In the middle of a raging Gaza conflict, 60 Indian nationals have left for Israel to be employed as construction workers.
This was the first batch, from among 1,500 such Indians, to be sent to Israel this month under a government-to-government (G2G) agreement signed between the two countries.
In fact, the demand for Indian construction workers in Israel is going to increase in the coming months, and it is estimated that 15,000 more workers will be sought by Israel, says the spokesperson for the Israeli Embassy in New Delhi in response to a question by The Indian Express.
While the 1,500 already selected workers were recruited from the states of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana in January this year, for the next phase, the states of Telangana and Maharashtra have shown interest in organising the professional test drive, the spokesperson said.
“We had a farewell event for the first batch of over 60 Indian construction workers going to Israel under the G2G agreement. This is an outcome of hard work of many, including NSDC India,” Israel Ambassador Naor Gilon had posted on X on Tuesday, adding: “I’m sure that the workers become ‘ambassadors’ of the great P2P (people to people) relations between India and Israel.”
However, what has raised concerns of many back home is sending of Indians in what is perceived as a warzone, in the wake of the host country being engaged in a fierce conflict with Hamas since October 2023, and the kind of safeguards that have been provided to them, especially in the wake of several advisories issued by the Indian government in recent times, asking its citizens to exercise caution while moving around in Israel.
After a missile fired from Lebanon killed one and injured two other Indians in northern Israel, New Delhi’s diplomatic mission in Tel Aviv early last month urged Indian citizens in Israel to move to safer areas.
On Thursday, when asked about the issue, Randhir Jaiswal, spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs, said: “As you are aware, these [first batch] workers have gone to Israel as part of a mobility agreement that we have signed with the country. This agreement predates the conflict.”
“We are conscious of their safety. We have urged the Israeli authorities to ensure their safety and well-being,” Jaiswal added. The MEA didn’t give any details of the areas where these citizens will be working.
However, the Israeli Embassy spokesperson clarified that these workers will be deployed to work on residential projects in safe zones. “There is no construction done in danger zones. As they are construction workers, they should be deployed in non-danger zones, mostly residential buildings,” the embassy official told The Indian Express.
As per the information accessed by The Indian Express, it was on November 15 last year that NSDC (National Skill Development Corporation, a non-profit setup by Ministry of Finance for skill development) received the demand of 10,000 construction workers from Israel’s Population and Immigration Authority, across four job roles — formwork (3,000), iron bending (3,000), plastering (2,000) and ceramic tiling (2,000).
Consequently, on January 16 this year, professional tests for the same were conducted in the states of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh and 9,727 candidates qualified for the roles. As per the Israeli official, the candidates will get a minimum salary of Rs 1.35 lakh, besides other benefits.
Meanwhile, national carrier Air India has been on-boarded to ferry the candidates to Israel and 1,500 Indians will be sent to Israel this month. However, there is also a proposal to arrange additional charter flights so that the maximum number of workers can travel in the shortest possible period, they say.
In the wake of the Israel-Gaza conflict, it was reported that Indian workers will be hired to replace the 90,000 Palestinians whose work permits were cancelled since the Hamas attack. Before the conflict, Indians were widely engaged in caregiving sector in Israel, but this is the first time they will be employed in the construction sector on such a large scale.
Palestinians gather at the site of an Israeli airstrike on a building, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip (Reuters) 
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