Wearing a safety belt, helmet and work boots, Raju Nishad drives scaffolding, hammering on the blocks that will form part of a building in a new neighborhood in the city of Be’er Yaakov in central Israel.
Although he and the other Indians working with him wouldn’t look out of place on a giant construction site, they are relative newcomers to Israel’s construction industry.
They are part of the Israeli government’s effort to fill the void left by thousands of Palestinian construction workers prevented from entering Israel since Hamas’ unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack.
If that attack had not happened, the site, with its slowly rising tall towers, houses, streets and sidewalks, would have been filled with workers speaking Arabic, as opposed to today’s Hindi, Hebrew and even Mandarin.
The Hamas attack triggered the deadliest war ever between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
It later spread to other Iran-backed groups, including Hezbollah in Lebanon and Houthi rebels in Yemen, and even led to direct confrontation with the Islamic Republic.
None of this stopped 35-year-old Nishad from coming to Israel.
“There is nothing to fear here,” he said, despite multiple airstrike warnings that have prompted them to flee to shelters.
“Once it (the sirens) stops, we resume our work,” he told AFP.
High earnings in Israel, where some workers can earn three times what they make back home, are the key to why people like Nishad come here from thousands of kilometers (miles) away.
“I am saving for the future, planning to make wise investments and do something meaningful for my family,” Nishad said.
She is one of about 16,000 workers who arrived from India last year – and Israel plans to bring thousands more.
new recruitment drive
India is the world’s fifth-largest economy and one of the fastest-growing, but it has also struggled to create enough full-time jobs for millions of people.
Indians in Israel have been employed for decades, with thousands working as caregivers to elderly Israelis, while others work as diamond traders and IT professionals.
But as the war in Gaza escalated, recruiters have launched a drive to bring Indians into Israel’s construction sector as well.
Sameer Khosla, president of Delhi-based Dynamic Staffing Services, which has sent nearly 500,000 Indians to work in more than 30 countries, has so far brought more than 3,500 workers to Israel, a new market for him.
Khosla himself first arrived there a month after the October 7 attack, when officials appealed for foreign workers in the construction industry, which had closed after the Gaza war began.
“We didn’t know much about the market and there was no existing workforce here from India,” Khosla said.
“We really have to move forward and understand the needs,” he said, adding that he believes India is a natural choice for Israel given its “excellent relations.”
Now they hope to bring in 10,000 Indian labourers, as they have a large pool of skilled Indian workers in all trades.
possible long term effects
In nearby Tel Aviv, a group of Indians live in a small flat, where, in addition to the construction skills they brought with them, they also learn to cook the familiar spicy dishes they miss from home.
“In a short time, one can earn more money in Israel,” said Suresh Kumar Verma, 39. Like Nishad, he is from India’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh. Varma works at a construction site north of Israel’s commercial capital.
“Earning money is also important…it is important to keep working hard for the future of the family.”
Israeli researchers believe that the number of Indians working in construction still does not match the number of Palestinians doing so before the war, and this is hindering the overall growth of the sector.
Eyal Argov of the Central Bank of Israel said that before the Hamas attack, about 80,000 Palestinians were employed in construction, along with about 26,000 foreigners.
About 30,000 foreigners are now employed, which is significantly lower than previous overall workforce figures, he said, adding that activity in the current quarter to 2024 is about 25 percent below pre-war levels.
“This number (of Indians) is still very small,” Argov said.
While this would not lead to an immediate “housing shortage, it could delay the supply of new housing”, he said.
“Israel’s population is growing, increasing by two percent annually, and this delay may lead to some reduction in the future.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
