Why Are Indian Workers Going to Israel during Israel’s Genocidal War on Gaza?

Author:

Amrit Wilson

Publication Year:

2024

Language:

Arabic

English

Number of Pages:

India was once totally committed to Palestine and did not recognise Israel, today it is one of Israel’s closest allies. Against the background of Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza and the expulsion of Palestinian workers, India has stepped in to overcome Israel’s labour shortages. In this brief paper I will examine why this is happening and under what circumstances.

In its early years after independence, India was committed[1] to freedom for Palestine. Indian freedom fighters visited Palestine and pledged their solidarity with the struggle for liberation and Gandhi famously declared that “Palestine belongs to the Arabs as England belongs to the English or France to the French”. The Indian government did not recognise Israel and Indian citizens were not allowed to travel to Israel. However by 1962, fifteen years after Indian independence, Israel was sending arms to India during the India-China war.[2]

In 1992, India began to implement neoliberal economic policies[3] and its relationship with Israel began to change openly with full diplomatic relations established in 1992[4] under a government ruled by the Congress party.

It was, however, not until 2014, when Narendra Modi and his Hindu supremacist party, the Bharatya Janta Party (BJP) came to power in India that the relationship between India and Israel underwent a paradigm change and they became the closest of allies. Possibly what made this alliance stronger was the fact that the BJP, a modern neoliberal party, is driven by the Hindu supremacist ideology of Hindutva which has many similarities[5] with Zionism.

In 2017, Modi visited Israel, the first Indian PM to do so. Among the many MOUs signed there were massive weapons deals, including the Pegasus spy ware[6] and missile systems. As Israel’s largest weapons purchaser, India currently purchases almost 50% of Israel’s weapons. In 2022, the Adani Group which effectively bankrolls the Modi regime was welcomed into Israel by Netanyahu and handed a 32 lease for Haifa Port[7], in partnership with Israeli group Gadot. More recently Adani has tied up with Elbit to manufacture Hermes 900 medium-altitude, long-endurance drones in India which have been transported to Israel[8] for use in the war on Gaza.

Despite the enormous economic support it receives from its allies, particularly the US, Israel has a serious long-term economic problem: it has an extremely high cost of living driven by price of housing. To offset this, and because, in true colonial style, Israelis refuse to do construction work or anything other than ‘higher-paying jobs’[9], Israel has long employed Palestinian workers and immigrant workers from the Global South whom it can exploit ruthlessly.

In this context, back in May 2023, the Indian government agreed to Israel’s request[10] that 42,000 Indians be sent to Israel to work in the construction sector and as care workers.

Today 5 months into Israel’s genocidal attack on Gaza, Israel’s economy is in tatters, shrinking by a fifth[11] in annualised terms in the last quarter of 2023. Mobilisation of 300,000 IDF reservists has further weakened major sectors of Israel’s economy. Most crucially Israel has withdrawn the work permits of 100,000 Palestinians, who were mainly employed in the construction sector. According to Raul Sargo, president of the Israel Builders Association, “The industry is at a complete standstill [12] and is only 30 percent productive…The depletion of the workforce has led to some 50% of the construction sector being closed and is costing Israel $830 million per month”.

Clearly the need for workers from Global South countries has become more urgent than ever before and in this context the recruitment of Indian workers is being expedited - the discourse of ‘sending’ Indian workers and ‘replacing’ Palestinian workers revealing the depth of dehumanisation and commodification of this workforce.

The conditions of Global South workers in Israel have, in the past been abysmal. According to a Human Rights Watch Report in 2015,[13] Thai agricultural workers faced low pay, long working hours, poor housing and dangerous working conditions. In one case[14], during Israel’s 2014 war on Gaza, a young Thai worker was killed when a rocket hit a farm in Israel. His Thai colleagues were forced to carry on working in the open even as the barrage of rockets continued, while Israelis took shelter. As for Care workers, currently many are reported to be trapped in Israel[15] because they have been unable to pay off high recruitment fees.

In the current phase, the first Indian state to launch a recruitment drive for workers going to Israel is Haryana, a north Indian state which has a particularly close relationship with Israel. Haryana police have been trained in Israel[16] and during the Great March of Return, the Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and his police team visited Israel and witnessed the merciless attacks of peaceful unarmed civilians by the Israeli state. These methods, have now been transported wholesale to India and are being used against Indian farmers who are engaged in a peaceful mass demonstration.

10,000 workers are to be recruited from Haryana, they will be followed by workers from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and Mizoram

So why should Indian workers be interested in travelling to a war zone to work for a country which is involved in an ongoing genocide. The reason first and foremost is unemployment and poverty. It is ‘Migration from desperation’.[17] Whatever economic progress was made after independence in 1947 has out been wiped out under BJP rule. In the Global Hunger Index, India has gone from 55 to 111[18] out of 125 countries, worse than all its South Asian neighbours. India also leads the world in the number of malnourished and stunted children.[19] Unemployment rates[20] have increased vastly under the Modi government with rural unemployment at 10.82% and urban unemployment at 8.44%.

The minimum wage is currently $65 a month - a fraction of the $1600 being offered by Israel. Many workers have been reported saying they would rather take the risk of dying in a war zone than face abject poverty at home in India. It is not clear if they will be offered any insurance covers or guarantees. In fact, they will also be taking the risk of being trapped in Israel since their wages will be paid to the employing company for the length of the contract which could be anything from one to five years.

The Indian trade union movement has taken a strong stand against collaborating with Israel.

The All India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU) has stated[21] ‘We stand in unflinching solidarity with the people of Palestine and the Palestinian working class! …The use of Indian indentured workers in colonial economies is not new. From 1834 to the end of the WWI, Britain had transported about 2 million Indian indentured workers to 19 colonies including Fiji, Mauritius, Ceylon, Trinidad, Guyana, Malaysia, Uganda, Kenya and South Africa. The BJP government is taking Indians down the same path of colonial subservience. We must strongly resist such tendencies to commodify workers. On 14^th February, The Water Transport Workers Federation of India[22], which represents more than 3,500 workers at 11 major ports in the country, said they will not load or unload weaponised cargoes from Israel or any other nation which carry military equipment to be taken to Palestine.

While at the moment this is a symbolic gesture it will become a material act of solidarity if Indian seaports which the union is involved in are used to transport arms.

To sum up: Against a background of the war on Gaza, the blow to the Israeli economy and the close collaboration between the governments of India and Israel, the agreements sending impoverished Indian workers to ‘replace’ Palestinian workers are much like the indentured labour agreements of 200 years ago. The trade unions of India condemn these agreements and standing in solidarity with the people of Palestine and the Palestinian working class.

[1] https://darajapress.com/publication/hindutva-and-its-relationship-with-zionism

[2] https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/with-nehru-writing-to-its-pm-israel-gave-arms-to-india-in-1962/article18591835.ece

[3] https://www.nytimes.com/1991/01/08/business/india-reports-imf-loan.html

[4] https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/the-india-israel-relationship-modi-bennett-7753938/

[5] https://darajapress.com/publication/hindutva-and-its-relationship-with-zionism

[6] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/1/29/india-bought-israeli-pegasus-spyware-as-part-of-weapon-deal-nyt

[7] https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/adani-ports-boost-trade-lanes-with-joint-haifa-port-acquisition-2022-07-15/

[8] https://thewire.in/business/adani-jv-just-exported-lethal-drones-to-israel-same-model-being-used-in-genocide-tainted-gaza-war

[9] https://themedialine.org/life-lines/israel-to-bring-thousands-more-foreign-workers-to-tackle-high-living-costs/

[10] https://www.livemint.com/news/india/israel-india-ink-agreement-to-allow-42-000-indian-workers-to-work-in-jewish-state-11683642390148.html

[11] https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/war-gaza-israel-economy-shrinks-almost-fifth-last-quarter-2023

[12] https://www.timesofisrael.com/finance-ministry-says-ban-on-palestinian-workers-could-cost-economy-billions/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CWe%20are%20in%20very%20dire%20straits%2C%E2%80%9D%20Raul%20Sargo%2C,impact%20on%20Israel%E2%80%99s%20economy%20and%20the%20housing%20market.%E2%80%9D