Palestinian Authority workers were denied entry to the Samaria town of Karnei Shomron on Thursday after furious residents used their cars to block the entry gate the workers usually use. The move came after local real estate developers violated city ordinances by leaving workers unattended by security guards and leaving building sites’ gates open.
Immediately after Hamas’s Oct. 7 invasion of southern Israel, Karnei Shomron denied entry to all workers from the Palestinian Authority, as did other towns and cities both within and beyond the Green Line.
Before the war, some 165,000 Palestinians were employed in Israel and Judea-Samaria, with roughly 130,000 holding official permits and 35,000 working without documentation. Following the events of Oct. 7, about 150,000 Palestinians who worked inside the Green Line lost their primary source of income, which was tied to the Israeli labor market.
At the end of July, three business owners sued the Karnei Shomron Municipality, challenging its right to deny their P.A. (non-Israeli Arab citizens) workers entry. The court ruled that authority in this matter rested with the Israel Defense Forces, not the municipality. The army decided that, with caveats, the workers at Basar Hashomron, a local butcher with a separate facility in Karnei Shomron, an automobile garage and a commercial bakery in Maaleh Shomron would be allowed to admit their workers. However, the workers had to be vetted by intelligence, closely monitored by one armed guard for every five workers and separated from residents by a solid, locking fence.
Thursday’s protest followed a heated meeting on Wednesday night attended by over 60 angry residents, who were addressed by Knesset member Limor Son Har-Malech and Karnei Shomron Mayor Yonatan Kuznitz.
Residents complained that the stage was being set for another Oct. 7-style security catastrophe, only this time in Samaria.
They recalled that just prior to Oct. 7, Israeli security agencies had boosted the number of workers being allowed into the country from the Gaza Strip, based on the theory that this would provide Hamas in Gaza with an economic incentive to maintain calm.
However, as The Washington Post reported in November, 2023, maps found on the bodies of the invading terrorists indicated that some of these laborers had provided vital information to Hamas on the towns they were employed in.
Har-Malech told the residents that the relevant Knesset committee has tried to stiffen the penalties for employers who violate the IDF’s rules for bringing in workers, up to and including losing their licenses to employ P.A. workers. However, she said, such changes take time, as they face legal challenges and must be voted on multiple times. She further noted that decisions are made for each individual town and city individually.
“We reminded them [the military] that they said that [Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar and Hamas wouldn’t do anything to us if we let more workers in,” she recounted. “They replied that Sinwar and Hamas acted ‘irrationally.’”
She scoffed at this idea, claiming that many in the government and military believe that restricting P.A. labor is discriminatory.
Mayor Kuznitz said that the courts had forced him to let the workers into town. The court, he reminded them, had handed the decision to the IDF, which allowed the workers’ entry subject to certain conditions.
However, after the employers violated these conditions twice, the workers were denied entry, he continued, but only for a day, not the two weeks the IDF had stipulated.
Kuznitz said he, too, had addressed the Knesset on the issue, beseeching lawmakers to return to the municipality the authority to monitor, admit or reject workers, and to punish developers for not meeting their obligations.
A spokesperson from Karnei Shomron said that despite this there had been no movement on the issue.
“The Interior Ministry wouldn’t approve the change in law because it counters the laws set by the army,” which doesn’t enforce them, he said.
The spokesperson also noted that there were two sides to the story, citing families who are going bankrupt paying both rent and mortgages on unfinished homes while the legal battle rages on.
“People are living with large families in basements, on the verge of divorce,” he explained. “They need to complete their houses.”
Some of the residents suggested boycotts against the businesses bringing in P.A. workers, particularly those who do not abide by the IDF’s rules for doing so.
On Thursday residents took matters into their own hands, facing down the IDF and police.
While the upcoming High Holidays will offer residents a respite, as workers aren’t scheduled to enter during this period, the protests are set to resume immediately afterwards.
