The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) and Kav LaOved (KLO) hereby invite you to the following thematic briefing:
Wednesday, 31 March 2021
10:00-11:30
This event will be held in English with Arabic Translation
Please RSVP by COB Wednesday, 24 March 2021 with
Nader Muaddi [Nader.Muaddi@nrc.no | Tel. 054.910.3668]
Program:
10:00 Welcome and Introduction, Advocate Michal Tadjer, Kav LaOved.
10:10 Presentation of Kav LaOved’s new report: “Palestinian Labour Rights in Transition,” Maayan Niezna, PhD Candidate University of Kent Law School and Visiting Research Fellow at University of Tel Aviv’s TraffLab project.
10:30 What’s in a Kickback Payment? Extortion, Informality and Price Discrimination in Israel’s Black Market for Work Permits, Professor Wifag Adnan, Social Science Division, New York University Abu Dhabi.
10:50 The Labour Brokerage System in the West Bank: A Critical Review, Walid Habbas, PhD Candidate, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
11:00 Discussion and Closing Summary
Speakers:
Prof. Wifag Adnan – Wifaq Adnan’s research focuses on how labour markets function in developing and emerging economies and the topics she has worked on span labour mobility, job search, unemployment, labour market segmentation, wage differentials, female labour force participation and education. Her dissertation chapters involved quantifying the labour market costs of conflict in politically volatile regions such as the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Currently, she is evaluating major reforms and events in the West Bank (e.g. introduction of speed gates, work permit reform, COVID-19) to examine subsequent mobility patterns and the potential effects on wages, employment, permit prices and well-being. In another project, she uses a range of variables to measure conflict in order to identify how different modes of conflict shape economic and family-related decisions for men and women separately.
Walid Habbas – Walid Habbas’s field of research focuses on West Bank-Israeli economic integration since 2005. From a political-economy perspective, he is tracing the multiple ways Palestinian class-sectoral actors are interacting with the Israeli colonial structure with a focus on both the permit and border regimes. Since 2019, Walid has conducted extensive fieldwork with workers, brokers, merchants and other key actors in the West Bank. Currently, he is focusing on commodity smuggling mechanisms through the West Bank-Israeli border as well as on the brokerage system in the labour market.
Maayan Niezna – Maayan Niezna is currently conducting research as a Visiting Research Fellow at the TraffLab project at the Univesity of Tel Aviv. The project is an interdisciplinary research project rethinking the root causes of human trafficking and the global response to it. It works toward devising new ways to address the structural causes of workers’ vulnerability to severe forms of labour market exploitation in a global economy. She previously worked as a lawyer for two Israeli NGOs, The Hotline for Refugees and Migrants and Gisha, The Legal Center for Freedom of Movement. Her research concerns the elements of forced labour, focusing on non-citizen workers (Palestinians and migrant workers) in Israel.
Advocate Michal Tadjer – As Lead Advocate at Kav LaOved, Michal Tadjer directs the organizaton’s legal work to protect the rights of many populations, including Palestinians, refugees and asylum seekers as well as migrant workers in agriculture and caregiving. Prominent High Court of Justice cases she has led in recent years include the repeal of the Deposit Law for refugees, reform of the pension fund and sick leave funds for Palestinian workers and the recent reform in the permit system for Palestinian workers. She has also played a key role in efforts to address labour trafficking in Israel.