Whenever I prepare a post on Palestine, and set my fingers to the keyboard like clackers, I nevertheless feel a twinge of guilt.

The posts I love are those which demonstrate cooperation, dialogue and steps towards peace, not unlike the Palestinian-Israeli team in the Aussie Rules tournament, and other such ventures.

Nevertheless, each time Israel does something like this, I relent, stow any feelings of guilt regarding my descending judgementality and quip vociferously.

The case in hand brings the Zionist stance to a new low: if the pseudo-security wall has not abused the rights of Palestinians enough, then the very whiff of the measures behind the proposed 2009 budget calls for a generous application of smelling salts.

According to an official at the Israeli Ministry of Finance:

We are supporting a plan where the idea is to increase the number of Israelis in the workforce. We want to create a situation where there is no interest in hiring Palestinian workers instead of Israeli ones.

The realisation of the venture could result in approximately 15,000 Palestinian workers in the sector potentially losing their jobs.

Currently, Gazans are not allowed into Israel for work, and most West Bank laborers do not have the necessary permit to enter.

In addition, the Palestinian work force in Israel has shrunk by at least two-thirds in the almost fifteen years since the Oslo peace process, according to government and NGO data.

The means by which the budget would ensure the loss of Palestinian workers is as cunning as it is blatantly discriminatory: by imposing an annual tax of about US $1,000, which roughly accounts to a monthly minimum wage salary, on each Palestinian worker in the construction sector, Palestinian workers in turn would become “financially less attractive to employ”.

Moreover, the Finance Ministry confirmed that in addition to solving Israeli unemployment issues, it needed to make certain there was a constant supply of labor, as Palestinian entry permits can be revoked in times of unrest.

While the final vote for the initiative is to be cast on 31 August, 2008, bold steps are already being taken: Israel’s Channel 10 TV recently reported that the ministry gave nearly US $10 million to the Association of Contractors and Builders to help them absorb Israelis into the work force, while the incentives include a better wage than the one currently paid to Palestinians, and benefits, including a free holiday.

To put this in context, imagine if a London construction business would be offered £5 million by the British government to ensure that only British citizens could be employed – it does not bear thinking about, and the same situation applied to any country would be equally abhorrent.

If approved, the move would be a grave loss to human rights and humanity in general; if rejected, there is still that $10 million to consider and the question of, if not now, then when?

[Image via: BBC.]