palestinian exports of dates have risen from US$324,000 in 2007 to US$1.2 million in 2010, reflecting an absolute growth of over 250%.

Indeed, Nakheel Palestine for Agricultural Investment, located in the Jordan Valley, "cultivates a total of six Date Palm farms in Jericho, on the Palestinian side of the Jordan Valley, with a total number of 20,000 trees stretched along an area of 3000 Dunums."

CAMERA has asked HRW to correct Van Esveld's erroneous assertions that Palestinian children have no choice but to work in Israeli settlements and that "most" Palestinian farms "don't exist anymore" and to explain why Palestinian children would choose to work in Israeli settlement farms when Palestinian farms are situated nearby.

In fact, our colleagues at UK Media Watch ,a CAMERA affiliate, note that David Elhayani, head of the Jordan Valley regional council, denied HRW's allegations, insisting tha “there were no children among the 6,000 Palestinians" employed by the regional council And they further point out that the photo used on the cover of the HRW report to illustrate the alleged illegal use of child labor by Israeli settlement farms in the Jordan Valley is actually a Reuters photograph by Mohamad Torokman, taken in 2010, that illlustrates work at a Palestinian farm, and not an Israeli settlement.



April 15 Updates: "UK Media Watch prompts correction to Human Rights Watch photo illustrating child labor report" and "UK Media Watch prompts correction to misleading photo illustrating HRW child labor report"


Posted by TS at April 14, 2015 08:07 AM

Comments
All you need to know about Human Rights Watch.

Israel Matzav: 'Human rights watch' official, AP and AFP reporters, trash Israel in private Facebook group
'Human rights watch' official, AP and AFP reporters, trash Israel in private Facebook group
May 22, 2013

Posted by: Barry Meridian at April 14, 2015 09:46 AM

 

[Solomon2]

RIPE FOR EXPLOITATION: HRW’S ISRAEL OBSESSION AND ALLEGATIONS OF CHILD LABOR
NGO MonitorApril 14, 2015
On April 13, 2015, Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a 74-page publication under the heading of “Ripe for Abuse: Palestinian Child Labor in Israeli Agricultural Settlements in the West Bank.” According to the press statement, which was copied widely in international media platforms, “Settlement Agriculture Harms Palestinian Children” through allegedly “low wages and ...dangerous working conditions in violation of international standards.”

As with many other HRW accusations and publications on Israel, as documented by NGO Monitor, the claims in this publication are entirely unverifiable and based solely on interviews. HRW provides no evidence that it even attempted to confirm any of the claims, many of which quote children, independently. Furthermore, in this instance, the allegations are inherently unverifiable, since there are no permits, pay slips, paperwork, or other documentation for the supposed child workers. Indeed,according to an Israeli official interviewed in in response to HRW’s allegations, “It is a horrific lie. There is no justification for employing children, not just morally and legally but financially as well.”

As the publication’s methodology section makes clear, HRW’s researcher (Bill van Esveld) began with a conclusion condemning Israel, and then sought evidence to persuade the intended audiences, particularly journalists readily influenced by NGO allegations. (See Matti Friedman, “What the Media Gets Wrong About Israel,” The Atlantic, November 30, 2014.)

This publication also reflects HRW’s priorities, which are based on ideology and a documented anti-Israel obsession, in contrast to fixed criteria based on the gravity, scale, and scope of the alleged abuses. This is the second full-length report written by HRW in 2015 with Israel as the focus – both on issues related to labor rights. No other country hasmore than one publication of this length, and it appears that major human rights situations such as Yemen, the Ukraine, ISIS, and Boko Haram have not been addressed in any HRW reports in 2015, despite the extreme level of atrocity and thousands of casualties involved.

It would appear, then, that HRW chose the relatively marginal (also in a comparative framework) and completely unproven allegations of child workers on Israeli farms in the West Bank as a pretext to demonize Israel and target Israel’s broader settlement policy.

Fundamental problems with the report include:

1) Lack of methodology: The allegations in the publication are based on 50 interviews, 38 ostensibly with minors, conducted in Arabic and translated for the HRW staffers and outside consultants/activists who do not speak the language.

As noted, the allegations cannot be verified, and HRW gives no indication that it independently confirmed the accounts. For example, there are no records that support medical diagnoses such as “symptoms indicating they were susceptible to heat stroke” or an incident where a “child…was pinned under a tractor that rolled over.”

2) Minimizing intra-Palestinian exploitation: Any Palestinian children who may be working on Israeli farms are first exploited by Palestinian middlemen who hire and contract workers for area jobs. Whereas the actual publication devotes attention to the role of the Palestinian middlemen, the press release buries this salient detail towards the bottom, after numerous paragraphs condemning Israel.

Similarly, any exploitation is enabled, if not encouraged by parents, to seek “work in settlements and often sending their children to work there as well.” HRW misleadingly blames “Israeli planning and zoning policies in the West Bank” for this situation.

In this vein, it is noteworthy that the cover photo for HRW’s report, consisting of a child working on a date palm tree, may well be of a young Palestinian child working on a Palestinian farm. However, HRW ignores these and other non-Israel-related aspects of child labor in the West Bank.

3) HRW’s true agenda, punishing Israel: As acknowledged by HRW, Israeli law and Civil Administration policies meet international standards on child labor. Thus, to the extent that violations have occurred, the question is one of enforcement, rather than the moral and international human rights allegations that HRW again invokes for political purposes. In this respect, one would expect the recommendations of an honest report to focus on improving and closing gaps in enforcement.

However, HRW's recommendations extend to the EU and member states, the United States, and “businesses active in Israeli settlements,” calling on these entities to “cease imports of agricultural settlement products” and “Cease activities in the Israeli settlement agricultural sector, including providing equipment or services, and exporting or marketing agricultural produce.”

Thus, marginal allegations based on unverifiable claims which at worst, indicate the type of lapses in law enforcement that exist in most countries with agricultural sectors, are turned into weapons promoting demonization, boycotts (BDS), and political warfare.

This agenda is also reflected in the lengthy but unconnected political discussion on “Expanding Settlement Agriculture, Restrictive Anti-Palestinian Policies.”

 

[SBD-3]

let me see go work for the Zionists or throw rocks and possibly be killed by the Zionists. this is a hard choice.

Palestinian kids future is already destined to be a hard life.

The Irony is that Palestinians have always been a cannon fodder. Those claiming to champion the rights of Palestine have been robbing Palestine from development and economy in the name of independence. The first question to be asked should be, why should Palestinian children are forced to work? Obviously to earn a livelihood. And the way Palestinian economy in shambles, you shouldn't expect anything better for them in Gaza and West Bank.

 

[Solomon2]

The Irony is that Palestinians have always been a cannon fodder. Those claiming to champion the rights of Palestine have been robbing Palestine from development and economy in the name of independence...

From LIFE, June 23, 1967:









Nothing has changed, except for the the brilliant propaganda campaign of the past 50 years to blame Israel alone for the Arab world's conscious decision to treat Palestinian Arabs like dirt. - Elder of Ziyon

...The first question to be asked should be, why should Palestinian children are forced to work? Obviously to earn a livelihood. And the way Palestinian economy in shambles, you shouldn't expect anything better for them in Gaza and West Bank.

Well, in addition to UN-provided jobs and schools, Hamas in Gaza offers kids this: