Hadash Activists Hand Out May Day Flowers and Workers’ Rights Pamphlets to Palestinian Laborers

Palestinian workers entering Israel through the Eyal Checkpoint on Thursday morning, April 27, probably hadn’t expected to be handed flowers by members of the Knesset.

MK Odeh, center, the red-bandanaed General Secretary of the Communist Party of Israel, Adel Amer, and MK Abu-Ma'aruf, right, at Eyal Checkpoint early Thursday morning, April 27

MK Odeh, center, the red-bandanaed General Secretary of the Communist Party of Israel, Adel Amer, and MK Abu-Ma’aruf, right, at Eyal Checkpoint early Thursday morning, April 27 (Photo: Zu Haderech)

But that’s exactly what happened at 5am on Thursday morning at one of the busiest checkpoints for Palestinian laborers from the occupied territories who cross into Israel each morning for work. To mark next Monday’s May Day –  International Workers’ Day –  at the crack of dawn, Hadash MKs from the Joint List, Ayman Odeh, Youssef Jabareen and Abdallah Abu-Ma’aruf along with the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Israel, Adel Amer and members of the Hadash caucus in the Histadrut labor federation, stood outside the checkpoint and distributed red flowers and pamphlets explaining workers’ rights in Israel.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians pass through Israeli checkpoints every day to reach their places of work. To earn a living for themselves and their families and get to work on time, many are forced to leave their homes as early as 2 or 3am and to wait in long lines at the checkpoints and, once through, board buses that take them into the Israeli cities where they work, often in construction.

In recent years, Palestinians launched two workers’ strikes to protest their treatment by the private company to which the Israeli army outsources the operation of the Sha’ar Ephraim checkpoint, not far from the Eyal crossing. Both strikes were successful: by refusing to pass through the checkpoint, and not showing up for their work in Israel, Palestinian workers forced the authorities to improve conditions at the checkpoint.