At least 6,000 construction workers from India will arrive in Israel on subsidized flights during April and May, West Jerusalem announced on Wednesday. Indian laborers are being hired to replace Palestinians blocked from entering Israel since the outbreak of the war in Gaza.
Recruitment from India will result in the “largest number of foreign workers arriving in Israel for the construction sector in a short time,” officials said. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, Israel’s Finance Ministry, and the Construction and Housing Ministry have all cleared the proposal to recruit Indian laborers through a joint financing scheme.
Netanyahu has personally convened a meeting with senior officials in Jerusalem on Wednesday “to facilitate a large increase in the quantity of foreign workers in Israel,” the Israeli government said in a statement.
Indian media outlets reported earlier this month that 60 Indians had already left for Israel to work in the construction industry. The laborers are moving as part of a government-to-government agreement between the countries, according to Firstpost.
In addition, about 900 Indian construction workers have already traveled to Israel in recent months through the ‘B2B (business-to-business) route’ involving human resources agencies in both countries, the outlet reported.
Higher wages are believed to be a big draw for Indian construction workers. They can earn $150-$300 a month in their homeland, while Israel is offering at least $1,600 per month.
In January, 9,727 candidates passed qualification tests for construction workers in the Indian states of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. Around 10,000 laborers are set to travel to Israel in stages, the PTI news agency reported last month, citing a source in Israel’s Builders Association.
The Israeli construction industry is facing a laborer shortage crisis, causing numerous projects to stall. Prior to the October 7 Hamas attack and Israel’s retaliation, some 150,000 Palestinians from the West Bank and an additional 18,500 from Gaza had permits to enter Israel for work, the Times of Israel reported earlier this year.
In March, New Delhi advised its nationals staying in Israeli border areas to move to safer regions in the country after an Indian worker was killed in a missile attack near the frontier with Lebanon.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was among the first world leaders to condemn the October 7 Hamas attack, which he unequivocally termed an act of terrorism. New Delhi has traditionally supported a two-state solution to resolve the Israel-Palestine conflict, although West Jerusalem has pressed New Delhi to officially designate Hamas as a “terrorist” group.
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