Israeli companies have relied on cheap and compliant Palestinian labor for decades. In the shadow of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza and the continued strangulation of Palestinian lives under occupation, another, quieter form of violence against Palestinian workers is taking shape: In recent months, Israel has embarked on an aggressive campaign to replace hundreds of thousands of Palestinian workers with migrant labor from Asia and Africa. Israeli capital is to continue to have a compliant labor force at its disposal, and what is left of the Palestinian economy is to be stifled even further.

This exchange of labor is not taking place in a vacuum, but reflects a larger historical pattern in Israel’s treatment of its labor force over the decades. Since the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza in 1967, Palestinian workers have played a crucial role in the Israeli economy, particularly in construction, agriculture and low-paid service jobs.

Israel cited security concerns to revoke the work permits of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians virtually overnight, crippling the Palestinian economy and rendering entire villages and towns jobless. Many of those affected had worked in Israeli companies for years without legal protection or the possibility of unionization.

To replace the Palestinians, Israel has sought bilateral agreements with countries such as India, Thailand, Malawi and Sri Lanka to send workers. Through these agreements, Israel gains tens of thousands of new workers for Israeli agriculture, construction and the care sector. Officially, these programs are presented as mutually beneficial, providing workers with jobs and training, but labor rights organizations say these agreements expose workers to abuses.

Many migrants pay high fees to recruitment agencies in their home countries and are already in debt when they enter Israel. Some reported that their passports were taken from them, that they were housed in poor accommodation and that they were paid wages below the legal minimum wage in Israel.

One of the most problematic aspects of this labor import system is the lack of control. Although the Israeli Ministry of Labor is theoretically responsible for regulating working conditions, the implementation of regulations often leaves much to be desired, especially on remote farms and construction sites. Non-governmental organizations such as Kav la-Oved have documented numerous cases of labor law violations, including unpaid wages and physical abuse. Under the agricultural internship program alone, at least 17 foreign “interns” have been recognized as victims of human trafficking, and there have been several deaths since the program began.

For the Palestinian workers who are being replaced, it is about far more than economic losses. For many of them, Israeli wages were their livelihood, as the occupied territories struggle with chronic underdevelopment, high unemployment and restrictions on movement that stifle the development of the local economy.

For them, the withdrawal of work permits not only means the loss of income, but also reinforces the fragmentation of Palestinian society. The financial burden increases and dependence on aid from abroad is strengthened.

At the same time, the Israeli economy, especially sectors such as construction and agriculture, is being burdened by the lack of Palestinian labor. Israeli business media have reported project delays and labor shortages, prompting companies to push for faster recruitment of workers from abroad. This has led Israeli companies to see foreign workers not just as a stopgap, but as a strategic alternative - a way to keep the economy going without political “risk”.

This dynamic highlights a deeper structural problem: the transformation of labor into a commodity under apartheid conditions. Israel replaces Palestinian workers, whose presence is politically explosive, with migrant workers from abroad, who are easier to control and deport and who have no claim to political rights. Labor is thus reduced to a commodity that can be imported and removed at will, regardless of the human cost.

Criticism is now being voiced internationally. In 2024, the International Labor Organization (ILO) received a formal complaint on behalf of Palestinian workers who had been denied wages and labour rights since the start of the war on Gaza. Israel is accused of violating international agreements on the right to work and collective bargaining. However, the complaint has few real consequences for Israel, as major donor countries and trading partners continue to prioritize political alliances over the enforcement of labor laws.

These developments show that Israel’s labor policies, shaped by the occupation, security doctrine and neoliberal economics, have a profound impact on both Palestinians and the growing number of migrant workers from other countries. The replacement of one large number of precarious workers with another illustrates the cruelty of Israeli apartheid, which simply restructures the labor market according to the interests of the state and corporations while concealing the continuity of exploitation.

Israel’s labor policies will increasingly rely on imported labor in the future, as the regime seeks to shield its economy from the political costs of occupation and intensify its apartheid and genocide policies. Palestinian workers are left out for now, and the migrant workers who fill the gap adopt the same system of weak protections, legal gray areas and systematic disregard for their human dignity.