= road!
guest of the version of his report.
T Even before the giVeS you tac prinica pare I went as Workers Blair with Sharon tionally trade union. foreign Israeli workers.
mechalaeily the editor of the trade (hopefully with the safety union magazine catch on). Solidarity recently Israel is a paranoid soci. visited Israel as a ety in which security"
is a big industry, here are "guards" everywhere, Workers Advice many of them civilian, who check Centres, a trade when you enter railway union initiative. stations, publ Below is an edited or even gar you can imagine an eco nomic reigned and ple were put I visited Madj al-Krum. his was my first "trip to Isracl. I've widely lation of 11,500. It sits on the conflict amount about it, but seeing know sac rcauty belore your cyc much more graphic sense of the political, On the social and economic situa- higher site, tion than just reading from Carmiel, a Jewish city built on confiscated guest of the this valley there Centres communities (WAG), which was originally chalk and chees an information centre that On the also provided legal assistance wealth and for Arab workers, who com. ered with gre prise nearly 20% of the popupar us employed people in arid picture, for unemployed people community, with houses ris the authorities closed down slopes. the benefit office. It also con- shortage, not because of any tinues to provide legal assistechnical tance for individual workers. because these people After a number of years of this activity it decided to try The flowers of Carmiel are new trade treated better than the Arabs on the other ley. Even though they are 'trade union', yet it is not a real denied the same It originated as Jewish citizens and they are a Zionist labour organisation denied the resources which to create jobs for Jews in the latter have.
Until 1956 it did The richness of Carmiel not allow Arabs to join, and looks down on the other side even since it has done little of the valley When the sovern- mocking the ment decided to introduce Histadrut reminding them of their true place in Israeli society - at its employed at lower rates than even this enough. There usca to be Arab major employer itself, but side of the road further down faced a big crisis when all its the valley. Carmiel companies were privatised recently and as a result it lost belong.
Riding on the train from develop the 'Jewish' side but Tel Aviv to Haifa, the first these. Arabs are in the way. thing that struck me was the militarisation of Isracli soci- of them, and they are seckety. Everywhere there were ing to pressure the rest to men and women in uniform, move from homes in which sonic with heavy weapons slung your bags : buildings Indeed if peace ill these peo really a Armed to the teeth: Israeli settlers use terror and violence to keep control vith a popu- of land scised illegally from Palestinians they have lived for years valley along can live valley Khatib described the the city of tion thir There, first world over Arab land. In This is Israel.
and different as carmiel side is a neglected the craggy, barren La water difficulties but are In the shadow of one big block I saw a couple of rough no tool bie sorey hole of bloody minded Arabs who will not move. As they are you walk around Jaffa, rights islands of opulence, have a "first world' city coexisting with a 'third world' which makes a mockery of seemingly the word planning Arabs and Jaffa is an old port that has In supports 300 families. Once is not again these are in some The wrong place. fleet has to move to develop the harbour wants Capitalism will, of course, take the money of a few rich Wall Arabs, just to show there are no hard feelings. fishing fleet have to travel further their fish. but Such is the path of progress in Israel.
Whilst the suffer national oppression in Israe there is also a class division council situa- with Party, have gon the plan to -develop Jaffa. colonialist This will bring of money into but it is talkey that many Arabs will see much of it Everywhere there national ression, some members 'the oppre minority to further their own interests at the expense of the major ity. Africa for example there has been the enrichment of a small num. ber of black people whilst majority remain shanty towns I visited the WAC office in Jaffan nantly Arab city n Israel.
However, it has sutlered the consequences new sce town, as if you Nazareth (or Nazareth Illit), built near-by, overlooking it from hill-top, like Two activists of WAC, Khitam Na'amneh Manal Jabour showed me the har- round. They told thriving market. But since the building Upper re- this has declined. When I visited, Israelis. the old town centre, where the market, used to be, was The WAC has mainly but not exclusively concentrated might for (it was involved in a campalen in a Heineken Factor which involved both Arab and Jewish workers). Arab