RAMALLAH, Monday, February 24, 2020 (WAFA) – Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh today called on Palestinian workers and contractors not to do any work at the illegal settlements Israel is building in the occupied Palestinian territories.

The premier’s remarks came at the opening of the weekly Palestinian cabinet meeting held in Ramallah.

He called on the workers not to work in the settlements and on contractors not to accept any contracting business in the settlements either.

According to figures by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, an estimated 23,000 Palestinians worked in the settlements in 2019 where 64 percent of them were employed in construction. Daily wages in Israel and the settlements are usually triple what the Palestinian worker would get for the same work in the Palestinian areas where unemployment rate is relatively high.

The premier’s call on workers and contractors to boycott the settlements came in light of the recent widely-condemned Israeli announcement to build thousands of new housing units in illegal settlements in occupied Jerusalem, which Shtayyeh has also strongly condemned in his remarks and warned against their dangerous implications.

M.K.