MK Gilad Kariv of The Democrats said Israel should renew work permits for Palestinians from the West Bank, arguing that two and a half years after the October 7 attack, the current policy should change. In a video he released in Arabic, Kariv questioned why Palestinian workers he described as posing no security threat are still barred from entering Israel.
Kariv said the only beneficiaries are Hamas and what he called extremist elements in the West Bank. He also argued that Israel’s economic pressure on the Palestinian Authority helps the terrorist group, because officials and public employees there are not being paid. He asked, “Who benefits from the fact that Israel is acting to topple the Palestinian Authority, and then teachers do not get salaries, police officers do not get salaries, and local authority workers in the West Bank do not get salaries? Only Hamas benefits.”
He also accused Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich of being satisfied with the current situation, saying, “Smotrich wants in the end that there will be a third intifada, so that he can say: here, let us do in the West Bank what we did in Gaza.” Kariv concluded that a responsible, smart and just state would allow some workers to come to Israel and work to strengthen the Palestinian Authority so its employees receive full pay.
Looking ahead to the next Knesset election, Kariv said, “We will enter the next government and stop both the injustice and the lack of logic.”
