Israel steps up recruitment from India, Sri Lanka to replace Palestinian workers

Sandeep Dikshit

New Delhi, December 20

Headhunters are actively scouring for tens of thousands of workers in India and Sri Lanka to replace Palestinian workers at construction sites in Israel.

The recruitment in Sri Lanka is at an advanced stage and its foreign employment ministry has said about 100 people had already left for Israel and at least 10,000 would be recruited in all. In India, plans are to recruit up to one lakh workers for the construction and caregiver sectors, respectively.

Plans to hire 1 Lakh

• Israel is facing a severe crunch of labourers and caregivers after the October 7 Hamas attack. The plan is to recruit up to one lakh workers from India for the construction and caregiver sectors
• Recruitment camps are likely to begin from December 27 for 10 days. About 18,000 Indians are already working in Israel, mostly as caregivers

The identification is near complete in some states and the exercise is likely to spread to other parts of the country. “These are bilateral talks with the Government of India. Israel is not asking for workers from any state,” said the Israeli embassy in response to queries that recruitment is being concentrated in some states that have low Muslim populations.

The issue has gained traction after Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Benjamin Netanyahu touched on this specific aspect during their telephonic conversation on Tuesday. “The leaders also spoke about moving forward on a proposal to bring labourers from India to Israel,” said a readout from the Israeli side.

Israel is facing a severe crunch of labourers and caregivers after the Hamas attack of October 7 that has triggered the ongoing conflict in Gaza Strip. Many Thai and Filipino workers have fled while Palestinian workers have been barred from entering Israel after the Hamas massacre. Tel Aviv is also not keen to recruit more workers from Morocco and China, said sources here.

The proposal to bring workers from India, however, predates the Hamas-Israel conflict. It was in June that Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen came here and inked an agreement to take 42,000 workers from India of which 34,000 would be for the construction sector. But sources said after the conflict with Palestinians, the requirement has gone up. Besides barring Palestinians from entering Israel for work, many caregivers and workers from Nepal, Thailand and the Philippines have fled after some of their compatriots were kidnapped or killed in the October 7 attack.

Agencies have also reported that another team of Israeli recruiters will hold recruitment camps in Delhi and Chennai from December 27 for the next 10 days. About 18,000 Indians are working in Israel, mostly as caregivers.