'Please don't send us Arab workers'
Manpower agency manager affiliated with National Insurance Institute specifically states in bureau documentation that he refuses to employ Arabs; Jaffa woman sues him for NIS 100,000
The supervisor who was supposed to take her in at the place of employment spoke of the official Employment Bureau document which states black on white, “Please don’t send us Arab workers.”
This week, the women submitted a claim to the Labor Court through Attorney Iris Farhi, suing for NIS 100,000 ($30,543.47). The letter stated that “the defendants have inhumanely emphasized the difference between Arabs and Jews in Israel in the 21st century.”
The affair began a few months ago when the woman appealed to the Employment Bureau in order to receive a job offer and was sent to Dror Kanaf Manpower Services, a company supplying cleaning services at the National Security Institute in Jaffa, which asked the Employment Bureau to supply them with cleaners.
The woman, who lives in Jaffa, thought it could be a very good job for her. “I called the company manager and he set up an appointment in the company’s Jaffa offices,” she said.
But then the manager noticed she was a religious, Arab woman with a head covering. The manager, Moshe Mualem, told her straight out, “We don’t employ Arab workers.”
'I made a mistake'
The plaintiff later presented the Employment Bureau reference form to Mualem in order for him to declare that he refuses to accept her for the job. There were no two ways about what he wrote on the letter.“I can’t accept an Arab to work at the National Insurance Institute. Please do not send me Arab workers,” signed “Moshe General Supervisor.” The Arab woman explained that she thought that “because it is the National Insurance Institute, he has the option of not accepting Arab workers.”
The Arab woman met Attorney Farhi by chance and relayed her experience. “In the case we have before us, as described here, the defendants have not only despicably violated law and basic law but also crudely trampled upon humanitarian ethics,” said Farhi.
The manager said in response, “I made a mistake and I apologized. We underwent mediation at the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor and the case is closed. We employ Arabs in other places across the country.”
The full story is published in Yedioth Tel Aviv
