The cabinet decided on Sunday to issue an extra 5,150 permits for Palestinians from the West Bank to work inside Israel, an increase of more than 20 percent, the labour ministry announced.
"The government has decided to grant 5,125 more work permits for West Bank Palestinians, 4,000 of them in the construction sector and the rest in agriculture," a spokesman for the industry, trade and labour ministry said.
He said the decision had "immediate effect" and was passed at the request of its minister, Binyamin Ben Eliezer, to help the Palestinian Authority combat unemployment and to meet a manpower shortage in Israeli construction.
About 15,000 Palestinians have permits to work inside Israel, while another 10,000 to 15,000 work illegally, the spokesman told AFP. The figures do not include 15,000 with work permits for Jewish settlements in the West Bank. Before the September 2000 outbreak of an uprising against Israeli occupation, 146,000 Palestinians worked inside Israel or in the settlements, according to the International Monetary Fund.
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