Libel: PA TV lies and claims an international report accuses Israel of causing deaths of Palestinian laborers at checkpoints
Official PA TV News
Official PA TV newsreader: “Secretary-General of the Palestine Labor Union Shaher Sa'ad declared that the report that was issued by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), which includes an objective review of the violations and crimes that have been committed against the Palestinian laborers, will be included in the International Criminal Court (ICC) case dealing with a review of the Israeli occupation’s harm against the Palestinian people. The aforementioned report reveals the basic causes for the Palestinian laborers’ suffering – causing the deaths of Palestinian laborers in the Israeli job market due to apathy regarding providing health, safety, and professional measures and equipment, and deliberately harming the Palestinian laborers when they pass through the Israeli military checkpoints and are gathered together in long and crowded lines for many hours, which has led to the death of many laborers in these lines as a result of a lack of oxygen that led to suffocation, loss of consciousness, and eventually death (sic., the ITUC report does not make this allegation; see below for the actual contents of the report).”
[Official PA TV News, April 21, 2021]
The International Trade Union Confederation report mentioned in the item, published on April 12, 2021, makes no mention of Palestinian laborers dying of oxygen deprivation at Israeli security checkpoints. The report discusses checkpoints on page 10, where it states the following: “To arrive at work on time workers must leave their villages and towns in the early hours of the morning. Then at an overcrowded checkpoint or crossing they must endure a lengthy, invasive and humiliating security check by Israeli military and armed private security personnel… The lengthy journey, often extending the working day to up to 16 hours, made by sleep deprived workers who rely on cheap and speedy transportation, renders them prone to car accidents and injuries at work. There have been numerous fatal road accidents involving workers on their way to work in Israel and the settlements.”