Hundreds of Palestinians mourn death of eight teenagers in Jordan Valley accident

Hundreds of Palestinians took part on Friday in the funeral of eight Palestinian teenage workers, who died in a road accident while on their way back from working in an Israeli settlement in the Jordan Valley.

The funeral, held in the village of Aqraba, east of Nablus, was attended by PA representatives and included a recorded speech of condolences by Palestinian president.

The teenagers, aged between 14 and 17 were all from Aqraba. According to local sources, they were on their way back from the Israeli settlement of Tomer in the Jordan Valley, built on occupied land belonging to Palestinian families from the village.

Sources confirmed that they were travelling in an overcrowded vehicle on an Israeli road, late on Thursday, when their minibus crashed with a truck.

'Tragedy felt on national level'

The news dominated Palestinian media and online platforms since Friday morning. Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Ishtayeh announced that the teenagers' families will receive a monthly assistance from the social affairs ministry fund following the deaths.

Hamza Aqrabawi, a social activist from Aqraba, told The New Arab that “Palestinians came from all across historical Palestine to pay their respects, from Galilee to Hebron. The tragedy was felt at a national level”. Aqrabawi noted that “the last time the village lost such a number of young people in a single day was in 1948”.

Aqrabawi pointed out that “four of the victims were schoolboys, using the days off between the two semesters to work and help their families. The other four had dropped out of school and were full-time workers”.

According to Aqrabawi, “child labour in Israeli settlements is common in the West Bank villages, especially in southeast Nablus, because of hard economic conditions. The tragedy has served as an occasion to raise the discussion in the region about child labor. But it is clear that the solution requires answers from the Palestinian Authority to ease the economic hardship and provide social programs to the youth”.

Martyrs for a living today in Palestine / the tragedy that many do not know.. that the eight victims of the accident today from the town of Aqraba, south of Nablus, are only boys between 14 and 17 years old.. they go on vacation to work picking dates in the Jordan Valley farms. pic.twitter.com/O6SjMW6HOI

— Ihab, son of the Gaza Strip (@jZfklo98mmwaozB) January 6, 2022

'Very little choices' for young Palestinians

Two of the victims, Baraa and Zakariya Abu Saleh were cousins, both aged 16. Their uncle, Bassam Abu Saleh, told The New Arab that “they began to work in the settlement’s farms two years ago, using whatever time they had free outside of the school”.

According to Abu Saleh, “Baraa and Zakariyah have little brothers and sisters, the youngest aged 6. They were aware of the difficulties facing their parents and wanted to become self-dependent early on, save money and help their younger siblings when their parents grow old”.

Abu Saleh detailed that his nephews “used to wake before dawn and travel to the settlement with other youth of the village in a small car. They worked eight hours in Israeli farms and they earned around 70 to 80 shekels each day (25 US dollars)”.

“There aren’t enough jobs in Palestinian towns or in the city”, said Abu Saleh. “The few jobs available pay even less than Israelis. Young people who want to begin to work have very little choices”.

Absence of social protection

The fact that the teenagers were travelling in an overcrowded car “intermediates find it very easy lately to recruit Palestinian workers, including minors, to work in Israeli settlements”, according to Mahmoud Ziadeh, head of the Palestinian Federation of Independent Labor Unions.

Ziadeh told The New Arab that “Palestinian workers in Israeli settlements work without any protection, especially if they are recruited without Israeli army permits to work in settlements”.

“This tragedy brings to surface a deeper problem”, stressed Ziadeh, “the absence of a Palestinian national system of social protection for low-income families, which would prevent them from sending their children to work in Israeli settlements”.

Around 200,000 Palestinians work in Israel or in Israeli settlements in the West Bank, lacking protection and basic labor rights, according to human rights groups.