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For the attention of:

Mr Guy Ryder

ILO Director-General

Geneva, Switzerland

Email: [email protected]

Cc:

Mr Mounir Kleibo,

ILO Jerusalem Representative

ILO in the occupied Palestinian territory

Email: [email protected]

4 May 2020

mandate to protect the rights, livelihoods, and dignity of Palestinian workers, women and men, and

their families during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The ILO Centenary Declaration for the

Future of Work has confirmed the essential role that ILO, one hundred years since its creation, must

play for the achievement of ‘social justice, democracy and the promotion of universal and lasting

peace.’

We welcome the ILO’s recent statement calling on governments around the world to take action to

prevent and control the spread of COVID-19 in the workplace. As stressed by the ILO, ‘It is only by

implementing occupational safety and health measures that we can protect the lives of workers, their

families and the larger communities, ensure work continuity and economic survival.’

discrimination, conflict and occupation. In Palestine, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought to the

forefront Israel’s regime of institutionalised racial domination and oppression over the Palestinian

people as a whole, which amounts to the crime of apartheid.

As highlighted in your latest 2019 report

on the situation of workers of the occupied Arab territories, ‘the Palestinians themselves have little

scope to improve their destiny. The Israeli occupation is stifling in every respect, dominating almost

every aspect of Palestinian life.’

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Throughout the occupied Palestinian territory, the Israeli occupying

authorities have continued to indiscriminately target Palestinians’ livelihoods during the COVID-19

pandemic, including through attacks on farmers, shepherds, and fishermen in the Gaza Strip.

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authorities allowed approximately 60,000 Palestinian workers employed in Israel to temporarily reside

in Israel for a maximum period of two months during the public health emergency, with Israeli

employers mandated to ensure adequate housing, proper sanitation, and food for workers.

Yet,

Palestinian workers have faced dire housing conditions and have been forced to sleep at construction

sites or in greenhouses,

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while Palestinian workers displaying symptoms of the flu have been thrown

at checkpoints without coordination to ensure they would receive treatment.

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Israeli occupying authorities have refused to test Palestinian workers for COVID-19, thereby failing

to take adequate measures to curb the spread of the pandemic in the occupied Palestinian territory,

and further undermined containment and mitigation efforts by the Palestinian Authority for returning

workers. The Palestinian Health Ministry has found that workers, their families, and their contacts

make up a majority of COVID-19 infections in the West Bank.

As we commemorate International Workers’ Day and the achievements in advancing labour rights

COVID-19, is considered to be one of the most dangerous sectors for work-related accidents, as it

lacks the necessary supervision by the Israeli government, whose responsibility it is to ensure that

employers uphold Palestinian workers’ rights.

As highlighted by the ILO, COVID-19 has exposed the fragility of economies across the globe, with

the pandemic having the potential ‘in the longer-term [to] dramatically amplify cycles of poverty and

inequality.’

It is therefore more urgent than ever to address the prolonged denial of the individual

and collective rights of the Palestinian people as the root cause depriving Palestinians of an adequate

standard of living, including the right to work. Notably, United Nations Special Rapporteurs have

around the world call on you today, as Director-General of the ILO, to:

i. Send an urgent letter to the Minister of Labour and Minister of Health in Israel, calling on

the Israeli occupying authorities to urgently provide Palestinian workers with their three

months’ wages during the emergency period, as per Israeli labour law; to take all necessary

measures, including with employers, to guarantee healthcare coverage for Palestinian workers

during and in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic; to provide Palestinian workers

staying in Israel with adequate housing, food, water, and sanitation, as essential to upholding

their rights and mitigating the effects of COVID-19 amongst workers and their families upon

return; and

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ii. Invite the 109th session of the International Labour Conference to hold Israel, the occupying

power, accountable for its violation of Palestinian workers’ rights through the adequate

supervision of the Committee of Experts to implement the recommendations of the report

on the situation of workers of the occupied Arab territories and for the enforcement of the

conventions it has ratified.

Yours sincerely,

Organisations worldwide:

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The Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations Network (PNGO), Palestine, including:

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1,837 concerned citizens signed the open letter online between 1 and 4 May 2020.

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