
The petition notes that since Israel’s assault on Gaza began, the government imposed a complete closure on the enclave and the occupied West Bank, prohibiting the entry of Palestinians to work in Israel.
The Israeli Builders Contractors Association filed a High Court petition on Tuesday demanding that the government find a solution to the damage to the construction and infrastructure industry as a result of the ongoing military offensive on Gaza, the Israeli Ynet news site reported.
According to the association, based on data from the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), the entire construction industry suffered a loss of NIS 98 billion in 2024, the report said.
This “constitutes approximately 4.9% of GDP and approximately 45% of the output of the construction industry, with the addition of the last quarter of 2023 resulting in industry damage totaling approximately NIS 131 billion since the outbreak of the war.”
In the housing market, the report added, the Contractors Association “estimates that the average delay in delivering apartments is now six months.”
Prohibition of Workers
The petition notes that since Israel’s assault on Gaza began, the government imposed a complete closure on the enclave and the occupied West Bank, prohibiting the entry of Palestinians to work in Israel.
“The closure that was imposed and which continues today, alongside additional consequences of the war, such as: recruiting workers and engineering mechanical equipment (MEE) for reserves, closing construction sites, Home Front Command directives preventing work by the Home Front Command, and more, has brought the construction and infrastructure industry to an unprecedented shortage of manpower,” the report said.
UK Suspends Trade Talks with Israel, Summons Ambassador over Gaza Escalation
The shortage of workers has “also led to delays in the schedules of infrastructure projects and public-contract construction projects.”
In 2024, Israeli authorities began freezing work permits for around 80,000 Palestinians from the occupied West Bank, Israeli media reported.
“Since the beginning of the war, the association has repeatedly contacted various government agencies and warned about the impact of the war on the industry,” the president of the Contractors Association, Roni Brick, reportedly said on Tuesday.
‘Irreversible Damage’
Brick added that “the scope of the war and the closure are exceptional by any standard, and the entire industry and home buyers are suffering enormous and irreversible damage, and the courts are beginning to be filled with lawsuits.”
He said the association “demanded from the government a legislative solution or any other broad solution that would recognize the war as a circumstance” that, amongst others, constitutes a termination of a contract.
The EU Foreign Affairs Council will discuss suspending the association agreement with Israel, the bloc’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Tuesday.
“The Dutch foreign minister has put forward a proposal to do the review of Article 2 of our association agreement with… pic.twitter.com/mSG8zs9HQj
— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) May 20, 2025
“Despite our numerous appeals and meetings with various government representatives, the government has not created any legislative arrangement and has not presented any position, outline or any other solution to the problem, not even after about a year and a half since the outbreak of the war,” Brick said.
“The question that has arisen throughout this entire period is whether the war can be defined as a force majeure event, and I say that it is a force majeure event according to every law,” he added.
Ongoing Military Offensive
Since Israel’s reneging on the ceasefire on March 18, it has killed and wounded thousands of Palestinians throughout the Gaza Strip through a bloody and ongoing aerial bombardment.
On October 7, 2023, following a Palestinian Resistance operation in southern Israel, the Israeli military launched a genocidal war against the Palestinians, killing over 52,000, wounding more than 118,000, with over 14,000 still missing.
Osama Abu Musabah lost his wife, all his children, and over 13 relatives in a single horrific Israeli massacre. pic.twitter.com/5FqzN34IMf
— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) May 20, 2025
Despite habitual condemnation by many countries around the world of the Israeli genocide, little has been done to hold Israel accountable.
Israel is currently under investigation for the crime of genocide by the International Court of Justice, while accused war criminals — including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — are now officially wanted by the International Criminal Court.
The Israeli genocide has been largely defended, supported, and financed by Washington and a few other Western powers.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
Be the first to comment