How will the continued influx of foreign workers affect Israeli society? A country once in conversation about whether it aspires to the Scandinavian or American model now, perhaps, looks elsewhere. The diverse array of foreign workers in Israel nowadays creates a Tower of Babel in the middle of Tel Aviv, where contractors are challenged to facilitate communication among Chinese, Indian, Thai, and other workers.

For Israelis, decades of ignoring our backyard, disregarding the goings on in the Palestinian Territories, have equipped Israeli society with the ability to blissfully go on with life. At the same time, a class of lower-tier residents of exploited foreign workers is created. Additionally, the era of Palestinian workers crossing from the West Bank daily to work within the green line is practically over, creating an even greater reliance on foreign labor.

Post-October 7, Israelis don’t want to see or think about Palestinians. Palestinian workers constituted an essential workforce that came daily to do jobs the Israeli public is reluctant to take, such as construction, industry, and agriculture. Workers arrived in Israeli territory early in the........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)