Surviving the occupation

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Page context: Home > Transport International Magazine > Issue 23 April 2006 > Surviving the occupation

Experiences and struggles of Palestinian transport workers

In December 2005, the ITF held a seminar in Cairo, Egypt, for its two road transport affiliates, the GUTW and PBDGU, which are based in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. ITF education officer Alana Dave held a group interview with some of the delegates

How does the occupation affect Palestinian transport workers?

There are daily hardships, which start early in the morning. When workers leave their homes, they have to say goodbye to their families. There is always a sense that perhaps they will not return. There is constant Israeli aggression in the villages and cities of the West Bank and Gaza. They all have checkpoints, where transport workers face many obstacles.

In the West Bank alone, there are 140 checkpoints. The distance between Ramallah and Nabulus for example, is only 40km. But along the route, a driver will encounter up to four checkpoints. There are no legal procedures applied at the checkpoints. You are entirely at the whim of the Israeli soldiers. Sometimes the soldiers confiscate the keys for the vehicle. In other cases, the tyres have been removed. Many vehicles have been destroyed completely. Drivers can be delayed for three to four hours at one checkpoint, just because of harassment. Most of the trade union leaders How does the occupation affect Palestinian transport workers?

There are daily hardships, which start early in the morning. When workers leave their homes, they have to say goodbye to their families. There is always a sense that perhaps they will not return. There is constant Israeli aggression in the villages and cities of the West Bank and Gaza. They all have checkpoints, where transport workers face many obstacles.

In the West Bank alone, there are 140 checkpoints. The distance between Ramallah and Nabulus for example, is only 40km. But along the route, a driver will encounter up to four checkpoints. There are no legal procedures applied at the checkpoints. You are entirely at the whim of the Israeli soldiers. Sometimes the soldiers confiscate the keys for the vehicle. In other cases, the tyres have been removed. Many vehicles have been destroyed completely. Drivers can be delayed for three to four hours at one checkpoint, just because of harassment. Most of the trade union leaders attending this seminar have been detained in jail at some time.

Trucking has virtually been destroyed. No Palestinian truck is allowed to cross the border into Israel or into neighbouring Arab countries. Only in very rare cases is a border crossing allowed, for example to deliver stones for construction work. Even movement between cities in the West Bank has been stopped. There is also no movement allowed between Gaza and the West Bank. So Israel controls all the transport corridors. Nabulus is one of the biggest cities in the West Bank with two big checkpoints. The distance between the checkpoints is only 4km. It is this distance that truckers in Nabulus are allowed to cover. They are completely crippled. Israeli trucks offload goods at the checkpoint, and the Palestinian drivers can then only move them within the 4km between the checkpoints. In Gaza, drivers can only operate within the 40km length of the territory.

Sometimes motorways are designated as Israeli only, which are always the best maintained, most direct routes. The Palestinian truckers then have to make long detours along circuitous, poorly maintained secondary roads.

The new security or “apartheid” wall has also created massive problems. We are now even more scattered and segregated from one another. In some cases, the wall has divided a town or village into two. Some towns have only one point, controlled by the Israeli military, through which people can enter and exit. This causes even more detours and delays for drivers.

So the transport sector is facing a crisis. In some areas, there is more than 60 per cent unemployment among transport workers.

How do you view your relationship with the Palestinian Authority?

Our fundamental problems as workers and unions are caused by the Israeli occupation. However, we do have problems with the PA. It has many regulations concerning transport. Drivers pay high fees to the PA covering insurance, taxes and licences. This has become an important source of revenue for the PA. The daily cost of the licence, insurance and maintenance for a taxi driver is approximately US$15. This has to be paid at the end of every month. The price of petrol is also very high. After covering all these expenses, a taxi driver would be lucky to make US$7 per day. A driver cannot work less than 14 hours per day to make a living.

The transport ministry has not been sympathetic to the union’s demands. In 1999, we suggested a mechanism to improve coordination on basic issues, such as the issuing of licences. However, we feel that the ministry is only interested in collecting funds, rather than the welfare of workers. Even when drivers have had their vehicles destroyed by the Israeli military, they have been asked to pay taxes, but they have not received compensation.

There is a Palestinian labour code but there are problems with its implementation. Labour tribunals take a very long time to give judgement. We also recognise that the PA does not have the capacity or resources to improve facilities, like bad roads.

How do you manage to survive and operate as unions?

The challenges are huge. Affiliation fees are difficult to collect because of poverty and high unemployment. It is also very difficult for us to meet together under the conditions of the occupation, and the political situation. During the Intifada, it has been difficult to provide trade union services to workers. Sometimes we are only able to provide social services. In the past, there have been barriers between the transport union in the West Bank and the union in Gaza. We are trying to break these down and have decided to merge into one union in 2006. But communication between the West Bank and Gaza is very difficult. Even within the West Bank, it is difficult for union branches to communicate. Since 1996, we have been trying to rebuild our unions, which were stagnant before.

Building solidarity with Palestinian unions

The seminar concluded with a set of proposals:

A national road transport union will be formed, covering both the West Bank and Gaza. The ITF will give its full support and encouragement to such a union.

The ITF will publicise the difficulties faced by Palestinian transport workers under the occupation. These include:

long delays at security check points causing produce to go rotten
inability to deliver goods across borders
inability to travel between West Bank and Gaza, and
destruction of vehicles/taxis by the military authorities.

The ITF will assist the building of communications between the Palestinian and Israeli transport unions.

The ITF should develop a long-term education and training programme for the Palestinian affiliates, to build their capacity both to protect the rights of transport workers and to respond to and influence the transport policy of the Palestinian Authority.

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Issue 23 April 2006

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