Is a job crisis in India compelling workers to seek employment in Israel?

Why are thousands of Indian men signing up to work in Israel amidst an ongoing conflict?

On a cold January morning this year, Mahtab Alam from Buxar district of Bihar boarded a train bound for Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state in India, embarking on a 240-mile-long journey. 

Alam, along with hundreds of men, queued up at a registration office set up in a technical college in Lucknow, the capital city of Uttar Pradesh, patiently waiting for his turn to apply for the job of a construction worker in conflict-ridden Israel. The registration would be followed by a skill test and an interview for the position. 

Appearing discernibly older than his age, 29-year-old Alam was uncertain whether the position was open to Muslims, as many notices circulating on social media suggested that only “non-Muslims” were eligible for the thousands of available positions of plumbers, masons, electricians, carpenters, and plasterers on construction sites in Israel. While the rumour did exacerbate Alam’s woes, it remains unsubstantiated by Indian government officials.

Dire circumstances, tough decisions

“A lot of people told me that being a Muslim I won’t get this job. Yet, I came [to Lucknow] because I need a well-paying job,” says Alam. “I barely manage to earn ₹ 500 [less than US$7 ] a day here. It’s not even peanuts,” laments Alam, who is struggling to provide proper meals for his family. The costs of education for his two children and medical expenses for his ailing mother add to his everyday hardships. 

Alam is not alone. He is among thousands of Indian men signing up for work in Israel amidst an ongoing conflict—a genocide in the making—that erupted in southern Israel and Gaza Strip, following the Hamas attack on 7 October last year, killing around 1,200 people, according to Israeli authorities. Israel, too, began bombarding Gaza, where at least 31,184 Palestinians have been killed so far, while over 70,000 are injured, as per the Gaza health officials. The Israeli military is killing an average of 250 civilians in Palestine per day, exceeding the daily death toll of any other major conflict in recent times. 

The situation in Gaza has caused a grave humanitarian crisis as an estimated 1.7 million people, which means more than 75 per cent of Gaza's population, have been displaced, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA chief, recently said that “this war is a war on children” as more children in Gaza have died in the past four months than the number of kids killed worldwide in four years of wars. Moreover, the Israeli offensive has bereft people in the region of water and medicines and created an acute food shortage.  

Following the crisis, Israel discontinued the work permits of around 120,000 Palestinian labourers, who constituted a significant workforce in the country's construction industry. Israel has long grappled with a labour shortage, which worsened notably after the suspension of Palestinian workers. Since then, the majority of Israel's construction sites sit dormant, exacerbating the labour deficit as other foreign workers departed amidst security apprehensions.

As a fallout of the crisis, Israel is vying to plug in the labour shortfall and revive its beleaguered construction sector by hiring workers from countries facing high rates of unemployment, such as Sri Lanka and India. 

“At the moment, we are looking to bring in 10,000 [workers] as per government approvals and this will scale up to 30,000 in the near future depending on how it goes. It is an ongoing exercise and will take months,” Shay Pauzner, a spokesperson for the Israel Builders Association (IBA) told Indian news agency PTI in December 2023. 

“Jobless growth” in India 

Hoping against hope, Alam crammed in line for two days straight in the damp weather of an open field at the college in Lucknow, only to be turned away without getting his registration done. 

“I cannot appear for the interview and skill test until my bio-data is registered in the government system,” says Alam, who has been sleeping on the platform of a nearby railway station at night and spends the day running to different officials, asking about his registration process. “How can I go home without a job?” asks Alam.

India’s economy has long suffered from “jobless growth,” wherein a growing workforce struggles to secure employment despite the country claiming to record an impressive economic growth rate of 7.3 per cent. Home to the world’s largest population, India's urban unemployment rate stood at 6.8 per cent during January-March 2023, according to the National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO).

It is, however, not just the labour class that is willing to brave security risks to work in Israel. The recruitment drive across northern Indian states has seen a stream of applications from young educated Indians as well. Over 17 per cent of workers in the country between 15 and 29 years of age remain unemployed, while others resort to working as casual labourers.

Unlike Alam, Siddharth Ray has a bachelor's degree in commerce and is simultaneously preparing for getting enrolled in a law course and other state-level competitive exams. Yet, the 26-year-old had to take up odd jobs like driving and marketing for private companies to fund his education and help his bread-winning elder brothers at home. “I am not sure if I would get a decent job even after getting a postgraduate degree,” Ray tells The Established. “That’s why I am here and ready to go to Israel.”

Plans to dispatch Indian workers to Israel predate the attack of 7 October 2023. In May 2023, during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Israel, the two governments inked an agreement facilitating 42,000 job opportunities for Indian nationals in Israel's construction and nursing sectors in order to regulate labour exchange between the two nations. The agreement was reportedly fasttracked in December last year as Israel fervently aimed to fill the vacant labour posts by hiring about 100,000 Indians. 

At the onset of January, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, ruled by Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) began hiring workers from across the country for 10,000 posts. The hiring drive is jointly being supervised by India’s National Skill Development Corporation and Israel’s Population, Immigration and Border Authority.

With a promised salary of ₹ 1,30,000 (about US$1,500) per month—which is approximately six times higher than what the workers generally earn in India—along with perks ranging from a small bonus to free accommodation, Alam believes it is “a lifetime opportunity.” 

Risking lives

Experts believe that while the recruitment drive may offer a glimmer of hope for India's unemployed population amid rising inflation, it also exposes them to significant security risks which they are willing to ignore as the Israeli jobs stem from a government deal. “Earlier, the workers used to go to foreign countries with the help of agents,” Raj Kumar Yadav, a supervisor of the recruitment drive at Lucknow’s technical college, tells The Established. “These agents used to extort hefty money from the workers in the name of [granting a] visa. That is not happening now,” continues Yadav.  

Although India's foreign ministry has not clarified whether the workers will be sent to areas close to conflict zones, a joint statement by the country’s trade unions, mostly representing construction workers, on 10 November 2023 urged the government to not risk the lives of Indian workers amid Israel's attack on Gaza. 

“Nothing could be more immoral and disastrous. Such a step will amount to complicity on India's part with Israel's ongoing genocidal war against Palestinians,” the statement read.

Despite facing the outcry of trade bodies, the BJP government has refrained from stating its stance on the Israel-Palestine conflict or detailing the security measures it plans to implement for the labourers. 

"In the first place, the government is not taking a position of solidarity with Palestine,” the Delhi-based activist adds. “Then, they have created a situation where the most vulnerable workers in the country are willing to go to a war zone. That is really worrying.” 

Nonetheless, recruitment among India’s largely informal work sector has been wrapped up after candidates were selected in February this year and are expecting to sign offer letters and apply for visas later in March. Though Alam and Ray have no intimation about their selections, both remain undeterred by the crisis. “I will only discover the truth after I go there,” shares Ray. “But, I have full faith in the government.”

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