First batch of 64 Indian workers from Haryana, Uttar Pradesh leave for Israel

The first batch of Indian construction workers bound for jobs in Israel during the conflict there were flagged off by Israeli Ambassador Naor Gilon and government officials on Tuesday.

The Israeli government raised an urgent request for construction workers in November 2023 and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had discussed fasttracking the process with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in December as the country faced major labour shortages after it banned thousands of Palestinians from working in Israel following the terror strikes by Hamas on October 7.

The first group of 64 workers were recruited over the past few months during a massive drive in

Haryana desh.

They are part of a requisitioned 10,000strong workforce that will be flown to Israel over the next few weeks, with batches due to fly almost every day on board Air India and even chartered flights, the National Skill Development Council (NSDC) said in a presentation made during the farewell event hosted by the Israeli Embassy.

While government officials had earlier said they were part of businesstoand

Uttar

Prabusiness recruitment, the Ministry of External Affairs subsequently clarified that the workers were travelling to Israel under a governmenttogovernment arrangement, as part of the IndiaIsrael mobility partnership signed in 2023.

“This is an outcome of hard work of many, including NSDC India. I am sure that the workers [will] become ‘ambassadors’ of the great [people to people] relations between India and Israel,” Mr. Gilon said on a social media platform.

The decision to send the workers comes despite the MEA’s own advisory on the safety of Indian labour in Israel issued by the Indian Embassy in Tel Aviv on March 5, “in view of the prevailing security situation”.

The MEA declined to respond to queries over whether the government has received any assurances that the Indians now being sent for construction work will only be assigned to “safe areas”, or whether they may be employed in border areas, Gaza, or even in occupied Israeli settlements not recognised by India.

As Israel is not on the list of “Emigration Clearance Required” (ECR) countries, registration for the workers is not mandatory on the MEA’s eMigrate portal, Minister of State (MoS) V. Muraleedharan said in a parliamentary reply on February 9.

This is an outcome of hard work of many... I am sure the workers become ‘ambassadors’ of the great relations between India and Israel

Israeli Ambassador