an Israeli work permit coming from Bethlehem in 2016-2017 (108,066 applications).261 This employment is at the behest of Israel as “its flexible permit regime allows the state to address the changing demands of Israeli employers as well as the shifting political context.”262 Through this, Israel has the full control to shutdown employment whenever it deems necessary, and ultimately leave a significant portion of the population with no income. In April 2002, for instance, Israel suspended work permits for all Palestinian workers.263 Palestinian workers are also dealt with on a contractual basis which means that their employment depends on whether there are projects; a treatment amounting to that of a disposable workforce. Moreover, Israel’s labor market is exploitative and unsafe. Palestinian workers are paid 39-44 percent of the pay received by an Israeli-Jewish worker performing a similar job 264 and 73 percent of employment is in construction and agriculture in Israeli colonies, without adequate health and safety provisions.265 Work hours for can also extend to 16 hours a day; workers often must leave home at night to arrive at checkpoints where they are subjected to inhumane and humiliating security checks, harassment, and long delays.266 Deepening economic inequality and disparity The consequence of Israel’s policies of fragmentation and isolation and the subsequent distortion of Bethlehem’s economy is a severe deepening of economic inequality and disparity throughout the governorate. The influx of tourists inevitably forces up the cost of living in Bethlehem. As Suhail Khalilieh puts it, “[The prices may be] good enough for tourists, but for the people of Bethlehem, it’s really expensive considering the income. We are being suffocated in terms of where and how we live, so the thought of immigrating is not far off from the minds of many people.”267 Though the Bethlehem governorate may have the highest daily wages in Palestine - excluding 261 See statistics table of work permits for the years of 2016-2017, in Nasser Al-Qadi, The Israeli Permit Regime: Realities and Challenges (ARIJ, 2018), 9, available at: https://www.arij.org/files/ arijadmin/2018/permits1.pdf 262 Clarno, supra 5, 104. 263 Ibid. 264 United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, supra 245, 16. 265 Macro Centre for Political Economics, “The Working Conditions of Palestinian Wage Earners in Israel“ (Tel Aviv, February 2017), 6, available at: http://www.macro.org.il/images/upload/ items/27348794024004.pdf 266 United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, supra 245, 16. 267 Dalia Hatuqa, “We are Living in a Touristic Prison: Palestinians on Life in the Holy City of Bethlehem,” Vox, 23 December 2019, available at: https://www.vox.com/world/2019/12/23/21024634/ bethlehem-tourism-christmas-west-bank-palestine-israel-settlements [accessed 26 December 2019]. 71