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☆ Israel's ban on Palestinian workers is causing supply shocks to its economy: central bank governor
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-18 | by ( Natasha Turak | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

"And it's primarily in the construction industry where ... a third of that industry is Palestinians from the West Bank, and now they're not coming in to work." "It's also affecting agriculture, where they are in, and there are other foreign workers," Yaron said. watch nowThe ban on most of these workers returning to their employment in Israel has dramatically hurt the economy of the West Bank. In late December, Israel's finance ministry warned that the ban on Palestinian workers could cost Israel's economy billions of shekels per month. Fifty percent of the sites are closed and there is an impact on Israel's economy and the housing market."

Persons: Amir Yaron, Kobi Wolf, CNBC's Dan Murphy, Yaron, Raul Sargo Organizations: Bank of Israel, Bloomberg, Getty, Economic, West Bank, Israel, Times, Israel Builders Association Locations: Jerusalem, Israel, Davos, Gaza, Times of Israel, Thailand

LEHAVOT HABASHAN, Israel—In the days after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks in southern Israel, Orna Rayn searched frantically for someone to build a wooden barricade to secure the door of a safe room in her house about 6 miles from the Lebanon border. Rayn’s sister, Einat Rothem-Nechushtan, moved into the safe room on Oct. 10, even before the Israeli government ordered the evacuation of her own small farming community in northern Israel because of fears of all-out war with Hezbollah, the Iran-backed army in Lebanon.

Persons: LEHAVOT HABASHAN, Israel —, Orna Rayn, Einat Locations: Israel, Lebanon, Iran

☆ Israel Protests Turn Focus to Women’s Rights Amid Religious Parties’ Rise
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-26 | by ( Shayndi Raice | Photographs Kobi Wolf For The Wall Street Journal | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

BNEI BRAK, Israel—When Maayan Elkabir boarded a public bus in the Israeli city of Ashdod, she said the driver scolded the 15-year-old for wearing a tank top and shorts on a line used by ultra-Orthodox Jews. She said he told her and her teenage friends to sit at the back of the bus and cover themselves up with blankets.

Persons: Maayan Elkabir Locations: BNEI BRAK, Israel, Ashdod

☆ Netanyahu’s Government Moves to Vote on Judicial Overhaul in Face of Protests
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-24 | by ( Dov Lieber | Shayndi Raice | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Israeli police blocked protesters during a demonstration outside the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in Jerusalem, on Monday. Photo: Kobi Wolf/Bloomberg NewsTEL AVIV—Israel was on edge Monday as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ’s coalition pressed ahead with voting on a proposed judicial overhaul that has triggered mass protests and said he was “working around the clock” to reach an agreement and urged political leaders to act responsibly and with courage. Late Sunday, President Biden urged Netanyahu to focus on “pulling people together and finding consensus.”

Persons: Kobi Wolf, Benjamin Netanyahu ’, Biden, Netanyahu, ” Organizations: Bloomberg News TEL Locations: Jerusalem, Bloomberg News TEL AVIV, Israel

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com. https://www.wsj.com/articles/israel-ultra-orthodox-haredim-military-service-supreme-court-of-ultra-orthodox-jews-shakes-israels-sense-of-identity-b3155e01

Persons: Dow Jones Locations: israel

☆ Israeli Startups Struggle to Raise Money Amid Political Turmoil, Global Downturn
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Dov Lieber | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Israel’s technology sector has become a prominent actor in the movement against a judicial overhaul plan. Photo: Kobi Wolf/Bloomberg NewsTEL AVIV—Israeli technology companies are struggling to raise funds, recent data shows, amid a combination of global economic trends and investor concerns over how a proposal to overhaul the country’s judiciary could affect the sector, one of the world’s most vibrant hubs for startups. Israeli technology companies were hurt harder in the first quarter than other global tech hubs, data shows, suggesting the reasons behind the decline in fundraising go beyond macroeconomic conditions.

BNAI BRAK, Israel—Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is rapidly moving ahead with a judicial-overhaul plan that could begin final passage through parliament next week, as the debate over the legislation exposes deep fissures between Israel’s secular and religious communities. Over the past three months, protests against the legislation have brought out hundreds of thousands of people in a country of nine million.

JERUSALEM—A small group of Jewish men clad in black and white stood in a quiet nook of Judaism’s holiest site one recent morning, gently rocking and murmuring prayers before Israeli police motioned for them to move on. Such a scene would have resulted in arrests just a few years ago for violating a longstanding unofficial agreement between Israel and Islamic religious authorities, which forbids non-Muslims from praying on the site known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary.

KIRYAT ARBA, West Bank—Military towers loom over the highway leading to far-right lawmaker Itamar Ben-Gvir ’s hometown, a settlement next to the Palestinian city of Hebron. Residents walk around with pistols strapped to their thighs, just beside their tzitzit, the ritual tassels mandated by Jewish law, as clusters of children play in the streets. Once largely confined to the fringes of Israeli society, an ultranationalist political outlook forged in Jewish West Bank settlements like Kiryat Arba has now been thrust to the center of Israeli public life by Mr. Ben-Gvir’s success in last week’s election. The Religious Zionism ticket co-led by Mr. Ben-Gvir won 14 seats in the 120-seat Parliament, or Knesset, making it the third-largest party in Israel.

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