Haaretz daily reports Sunday morning that the Israeli cabinet is expected to ratify an agreement in which Israel agreed to a condition demanded by the Chinese government that Chinese construction workers in Israel not be employed in settlements in the West Bank or East Jerusalem.
In the agreement, instead of stating that the laborers will not be employed in the settlements, the document specifically lists the places in which the Chinese laborers will be employed. Means, this list does not include any location beyond Israel’s pre-1967 borders.
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Israel and China engaged in negotiations for several years over an agreement on Chinese citizens coming to work in Israel. In 2015, the talks faltered over China’s demand that Chinese laborers in Israel not be employed in the settlements.
The official reason given by the Chinese was concern for the workers’ personal safety, but officials at the Israeli Foreign Ministry expressed the view that the real reason was political, relating to the fact that China and the rest of the international community view the settlements as illegal and their locations as occupied territory. [Haaretz]
