“Did the Irish fall into a vat of Guinness and propose something so stupid that it would be attributed to [an] act of diplomatic intoxication?” wrote US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee on X in July last, referring to Ireland’s proposed Occupied Territories Bill. “It will harm Arabs as much as Israelis. Sober up Ireland!”
If entered into law, the Bill could ban all trade with Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territories. Its proponents say this is in line with requirements under international law, which deems the settlements to be illegal, while some critics suggest a wider boycott could impact Palestinians, as well as Israelis, because of the loss of economic opportunities.
Many Palestinians say their economic reliance on Israel is the result of a long-running tactic to exploit them and seize more land. It means individuals can be denied opportunities if they are identified as troublemakers or complain about the status quo, said one Palestinian West Bank municipality director, adding that even participating in a peaceful demonstration could see a Palestinian blacklisted.
Despite the West Bank being controlled by Israel and the Palestinian Authority – not Hamas – Palestinians from there had their permits to work inside Israel cancelled after the attacks of October 7th, 2023.
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The West Bank suffered a 22 per cent contraction in its GDP within a year afterwards, and a loss of about 306,000 jobs, according to Oxfam. Unemployment nearly tripled, to 32 per cent, according to a UN Trade and Development report.
The Palestinian Authority is concurrently facing a severe economic crisis, fuelled by Israel withholding tax revenues.
Some Palestinians have continued working for Israelis, either in settlements or illegally in Israel. In a March 2025 briefing paper, Oxfam said approximately 29,000 Palestinians were working in Israeli settlements. This included more than 6,500 Palestinian women, who were primarily employed in agriculture (66 per cent) and manufacturing (33 per cent).
“Economic dependency on settlements is not incidental – it is the result of decades of policies that have eroded the Palestinian economy, leaving workers, particularly women, with no viable alternatives,” Oxfam’s report said.
“Israeli settlement expansion, land confiscation and restrictions on Palestinian trade, movement and development have systematically created conditions of poverty and unemployment that push more Palestinians into exploitative labour ...
“The reliance on Israeli-controlled labour markets is a direct consequence of deliberate economic strangulation, reinforcing Palestinian dependency while stripping them of sustainable opportunities within their own economy.”
The Irish Times spoke to six current and former settlement workers in Nablus. All of the women’s names have been changed, at their request, and the interviews have been edited for length and clarity.
Sara (53): ‘I’m against the boycott ... only because it could impact the opportunities I get’
“I was a university graduate with a degree in medical analysis. I kept applying to try to get a job with the [Palestinian] ministry of education, but unfortunately I couldn’t. My kids scored high grades in school and I needed to send them to university. I wanted a good education for my five children.
“I worked in a Palestinian factory a few days a week. In 2016, a broker who takes women to the settlements called me and said if I’m looking for a job I could go there. So the other days I would go to the settlements. They took four-five busses of women, around 80 women, to the settlements from my village. The bus fits 18 people but sometimes we are 26. The Palestinian brokers encourage it: the more girls and women they get, the more money. So they put in extra chairs.
“We woke up at 3am to start the journey, going through a lot of checkpoints. We had to get there on time, starting at 6am. We worked for eight hours, for 90 shekels (€23) a day. We only had half an hour break at 10am, finish at 2pm, then travel back again.
“They were agricultural plantations – working with grapes, dates and sometimes nuts and dried fruits. Of course we felt they were using Palestinians as cheap labour.
“All they cared about is getting the job done, but there’s no health insurance, there’s no coverage for accidents so if someone had an accident they wouldn’t treat them except maybe first aid.
“There was an accident with a young girl, her foot was run over by a forklift truck and she was treated in a Palestinian hospital. There was no sort of compensation for her. Maybe the Palestinian broker would give her some 100 shekels if he had some decency, but it’s nothing.
“If we worked inside Israel itself then we would get paid three times the amount, maybe more.
“I still work in the settlements when there is an opportunity. We always feel the guilt but I was forced to do that because of my children, because I want a better life for them ... We are living in a big village but there’s no work opportunities, there’s no factories, there’s no investments, we need alternative opportunities.
“I’m against settlements but, for me, there’s no other alternative. Because of that I’m against the boycott of the products coming from the settlements but only for one reason, because it could impact the opportunities I get. I’m doing a big sacrifice. It’s a huge suffering but we don’t have any other choice.
“It’s all about the family. If I didn’t do this then what would happen to my children? I don’t want them to end up working in settlements like me. They have been offered the opportunity to go to work in settlements but there have been incidents of harassment. It’s not a safe environment for my daughters.”
Rita (50): ‘You are held and detained for hours and they search our bags, going in both directions’
“I am single but I had siblings I was in charge of raising after my father and mother died. Four male siblings are married now, and two of my brothers were killed, assassinated by [Israeli] special forces in 2005 and 2003. I betrayed my brothers by working in the settlements, I only did it for one month.
“I received 90 shekels a day. The Israelis pay 150 shekelsbut the brokers take the rest of money.
“I began before October 7th [2023]. After, things became different. We had some really tough situations. For example, we were not allowed to go to the bathroom. So I protested and they were surprised that someone spoke out.
“When we went there we thought we’d be working in factories but it was grading dates, sorting through them outside on a plantation. They do the sorting in three stages: us women were the first stage. They would take the good stuff to go to the Israeli market or international market and the ruined ones go to the West Bank.
“One day I was at the checkpoint going home and I told the soldiers we were very tired, so I was detained for four hours.
“Even when we go inside the settlements, and they are looking at our IDs, you are held and detained for hours and they search our bags, going in both directions. I wish these settlements were shut down. I was once kicked out because of the inspection. They searched us on the way in and out because they wanted to make sure no one stole anything. I speak a little Hebrew and I heard them calling us ‘thieves’. The Israeli guard said ‘I don’t want her to come back’, and I said, ‘I don’t want to come back’.”
“I am totally against settlements and the expansion of the settlements. New settlements must stop. The settlers are becoming very violent because we are allowing them to become violent. We’re not united and we don’t stop them.
“I still feel guilty until this day that I worked in a settlement.”
Esma (36): ‘We have to be at the checkpoints at 2am. Sometimes we sleep in the car ...’
“I have four daughters and one boy. My brother was killed when I was 14. He was wanted by the Israelis and they hunted him with spies.
“I started working there in the Jordan Valley, seven or eight years ago. My husband was against it because he knows about the things that happen in the settlements, especially for young women ... it was shocking for me at the start.
“I went there and started sorting dates. I later went to work in another settlement in a dry cleaners, with much better conditions than working in plantations. I worked for one year and got paid 500 shekels a month. During Covid-19, they let some people go and kept only the good people, but they also started exploiting us, giving them extra hours without getting paid. There was a lot of work pressure.
“At some point they made us sleep in the dry cleaners. In the whole day you get half an hour break for lunch and then go back to work. We wanted to pray but couldn’t even get the time to pray.
“In settlements, there’s a humiliation in our treatment. There was a gate for Palestinian workers and a gate for Israelis. Once a broker took me to the wrong gate, they checked my ID and found out my brother was in prison and made me stand in the sun for an hour. They released me, but only after the guard asked the Israeli broker to go and get a weapon as the guard said it was dangerous to be around me.
“We have to be at the checkpoints at 2am. Sometimes we sleep in the car and sometimes we can’t sleep. Sometimes there’s conflict at the checkpoints, they’d shoot gas bombs and sound bombs for no reason. We don’t have any alternatives. Our government is not creating the opportunities for us to work.
“The war has destroyed everything. Because of the war, Palestinian workers are unable to go to Israel so they had to shift to working in the settlements if they are allowed to. There used to be Palestinian brokers making 600 shekels a day but now they’re making 90 . The business owners, the settlers, say if you don’t like it there are a lot of other workers who want this. I am originally from Gaza and they can see that on the system; I was held for three hours at a checkpoint as a result.
“They’ve brought Chinese and Indian workers and they’re paying them more than the Palestinians, but they’re not doing a good job.
“There’s harassment, humiliation, especially for young girls. One of my employers fired me because there was another lady willing to take the job and go out with him and things could get physical. It depends on the personality of the women and the conditions, some of them are divorced, some are tempted, some are forced. They are pressured into it, especially in the settlements.”
Lama (52): ‘My family and relatives ... would prefer me not to go work in Israel or in the settlements’
“I have one boy and one girl, and used to live in Jordan with my family before coming back in 2021. I was surprised to find out that women worked in Israel and in the settlements because before that it was only the men.
“I needed income and had to find a job. There was a Palestinian clothes store near home that paid 20 shekels a day. I consulted my brothers and my sister-in-law who said there’s an opportunity in the settlements where they heard you could make 220 shekels a day.
“Actually, it should have been 150 shekels, but the broker takes 60 ). I worked in a factory inside Israel too and got 280 shekels a day, with the broker still taking 60. We would use illegal crossings next to a checkpoint where they cut the fence and smuggled us in. We used to leave at 2am or 3am to get to the crossing.
“The first thing is the challenge of getting there ... We would get to the settlement and wait for the broker to pick us up from a very crowded area with no clean bathrooms. Go to the factory and be standing the whole time. We couldn’t sit on chairs on the production line, couldn’t talk, couldn’t joke, you have to be moving the whole time. Your hands have to keep working.
“Some – especially old women – used to get diseases, like liquid in their feet, and they would go home sick. The buses were crowded because the more women, the more money for the brokers. We worked from 6am-10.30am, then the first and only break. Sometimes it’s only 20 minutes. Then you go back to work until 3.30pm. Sometimes they say ‘who wants to do some extra work?’ and two out of the whole bus would want to stay, and the whole group will be forced to wait for them or work too. They were promised extra money but it wasn’t given to them.
“The Israelis were not dealing with us directly, it’s definitely a Palestinian operation. I didn’t see any Israelis doing the same jobs for the same money. They wouldn’t. We hear news from the workers being smuggled now into Israel after the war and they say the Israelis are complaining, they want the Palestinian workers to come back.
“There was a debate the whole time from my family and relatives. They would prefer me not to go work in Israel or in the settlements.”
Maha (55): ‘I would encourage banning trade with settlements if there’s alternatives for Palestinian women’
“I am a mother of two boys and two girls, and I started working in settlements in 2015. I also went inside Israel, where they have industrial zones and big factories.
“Sometimes we’d organise dates and grapes, packing and sorting, avocados, mango, grapefruit, corn. It’s exhausting, it’s not an easy job. We had to leave at 1am to get to work because of the checkpoints.
“I then worked as a broker, because I was exploited as a worker before. I didn’t want women to experience the same thing. I paid them in full. The women were very appreciative of that. I had a group of 45 women and I would get paid a commission just for bringing them.
“I wouldn’t encourage working in Israeli settlements if we had the alternatives, our own businesses, our own projects, but this is our only choice.
“This is not something that we like, having these settlements, this is something that we were forced into. I would encourage banning trade with these settlements if there’s alternatives for Palestinian women.
“We could invest in our local market, in our local agriculture. For example there are some Palestinian packing houses for grapes. What we really need are exporting opportunities for our products. If we can find these, then people will turn to these sectors.
“If the international community can support us to open channels to export our products then this would be good for us. Then we could control our life and our time. Our lives would become easier.”
Nawal (59): ‘I witnessed this exploitation of young women in most settlements’
“I started working in the settlements eight years ago. There was a bad economy, no work opportunities, nothing else to do.
“It was the worst kind of circumstances. No bathrooms: sometimes you just do it on the land. No privacy. The main cause of me leaving the job was the bad treatment. The harassment that took place was disgusting.
“There’s a lot of harassment. Sometimes the girls are forced to agree to go with the men. They would go to their houses with them. If she wants to keep her job, if she wants more money, she has to ... it’s really heartbreaking to talk about. They are 17, 20, they go to college and they come to work because they need to earn some money to pay for their education. The women themselves said this is the only option they have. I witnessed this exploitation of young women in most settlements.
“I got blacklisted when I advised one of the girls not to go out with the Israeli business owner. I said: ‘Why are you doing this, you are destroying these young women’s lives and future?’. And the settler responded saying: ‘I have a lot of bastards in [the Palestinian city of] Tulkarem’. He has the power, he has the money, he has the work opportunity that these young ladies need.
“If a woman got pregnant he would give her nothing. Sometimes they do abortions. If she’s a widow, if she’s divorced, she would definitely need to do an abortion because she would not survive the community. If their communities found out they could be killed, they would take it out on her because they can’t do anything to the Israelis.
“Now, during this war, it has increased because there are no other options. I wouldn’t do it, I would die out of hunger not to allow anyone to touch me because of my principles and my religion.
“We need protection, we need income opportunities, health insurance, so that we can quit this life.”
