Israel's workforce reflects security fears

Given that Israel voted yesterday on the heels of the recent Gaza conflict, I thought I would return to a blog I did during my visit to shoot a Dispatches programme, Unseen Gaza, last month. Here it is.

There is nothing quite so instructive as the 5.00am start from Jerusalem down the highway to Ben Gurion airport outside Tel Aviv – because, of course, the road traverses parts of the West Bank. The high walls from time to time remind you of that.

The cars are sparse, the taxi driver still to this day an Arab Israeli from Arab east Jerusalem. But you are never quite sure until you open the conversation.

It continues to amaze me how, even in the face of what is happening in Gaza, they remain so placid and mild mannered. But my driver allows his voice to rise a little as he speaks of the dead children and “ladies” before his voice trails off.

And then I see them at a checkpoint in the dual carriageway, in a shadowy passage to the left: a long, long single file of cold men in scarves. Yes, it’s three degrees here this morning. These are the rare handfuls of West Bank workers still allowed to come into Israel to work. There are very, very few these days.

When I first came to Ben Gurion my bags were checked by Palestinians from the West Bank or Arab Israelis from within Israel. Today they are Sri Lankans. And when yesterday I sat on a mound of earth overlooking Gaza, the people in the fields, apparently oblivious to the bombardment, were no longer Palestinians but Thais.

The lack of labour for the people of the Palestinian territories is generating its own despair and hatred. How much longer will my old taxi man keep his calm demeanour? What a challenge for Obama, for whom there are unreal quantities of hope among Palestinians.

Watch the Gaza slideshow by Channel 4 News foreign reporter Jonathan Miller.