The Population Authority announced this morning that 29 agricultural workers from Malawi landed in Israel as part of a pilot agreement between the Government of Israel and the Government of Malawi for recruiting professional agricultural workers.
The announcement stated, “The arrival of the workers was made possible due to the hard work of the Bilateral Agreements Division and the Agricultural Division in the Foreign Workers Administration.”
Moshe Nakash, head of the Foreign Workers Administration, announced that “the arrival of the workers is an additional contribution to the rehabilitation of the agricultural sector. We hope that the workers will integrate into jobs and will serve as the first spark for many more workers to arrive for the sector.”
Efforts to Advance the Entry of Foreign Workers.
After the massacre on October 7th, the entry of Palestinian workers into the territory of Israel was generally halted, and significantly restricted for precautionary reasons. As a result, a shortage of 100,000 workers in the industrial sectors was created.
Last November, Economy Minister Nir Barkat announced in a discussion at the special committee for foreign workers that he intends to promote the entry of 170,000 workers to free Israel from dependence on Palestinian workers. “What was, is not what will be. We will not be dependent on Palestinian workers anymore. We cannot rely on them, and we pay heavy prices because of them, not only security-related but also economic and strategic,” he said, adding, “We need to change the balance. The Palestinians have taught us a heavy lesson, not only in the massacre, but also in the need to develop independence from dependence on them. We must not be dependent on them, and even when they ask, we must not believe them.”
In April, the government approved a revised resolution prepared by the Prime Minister’s Office, aimed at increasing the number of foreign workers in Israel by another 290,000, raising the total to 330,000 workers. The government decided to link the number of workers to the size of the population, so that up to 3.3% of the population in Israel would constitute foreign workers.
The arrival of the agricultural workers this morning may represent the first sign of strengthening sectors that have been affected by the labor shortage.
