The situation of workers of the occupied Arab territories. Report of the Director-General to the International Labour Conference, 93rd Session, International Labour Office, Geneva 2005.

The Report was prepared, as in previous years, following high-level missions to Israel
and the occupied Arab territories (the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, the Gaza
Strip and the Syrian Golan) and to the Syrian Arab Republic. The missions enjoyed once
more the full cooperation of the interlocutors, reaffirming the support for the ILO’s
efforts to contribute to building peace and security in the region through monitoring and
assessing economic and social development in our fields of competence.
A new climate of dialogue prevails among Israelis and Palestinians, opening up new
prospects. Conditions of life for workers and their families in the occupied Arab
territories nevertheless continue to be extremely hard.
The intricate linkages between economic, social and political development on the one
hand, and peace and security on the other, have to be at the forefront of our thinking in
addressing the pervasive and continued problems of daily life faced by the people of the
occupied Arab territories. This is the underlying premise behind ILO efforts in the region
and elsewhere: economic and social security is a condition of lasting peace. As the
United Nations Secretary-General puts it in his report entitled In larger freedom: “We
will not enjoy development without security, we will not enjoy security without
development, and we will not enjoy either without respect for human rights.”