Globes, Eric Mirowski, 31.03.2020

Contrary to the recommendations of the NSC, the government decided, at the end of a nightly meeting, not to completely disrupt the construction industry.

Following the Prime Minister's announcement yesterday about the worsening of the closure and the relief measures being formed , a several-hour meeting was held to discuss the recommendations made by the NSC to reduce the attendance of workers in their workplaces. The recommendations, formulated on Friday, included the recommendation to cancel the construction industry's exclusion from the order. Its definition is essential, and to send Palestinian workers to their homes in the Occupied Territories.

However, as part of a preliminary hearing on the matter with the NSC leaders on Tuesday, the Ministry of Housing and Land Builders Association explained that stopping the work and sending the Palestinians to their homes would in effect mean disabling the construction sites for a very long time, even after the government allowed their restart. And workers from abroad who have returned to their homes will be able to return to work in Israel, and the contracting companies will have to recruit new workers under them, and re-teach them the projects they will need to work on. Contractor representatives warned that this was a very long process, which would greatly delay the work on the site.

At the same hearing, compromise proposals were raised that only part of the construction industry would cease to operate. Builders Association members presented to the NSC leaders a division of the public construction, residential and infrastructure construction industries, explaining the economic and other implications of stopping each of these industries.

Apparently, the factor that shaped the discussion was different, as the site workflow is supposed to stop anyway, without having to send the workers to their homes. The contractors have pledged to keep the Palestinian workers in quarantine, so that a similar effect can be achieved in the decision to cancel the exclusion, without causing any harm.