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| The '''Barkan Industrial Park''' ({{lang-he|איזור התעשיה ברקן}}, lit. '''Barkan Industrial Area''') is located about 25 kilometres east of ] on the ] ] whose offices are located at the northern entrance. The industrial park is located adjacent to the ] ] and near the settlement and city of ]. | The '''Barkan Industrial Park''' ({{lang-he|איזור התעשיה ברקן}}, lit. '''Barkan Industrial Area''') is located about 25 kilometres east of ] in the ] <ref name="Qumsieh" > Violet Qumsieh, Palestine-Israel Journal, Vol.5 No.1 1998.</ref> on the ] ] whose offices are located at the northern entrance. The industrial park is located adjacent to the ] ] and near the settlement and city of ]. It is one of 15 industrial zones set up in the West Bank, providing jobs to Palestinians, and money to their economy, while occupying vast amounts of land that the Palestinians see as part of their future state.<ref name="Rudoren" /> Israel says that it offers jobs to Palestinians, while Palestinians say the occupation itself is cause of the moribund state of the Palestinian economy.<ref name="Rudoren" /> According to Diana Buttu, while industrial zones like Barkan supply important jobs to Palestinian workers, their existence challenges Palestinian aspirations for an independent state.<ref name="Rudoren" /> Mohammed Mustafa, the Palestinian deputy prime minister for economic affairs, has labeled such industrial parks a form of “business colonization".<ref name="Rudoren" /> A 2007 Israeli Supreme Court judgement obliges Palestinians hired by such plants to receive the same salaries, benefits and conditions as Israelis.<ref name="Rudoren" /> | ||
| ==History== | |||
| Founded in 1982, in order to strengthen the Jewish presence in the Occupied Territories,<ref name="Rudoren" /> the industrial park currently includes about 120 businesses and factories manufacturing ]s, ]-work, ], ], and more, with a workforce of 20,000, half of whom are Palestinians.<ref name="Schechter" /> Up to up to 80% of the Barkan plants’ products are exported, and increasingly subject to threats in Europe of bans on products produced by Israeli industries in the West Bank.<ref name="Schechter" /> By 1998, it occupied 150 dunams (37 acres)<ref name="Qumsieh" /> and since has expanded to cover over 1,300 dunams (about 325 acres) (2013).<ref name="Schechter" /> The expansion of the Barkan Industrial zone, and illegal ] nearby like ] have lead to the confiscation of Palestinian farmland or made access to such areas unreachable. <ref name="Seitz" >Charmaine Seitz, ] 23 September 2011.</ref> | |||
| In some factories at the Barkan Industrial Park, workers are said to start on a minimum wage but can rise to earn more than three times the average salary in areas governed by the Palestinian Authority.<ref name="Schechter" /> | |||
| Founded in 1982, the industrial park currently includes about 120 businesses and factories manufacturing ]s, ]-work, ], ], and more. | |||
| <ref name="Rudoren" >Jodi Rudoren, ] 10 February, 2014.</ref><ref name="Schechter" >Asher Schechter, ] 11 August 2013}}</ref> Factory owners there say that calls to boycott some factories endanger employment for many Palestinians.<ref>Elior Levy,, ] 20 May 2012.</ref>According to Mohammad Chaichian, the practice of industrial zones like Barkin in the West Bank gives Palestinians, for whom work permits in Israel are restricted, no option but to accept work in what he calls "Economic prison zones". <ref name="Chaichian" >Mohammad A. Chaichian, BRILL 2013 p.312. </ref>According to testimonies gathered by Kaz LaOved, an Israeli workers' right organization, Palestinian workers in the Barkan Industrial zone (2009) receive salaries that are less than a third of that established as Israel’s minimum wage, and they do not receive pay slips, vacations, sick pay, overtime and convalescence payments.<ref name="Chaichian" /> | |||
| ==Pollution== | |||
| At Barkan Industrial Park, thousands of Israelis and ] coexist and work side by side in many of the factories. The CEO of one of the Israeli companies operating here said that his Palestinian workers can earn more than three times the monthly average salary in the Palestinian Authority.<ref>{{cite news|title=EU settlement ban casts shadow over Palestinian industry in the West Bank|url=http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.540861|accessdate=17 February 2015|date=11 August 2013}}</ref> Factory owners there say that calls to boycott some factories endanger employment for many Palestinians.<ref>{{cite news|title='Palestinians will lose jobs if boycott persists'|url=http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4231245,00.html|date=20 May 2012}}</ref> | |||
| In 1998 Barkan factories generated each year an estimated 810,000 cubic meters of industrial wastewater annually, which flowed untreated from the 3 storage tanks, after a design defect, made them unoperational when overloaded, into a nearby ] into the agricultural lands of the Palestinian villages of ], ] and ], and reportedly polluting the groundwater with heavy metals.<ref name="Qumsieh" /> According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health roughly 70% of cancers among Palestinians in the contiguous ] occur among people living near the industrial park and exposed to the waste overflow.<ref name="Seitz" /><ref> Kenneth Ring, Ghassan Abdullah, Wheatmark, Inc., 2010 pp.67-8.</ref> | |||
| ==References== | ==References== | ||
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Revision as of 13:10, 19 February 2015
32°6′24″N 35°07′2″E / 32.10667°N 35.11722°E / 32.10667; 35.11722
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The Barkan Industrial Park (Template:Lang-he, lit. Barkan Industrial Area) is located about 25 kilometres east of Tel Aviv in the Nablus Governorate on the Israeli-occupied West Bank whose offices are located at the northern entrance. The industrial park is located adjacent to the Israeli settlement Barkan and near the settlement and city of Ariel. It is one of 15 industrial zones set up in the West Bank, providing jobs to Palestinians, and money to their economy, while occupying vast amounts of land that the Palestinians see as part of their future state. Israel says that it offers jobs to Palestinians, while Palestinians say the occupation itself is cause of the moribund state of the Palestinian economy. According to Diana Buttu, while industrial zones like Barkan supply important jobs to Palestinian workers, their existence challenges Palestinian aspirations for an independent state. Mohammed Mustafa, the Palestinian deputy prime minister for economic affairs, has labeled such industrial parks a form of “business colonization". A 2007 Israeli Supreme Court judgement obliges Palestinians hired by such plants to receive the same salaries, benefits and conditions as Israelis.
History
Founded in 1982, in order to strengthen the Jewish presence in the Occupied Territories, the industrial park currently includes about 120 businesses and factories manufacturing plastics, metal-work, food, textile, and more, with a workforce of 20,000, half of whom are Palestinians. Up to up to 80% of the Barkan plants’ products are exported, and increasingly subject to threats in Europe of bans on products produced by Israeli industries in the West Bank. By 1998, it occupied 150 dunams (37 acres) and since has expanded to cover over 1,300 dunams (about 325 acres) (2013). The expansion of the Barkan Industrial zone, and illegal Israeli outposts nearby like Brukhin have lead to the confiscation of Palestinian farmland or made access to such areas unreachable.
In some factories at the Barkan Industrial Park, workers are said to start on a minimum wage but can rise to earn more than three times the average salary in areas governed by the Palestinian Authority. Factory owners there say that calls to boycott some factories endanger employment for many Palestinians.According to Mohammad Chaichian, the practice of industrial zones like Barkin in the West Bank gives Palestinians, for whom work permits in Israel are restricted, no option but to accept work in what he calls "Economic prison zones". According to testimonies gathered by Kaz LaOved, an Israeli workers' right organization, Palestinian workers in the Barkan Industrial zone (2009) receive salaries that are less than a third of that established as Israel’s minimum wage, and they do not receive pay slips, vacations, sick pay, overtime and convalescence payments.
Pollution
In 1998 Barkan factories generated each year an estimated 810,000 cubic meters of industrial wastewater annually, which flowed untreated from the 3 storage tanks, after a design defect, made them unoperational when overloaded, into a nearby wadi into the agricultural lands of the Palestinian villages of Sarta, Kafr ad-Dik and Bruqin, and reportedly polluting the groundwater with heavy metals. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health roughly 70% of cancers among Palestinians in the contiguous Salfit Governorate occur among people living near the industrial park and exposed to the waste overflow.
References
- ^ Violet Qumsieh, 'The Environmental Impact of Jewish Settlements in the West Bank,' Palestine-Israel Journal, Vol.5 No.1 1998.
- ^ Jodi Rudoren, 'In West Bank Settlements, Israeli Jobs Are Double-Edged Sword ,' New York Times 10 February, 2014.
- ^ Asher Schechter, 'EU settlement ban casts shadow over Palestinian industry in the West Bank,' Haaretz 11 August 2013}}
- ^ Charmaine Seitz,'Palestinian women face political and social frustrations,' Unicef 23 September 2011.
- Elior Levy,'Palestinians will lose jobs if boycott persists', Ynet 20 May 2012.
- ^ Mohammad A. Chaichian, Empires and Walls: Globalization, Migration, and Colonial Domination, BRILL 2013 p.312.
- Kenneth Ring, Ghassan Abdullah, Letters from Palestine: Palestinians Speak Out about Their Lives, Their Country, and the Power of Nonviolence, Wheatmark, Inc., 2010 pp.67-8.