foreign workers

Israeli immigration agents arrest migrant worker Geraldine Esta and her daughters in their home in Ramat Gan, Israel, July 23, 2019. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

PHOTOS: Israel begins crackdown on foreign workers and their children

Israeli immigration authorities begin summer-long deportations of at least 50 foreign workers and their Israeli-born children. Text by +972 Magazine Staff, photos by Oren Ziv/Activestills.org Israeli immigration authorities have begun immigration raids targeting foreign workers from the Philippines and their children, in a crackdown that is expected to snare at least 50 adults and their…

By +972 Magazine July 24, 2019

+972 Writer Mya Guarnieri Jaradat’s book long-listed for the Wingate Prize

+972 Magazine congratulates writer Mya Guarnieri Jaradat on her book, The Unchosen: The Lives of Israel’s New Others, being long-listed for the Jewish Quarterly Wingate Prize, alongside books by Amoz Oz, Joshua Cohen, Linda Grant, Nicole Krauss, and Nir Baram. The Unchosen is deeply reported look into the lives of asylum seekers and migrant workers in Israel. It was published…

By +972 Magazine November 30, 2017

Thai workers on a tractor on the way to start their working day, early hours of October 18, 2013. (Shiraz Grinbaum/Activestills.org)

Run out of town for teaching farm workers their rights

Labor advocates set out to explain to Thai agricultural workers what rights they have in Israel. Instead, they are intimidated and chased away by the workers’ employers. By Angie Hsu In the rush before leaving Tel Aviv for the Arava Desert Friday morning, I ran into the bathroom and grabbed two bottles of sunscreen. It…

By +972 Magazine March 11, 2017

Latest

A woman holds up a photo of a refugee daycare center's yearbook during a protest against living conditions in south Tel Aviv, April 19, 2015. Five refugee children have recently died due to the substandard living conditions in daycare centers. (photo: Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

PHOTOS: Hundreds gather to protest dire conditions of south Tel Aviv

Hundreds demonstrated in central Tel Aviv against the dire living conditions for the residents, refugees and foreign workers who live in south Tel Aviv. Photos and text: Oren Ziv / Activestills.org Approximately 300 Israelis, asylum seekers and foreign workers protested Sunday evening at Habima Square in central Tel Aviv against the living conditions in south…

By Activestills April 20, 2015

Hebron demonstrators were calling upon Obama to remember the civil rights movement in the US (Oren Ziv / Activestills)

No Voice: Hopes for Israeli elections from those who cannot vote

Over 200,000 people with no legal status live in Israel today. There are another 4 million in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. All of these people are directly affected by Israeli elections but they have not right to vote. This is what they have to say — about the Right and the Left, the…

By +972 Magazine February 6, 2015

The protesters were calling to close the prison and to recognize the refugee rights of the African asylum seekers living in Israel.

The importance of being earnest about human rights

In an open letter, one of Israel’s foremost refugee rights lawyers calls on the deputy attorney general to follow her conscience. By Asaf Weitzen Dear Deputy Attorney General Dina Silber: I am familiar with a bit of your academic work, including two books you authored and speeches that you give from time to time. You have…

By +972 Magazine January 22, 2015

A view on the toilet in the workers' residence. (Activestills.org)

Home Field – Visiting agricultural workers in Israel, part 5

In a series of posts based on field visits and meetings with migrant workers in Israel, Noa Shauer and Shiraz Grinbaum highlight the conditions, hardships and exploitation of foreign workers. In part 5, they met with agricultural workers in the northern Israeli moshavim of Sdei Trumot and Revayah, trying to re-evaluate their working conditions after…

By Activestills June 1, 2014

Thai workers on a tractor on the way to start their working day, early hours of October 18, 2013. (Shiraz Grinbaum/Activestills.org)

Home Field: Visiting agriculture workers in Israel, part 2

In a series of posts based on field visits and meetings with migrant workers in Israel, Noa Shauer and Shiraz Grinbaum highlight the conditions, hardships and exploitation of foreign workers. In part 2, a Thai worker and labor organizer at Moshav Sde Nitzan is deported for organizing a strike over working conditions. Read part 1 here…

By Activestills November 27, 2013

A worker in his room, Kfar Varburg, August 31, 2013. (Shiraz Grinbaum/Activestills.org)

Home Field: Visiting agricultural workers in Israel, part 1

In a series of posts based on field visits and meetings with migrant workers in Israel, Noa Shauer and Shiraz Grinbaum highlight the conditions, hardships and exploitation of foreign workers. In part 1, Thai agricultural workers in Kfar Varburg show ‘Kav Laoved – Workers’ Hotline’ their sub-standard living conditions and tell of their exploitative wages…

By Activestills September 12, 2013

Thai workers sitting and listening at their residence in Kfar Varborg. (Shiraz Grinbaum/Activestills.org)

Foreign workers take exploitative employers to court

Many in Israel view the agriculture industry as moral and ethical one – one that symbolizes the infrastructure upon which the country was built. However, the reality portrays a much less attentive and heroic attitude toward foreign workers. By Noa Shauer (translated by Allison Rudy) Kav LaOved – Worker’s Hotline has recently received various complaints…

By +972 Magazine September 4, 2013

Eli Yishai visit detention camps for Asylum Seekers in the south (photo: Yotam Ronen / Activestills.org)

An open letter to the incoming interior minister

Dear Honorable Minister, Following coalition negotiations, free of Natan Eshel and other evils, you will be sworn in as Israel’s interior minister. Having seen the hardships faced by a number of Israel’s interior ministers, let us give you three recommendations to ensure that your tenure is pleasant: 1. Don’t let lawyers shape policy for you.…

By Laissez Passer January 30, 2013

Media misconceptions: Is the conflict really about Jews vs. Arabs?

In the second post of my three-part series about media and publishing, I examine some misconceptions about the Israeli-Palestinian ‘conflict,’ and the ways in which the media feeds into a binary that leaves non-Jews and non-Palestinians out of the spotlight. When my agent and I shopped my book about Israel’s migrant workers and African refugees…

By Mya Guarnieri Jaradat January 5, 2013

Thousands of new work permits for Palestinians only serve the status quo

Israeli officials will authorize 5,000 new work permits for Palestinian laborers. The move comes in the wake of the West Bank protests against the Palestinian Authority and the rising cost of living, and is meant to prop up the PA. The move is also a symptom of Israel’s hysterical reaction to foreign workers and African…

By Mya Guarnieri Jaradat September 23, 2012