In this report we propose an approximate calculation of amounts that the Department of Payments deducted from the salaries of Palestinian workers from the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) who were employed in Israel, or which were deducted for them from their employers, from 1970-2009. These amounts of money were formally deducted in order to finance various social rights for the workers, but in practice a majority of the money was transferred to the Israeli Ministry of Finance and the /Histadrut /(the Israeli Trade Union Federation). The calculation shows that over decades, the State of Israel accumulated a debt of billions of shekels to the Palestinian workers. This debt must be paid to the workers themselves or to their beneficiaries, in accordance with the full and detailed lists of the Department of Payments.
The declared goal of establishing the Department of Payments was to equalize the salary conditions of Palestinian workers from the OPT to those of Israeli workers. The Department was established in 1970 and belonged, until 2009, to the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labour (today it is attached to the Ministry of Interior, after Palestinian workers were defined as “foreign workers”). The state obligated employers (in accordance with decision 1/b of the Ministerial Committee for Security, 1970) to transfer the gross salary of the Palestinian workers to the Department of Payments.
The Department of Payments is supposed to deduct from the salaries various taxes and deductions for social benefits equal to those of Israeli workers. In upholding its obligation to deduct money from the Palestinian wages, the Department was stringently meticulous. However, in upholding its obligation to provide workers with services and benefits in exchange for these deductions, the Department was negligent. Thus, for example, 92% of the money supposedly deducted for National Insurance for old age payments, disability, unemployment and child payments was transferred to the Ministry of Finance. Money was transferred to National Insurance only for insurance in cases of work accidents and bankruptcy of the employer. This is the most scathing example, but not the only one, of cruel theft under the protection of a government decision, the declared goal of which is “protection” of Palestinian workers.
We made the calculation for Palestinian workers who formally worked in Israel. Two groups of Palestinian workers are prominently absent from this report: Palestinian workers in the Israeli settlements in the OPT and informal Palestinian workers, whose salaries were not transferred through the Department of Payments. Separate research should be undertaken concerning these groups.
As an introduction to the detailed data we collected, below is a table outlining several amounts deducted from the workers which were not returned to them as required by their legally mandated rights (excessive deductions). The information pertaining to several central clauses is unavailable, as will be detailed below, and the calculation is therefore partial and must be seen as a minimum estimate. The amounts are quoted in 2008 prices, i.e. adapted according to the consumer price index. We chose a yearly interest of 5%.