February 2008 Update
TUFI’s monthly update looks at important trade union issues in Israel and the Palestinian territories, the Middle East Peace Process, regional developments, domestic Israeli and Palestinian affairs and primary issues affecting British trade union policy on Israel
Israeli Industrial News: Israeli labour court jails employer for underpaying staff
The regional labour court in Tel Aviv sentenced (28 January) the owner of a security company to three months in jail for paying his workers less than the minimum wage. Eran Yaakobi, the owner and manager of Hadar Bitachon Veshmira, also received a one-year suspended sentence and was personally fined £7,000. His company was also ordered to pay £14,000.
The legal advisor to the Industry Trade and Labour Ministry, Michael Atlan, said that he hoped “such sanctions would deter employers who withhold the basic right to subsistence from their workers.”
It is the first time any court in Israel has imposed such punishment for violating the minimum wage law, which allows the courts to jail offenders for up to one year, and to fine them a maximum of £28,000 per monthly violation.
Israeli Industrial News: Coffee Bean agrees to negotiate over union representation
Coffee Bean has agreed to enter into negotiations with union officials following national and international pressure urging the company to allow union representation. Employees at the large international coffee roaster and restaurant franchise have been on strike, with full support from the Histadrut, since 22 January.
The American company operates 14 establishments in Israel, none of which currently allow union representation. The struggle for union rights started last year when workers began to press for improved conditions and an employee activist was sacked for attempting to establish a workers’ committee.
Israeli Industrial News: Chairman of Histadrut warns of a general strike
The Chairman of the Histadrut (Israeli TUC), Ofer Eini, has threatened to call a one-day general strike if the government does not intervene to halt the plummeting exchange rate of the US dollar against the Israeli shekel. Mr Eini, speaking at a meeting with leading industrialists on 3 February, said he thought a general strike might jolt the government into action. Industrialists at the meeting said they had already been forced to begin firing workers due to the accumulated losses in export markets in the wake of the dip in the exchange rate.
Israeli Industrial News:Northern cities go on general strike
Scores of cities, towns and villages in the north of Israel went on general strike yesterday (13 February) to protest against the government's plan to redraw the area's special status as a conflict zone; negating some of the local resident’s tax and budget benefits. The strike included workers from the education system as well as people from public services and parts of the commercial sector.
Security: Rocket barrage continues to hit Israel
Israel says Palestinian militants have continued to fire rockets from Gaza into Israeli territory, with the town of Sderot targeted on an almost daily basis. Two brothers, aged eight and 19, were badly hurt by a rocket that hit the town last Sunday (10 February); the younger of the two lost his leg in the attack.
Israel launched an airstrike on Gaza in response to the recent attacks, killing a Hamas military leader, but senior Israeli officials – including members of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s government – have demanded far harsher military and economic action in response to the continued rocket barrages. Mr Olmert has rejected calls for a full-scale attack and is focusing on tactics to put pressure on Hamas by gradually cutting fuel and electricity supplies to the strip. Gaza generates about a quarter of its own electricity at a plant run on fuel imported from Israel. The rest comes from Israeli and Egyptian grids.
Gaza: ‘Massive’ amounts of weapons smuggled into Gaza following border breach
The Rafah border between Gaza and Egypt was finally closed on 4 February following an agreement between Hamas and Egypt; twelve days after parts of the border were destroyed.
Yuval Diskin, head of Israel’s domestic intelligence agency (Shin Bet) told a weekly Cabinet meeting on 3 February that “massive” amounts of sophisticated weaponry, including long-range rockets, anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles, had been brought into Gaza since the breach of its border with Egypt. Diskin also said that numerous terrorists who had left Gaza to undergo training in Iran and Syria have recently re-entered the Strip.
Security:One person killed in suicide attack in Israeli town of Dimona
One person was killed and at least ten more were injured in a suicide bombing in the southern Israeli town of Dimona on 4 February. Israeli officials reported there were two terrorists but only one detonated his bomb. The other terrorist was shot dead by security forces before he could blow himself up. This was the first suicide bomb attack since January 2007 when a terrorist infiltrated the Israeli town of Eilat killing three people.
A Fatah source said that the “Army of Palestine” wing of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades carried out the attack together with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Hamas spokesman Ayman Taha said he did not know whether Hamas was involved, but praised the attack saying it was “justified”. Israel has been on high alert for terrorist attacks since the breach of the Rafah border crossing on 23 January.
Egyptian forces thwarted two attacks, arresting five Palestinian terrorists carrying explosives belts on 30 January and 12 armed Palestinians suspected of planning an attack against Israeli tourists in the Egyptian Sinai region on 1 February. Israeli troops killed an armed Palestinian in the southern Gaza Strip intending to carry out a suicide attack near the border fence east of Rafah on 30 January.
Israeli affairs: Winograd report into second Lebanon war published
The Winograd Commission published its final report on 30 January looking into Israel’s conduct during the war with Hezbollah in the summer of 2006. It concluded that overall the war failed to achieve its stated objectives and was extremely critical of the conduct of Israel’s military and political establishments. It stopped short however of naming individuals and their specific failures.
The governing coalition remains relatively stable following the publication of the report and Prime Minister Olmert avoided any direct blame for the war’s failures. Leader of the Labour Party Ehud Barak, announced on 3 February that his party would stay in the governing coalition.
Regional News: Bomb kills top Hezbollah leader
One of Hezbollah’s top leaders, Imad Mughniyeh, was killed by a car bomb in Damascus yesterday (13 February). Mughniyeh is widely believed to have been behind a wave of Western hostage-taking in Lebanon and attacks during the 1980s and Israel believes he was also involved in planning the 1992 bombing of Israel's embassy in Argentina in which 29 people were killed, and the blast at a Buenos Aires Jewish centre two years later that killed 95. He was high on US and Israeli wanted lists.
The Israeli Prime Minister's office issued a statement yesterday rejecting "the attempt by terror groups to attribute to it any involvement" in the killing.
Middle East Peace Process:
I) Israel-PA talks continue
Negotiations on the delicate core issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which started on the 14 January, are still occurring quietly behind the scenes. The Israeli foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, and the former Palestinian Prime Minister, Ahmed Qurei, regularly meet to conduct direct and ongoing negotiations on all core issues for a final status agreement, and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and President Mahmoud Abbas normally meet every two weeks to oversee the negotiations.
II) Olmert says significant progress is possible on borders
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said (12 February) that he thinks it is possible to significantly advance the resolution of the issue of borders in negotiations. The Prime Minister, who was speaking to reporters in Berlin after completing a three-day official visit to Germany, said he is convinced that the question of borders is the simplest of the three "core issues" in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (the other two being refugees and Jerusalem) and that sufficient preparatory work had been done for progress to be made.
III) Obstacles slowing negotiations for both sides
Palestinians
In an interview with the Reuters news agency last week (6 February) the Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said that Israel was not doing enough in the short-term and complained of continued settlement activity, “mostly around Jerusalem” and said more road blocks should be lifted in the West Bank.
Israelis
The main obstacle slowing negotiations for Israel is the constant barrage of Qassam rockets being fired on Israel. Tzipi Livni, the Israeli Foreign Minister, has said that there can be no peace with the Palestinians until the rocket barrage ended.
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