In August, the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, the international watchdog organization, asked three Israeli companies to respond to a report by an Israeli non-governmental organization that protested the treatment of Palestinian workers at West Bank settlement industrial parks.

Kav LaOved, which is concerned with the rights of migrant and Palestinian workers employed in Israel and Israel's illegal settlements, reported on the rising number of claims by Palestinian workers employed in West Bank settlements following an October 2007 Israeli high court ruling that the country's labor laws applied in the settlements.

Amongst the companies whose labor practices were criticized in the Kav LaOved report was Royalnight, a textile manufacturer owned by Royalife. In 2003, Royalife established a factory in the Barkan Industrial Park located near the Ariel settlement in the northern West Bank. Royalnight's sheet sets, bed skirts, quilted blankets, and decorated pillows are exported to and marketed in the United States and Europe.

According to Kav LaOved's report, Palestinian workers who come from all over the West Bank have to work under poor health and safety conditions at Royalnight's textile plant. To evade liability, work permits are issued under the name of a different employer, and workers employed through a Palestinian contractor are paid less.

In 1999, the United Nations Economic and Social Council criticized the practice of Israeli companies, including most of those operating in the Barkan park, moving their factories to the West Bank to escape the higher health and environment standards applicable in Israel.

Kav LaOved states in its report that the Royalnight textile plant is no different: "Health and safety standards are poor, the working environment is noisy and the air is full of fabric dust. Most work is carried out standing, and the workers take five minutes breaks at their own expense."

The report adds: "[Workers] complain of exposure to dangerous cleaning substances and of working near cutting machines lacking safety devices. The company does not employ a Health and Safety official and the workers have received no instructions or cautions regarding possible dangers of operating machinery."

In an unsigned letter, Royalife replied to the Business and Human Rights Centre's query and the allegations raised by Kav LaOved: "All complaints are not correct. While Western Europe and the United States moved the industry to countries like Pakistan, India, China, with much lower labor costs, we tried to keep the textile industry in our region, enabling income to the people who live in the area."

However, Kav LaOved writes that Barkan Industrial Park is "away from the eye of the law. Israeli employers have found ways of evading the high court ruling by for instance issuing pay slips with false attendance reports. The normal practice is to register fewer working days than those actually worked, so it appears that the minimum wage is being paid."

According to the report, "workers employed through a Palestinian contractor are paid between six and eight shekels an hour, whereas workers employed directly by the factory are paid between nine and 11 shekels an hour." At the time of writing, 3.5 shekels was the approximate equivalent to one US dollar.

Palestinian workers from the occupied territories were once widely employed inside Israel. But following the Oslo Accords, Israel has dramatically reduced the number of work permits issued to Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Since April 2006, Gazans are no longer able to receive work permits for employment inside Israel or its West Bank settlements at all.

Those in the West Bank who do receive the permits find that they are only valid for three months at a time and Israel's severe movement restrictions make it difficult for even permit-holders to reach their places of employment.

Israel's closures have significantly contributed to rampant unemployment and underemployment in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, where 33 percent and 80 percent of the population, respectively, is dependent on international food assistance, according to an April 2008 report by the International Labour Organization.

The World Bank has identified Israel's closure and movement restriction regime as a leading cause of the rapid deterioration of the Palestinian economy.

The dire economic situation means more Palestinians are forced to seek work in Israel's illegal settlements, where they are vulnerable to exploitation. Palestinian human rights organizations have reported that Palestinian workers are coerced into collaboration with Israeli security services to receive the permits necessary to work in the settlements and inside Israel.

So far, Royalnight has gone unpunished for its profitable exploitation of Palestinian workers in its settlement manufacturing plant. The goods it exports are likely marked as "Made in Israel" even though the Barkan Industrial Park where its sewing factory is located is built in violation of international law on stolen Palestinian land. However, there is a growing movement to hold companies like Royalife accountable.

 Earlier this year Barkan Wineries terminated its lease at the Barkan Industrial Park and moved its operations inside the internationally-recognized boundary between the West Bank and Israel, following a campaign against the company's settlement operations that tarnished its image (the company, however, still owns a vineyard in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights).

As the international boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against Israel's rights violations increasingly gains momentum, the exploitation of Palestinian labor by Israeli companies operating on occupied land will surely come under further scrutiny.

Adri Nieuwhof is a consultant and human rights advocate

The Israeli Military Court in Ofer Israeli prison held on Monday a session on the case of Lieutenant Fuad Al Shobaky,  the financial advisor of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) accused by Israel of being responsible for the Karen A ship which was captured by Israel in 2002 carrying on board weapons and ammunition.

Al Shobaky was held in Jericho Palestinian prison and was kidnapped along with Ahmad Saadat, secretary-general of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and several other political detainees after the Israeli army surrounded the prison in 2004 and broke into it.

The prison was guarded by European guards appointed by the EU as part of an agreement reached with the late president, Yasser Arafat; the guards left the prison compound shortly before the army attacked it.

During the court session, Shobaky presented an extended initial testimony in which he denied the Israeli allegations.

He said that the late Palestinian president, Yasser Arafat, formed a committee to probe this incident and the committee called on any person and all countries, including Israel, to present any proof they might have, but no proof was submitted.

Shobaky slammed the silence on the United States and the United Kingdom on the Israeli violation to the agreement which was supervised by the US and the UK in which both countries vowed to protect Shobaky and Saadat while imprisoned in the Jericho prison.

The Israeli army surrounded the prison and broke into it before kidnapping Shobaky, Saadat and other political detainees.

Saadat and some of his comrades are accused by Israel of planning the assassination of the Israeli Tourism Minister, Rahbaaam Zeevi.

In spite of his sickness, Shobaky, 69, informed the court of repeated attacks against him, physical and psychological torture he was subjected to during interrogation.

He added that Israel refused his request to receive proper medical treatment even on his own expense, and said that he is derived from his visitation rights.

He also denied the Israeli allegations that he has contacts with foreign countries including Syria and added that he always acted within his post and duties.

He said that part of his duties is being in charge of the finical affairs of Palestinian forces present in more than one Arab country, and added that he was in contact with these forces as part of his job but never contacted any non-Palestinian system.

Israel claims that Al Shobaky confessed that he is involved in the Karen A ship and that he said that the millions of dollars that Israel and the international community transferred to the Palestinian Authority were used, under direct orders from Yasser Arafat, in financing a huge shipment of weapons and ammunition.

Israel also claims that senior Palestinian officials are involved in this issue.

Furthermore, Israeli security sources claimed that Al Shobaky said during interrogation that he met in 2001 with Iranian envoys who proposed military aid to the Palestinian Authority, including constructing factories for manufacturing weapons, and providing the Palestinians with the needed technology to develop combat tools.

The sources also claimed that Al Shokbay confessed of involvement in smuggling arms under direct orders from Arafat, and involvement in financing Palestinian cells.

The court decided to hold another session on October 28 for further deliberations.

Israeli sources reported on Monday that five Palestinian farmers, supported by the Yesh Din Israeli human rights group, filed a lawsuit against Israel for not evacuating an illegal settlement outpost in the occupied West Bank.

The outpost, Migron, was illegally installed by the settlers on lands privately owned by Palestinian villagers.

 Israeli online daily, Haaretz, reported that the plaintiffs are demanding Israel NIS 1.5 million for damage caused to the livelihood of the villagers due to the illegal outpost which was supposed to be evacuated one year ago in accordance to a commitment by the Israeli government.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the plaintiffs by Yesh Din to the Magistrate Court in Jerusalem on Monday.

Dror Etkes of Yesh Din said that the Palestinians decided to launch legal proceedings against Israel after waiting years for the government to evacuate the outpost but the government never did so.

 He added that dozens of dunams of Palestinian orchards are now seized by the settlers and the Palestinian villagers cannot cultivate them.

“The Palestinians waited for Israel to implement the court’s decision of evacuating the outpost”, Etkes added, “but instead the army is protecting the outpost, and now the owners decided to turn to the court to exercise their rights”

Haaretz reported that in August of this year, the Israeli Defense Ministry reached an agreement with the Yesha Settlement Council to evict the illegal outpost and relocate the settlers in a West Bank settlement, but the agreement was never implemented.

The US-backed Road Map Peace Plan, and the Annapolis Peace Summit of 2007, calls on Israel to halt all settlement activities in the occupied West Bank as these settlements and outposts are built on Palestinian owned lands.

All Israeli settlements are built in the Palestinian territories Israel illegally captured in 1967, according to the international law, all settlements are subject to evacuation as they constitute a war crime but Israel insists on keeping main West Bank settlement blocks, especially around Jerusalem as part of Israel under any future peace deal.

The Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), dominated by Hamas movement, held on Monday a session to discuss the legal dimensions of specifying term of office of the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas. The PLC decided that Abbas’ term should not be extended beyond January 8 of 2009.

Legislators of Abbas’ Fateh movement said that Abbas has the right to extend his mandate in office while Hamas considered this issue as illegal since the president was elected for four years.

The Hamas legislators said that after January 8 Abbas will no longer be regarded as the Palestinian president.

 The unanimously vote came to approve a report of the Legal Committee of the PLC which recommended that Abbas’ term should not be extended beyond January 8.

Legislator Mohammad Al Ghoul, head of the PLC’s legal committee said that Abbas’ term ends on January 8 of 2008 and called on Abbas to call for new presidential elections before this date. He added that the Palestinian law allows Abbas to run for president once again.

“If Abbas’ term in office ends before the Palestinians elect a new president, then the PLC will take over the president’s office for 60 days until a new president is elected”, Al Ghoul added, “There is no constitutional ground which allows extending the presidency without elections”.

Meanwhile, Abbas’ advisor for political affairs, Nimir Hammad, called on all Palestinian factionw, currently present in Cairo for internal dialogue, to enter serious talks which would end the current divisions.

He added that the Palestinians cannot hold legislative and presidential elections under the current conditions and said that ending the internal Palestinian crises come first.

Commenting in news which stated that Abbas intends to rerun for president, Hammad said that this issue is not currently on the table as Abbas’ aim now is the success of internal dialogue.

He also slammed the PLC session on Abbas’ term in office and said that all efforts should be focused on the success of internal dialogue.

Meanwhile, Hamas political bureau chief, Khalid Mashal, said that Hamas wants a comprehensive national dialogue in order to achieve reconciliation.

He added that Hamas places no preconditions on the dialogue and said that reconciliation starts by respecting the results of the previous and upcoming elections, respecting the Palestinian constitutions and rebuilding the security devices on professional and national basis.

He called for respecting the 2005 Cairo deal, the 2007 Mecca Deal and called for taking into consideration the Detainees Agreement of 2006.

Mashal added that the current peace talks between Abbas’ team and Israel cannot be serious unless Israel accepts four main basic principles; the Right of Return, full withdrawal from the Palestinian territories captured in 1967, the Palestinian right in East Jerusalem and dismantling all settlements.  

Hama legislators of the Change and Reform Bloc, Dr. Salim Salama, called for detaining president Mahmoud Abbas after his term in office ends on January 8, 2009. Legislator Ismail Al Ashqar of Hamas said that after January 9, Abbas will be regarded as an ordinary citizen and should be “prosecuted for his coup against the Palestinian legitimacy”, the Palestine News (psnews.ps) reported.

Legislator Salama said during a parallel PLC session in Gaza and in Ramallah that the basic Palestinian law does not allow renewing Abbas’ term in office.

Meanwhile, Al Ashqar stated that starting on January 9, Abbas should be considered ordinary resident and should be prosecuted in a court of law for what he described as the “coup against legitimacy and attacks against the residents”, the psnews added.

 Al Ashqar accused Abbas of cutting the salaries of government employees and of collaborating with the occupation through “fruitless negotiations with Israel”.