How Many Palestinians Work in West Bank Industrial Zones?
About 14,100 Palestinian workers in the Judea and Samaria industrial zones in 2022, on the State Comptroller’s February 2023 follow-up audit.
About 14,100 Palestinian workers were employed in the industrial zones of Judea and Samaria in 2022, the State Comptroller of Israel reported in a follow-up audit published in February 2023. The same audit records about 5,500 Israeli workers in those zones, and gives the Palestinian figure as 14,100 employment permits issued to Palestinians employed by Israelis, on Civil Administration data for May 2022. The number counts permits held at one date rather than attendance on a given day.
| Figure | What it counts | Period |
|---|---|---|
| About 14,100 | Palestinian workers employed in the industrial zones of Judea and Samaria, as printed with the source’s own approximation | 2022 |
| 14,100 | Employment permits issued to Palestinians employed by Israelis in the industrial zones, per Civil Administration data | May 2022 |
| About 5,500 | Israeli workers employed in the same industrial zones | 2022 |
| About 70% | Share of the industrial zones defined by Central Command as the most threatened, on Central Command’s own definition | As at the audit |
| 2, then 1, then none | Indictments filed against Palestinians employed in the zones, by year of filing | 2020, 2021, and to the audit’s close in 2022 |
| 99,500 | Permits to employ Palestinian workers in Israel, the quota approved by the government | 2018 |
Source: State Comptroller of Israel, Industrial Zones Under Israeli Management in the Judea and Samaria Area, follow-up audit, February 2023, and Staff Officers in the Civil Administration in the Judea and Samaria Region, Annual Report 70C, for the 99,500.
The Comptroller’s 2023 audit counts about 14,100 Palestinian workers
The State Comptroller of Israel published the figure inside an interdisciplinary follow-up audit of the industrial zones under Israeli management in the area. The audit covers security, enforcement and employment, and it prints one Palestinian worker figure for those zones as a whole, with the approximation the Comptroller uses.
What the audit is:
- A follow-up audit, testing whether deficiencies raised earlier had been rectified.
- Its subject is the industrial zones under Israeli management in the Judea and Samaria Area.
- Its stated fields are security, enforcement and employment.
- Its worker figures are for 2022, and its permit data is dated May 2022.
The 14,100 is a Civil Administration count of employment permits
The State Comptroller recorded 14,100 employment permits issued to Palestinians employed by Israelis in the industrial zones, per data held by the Civil Administration for May 2022. The count is the Civil Administration’s own count of permits it issued, and the audit’s employment figure for the year is the same number.
What that means for the figure:
- It counts permits issued, not people present at work on any given day.
- It is a stock at a single date, May 2022, not an average over the year.
- The permits it counts are those issued to Palestinians employed by Israelis in the zones.
- The employment figure and the permit figure are one quantity in this audit, not two measurements that agree.
About 5,500 Israeli workers are employed in the same zones
The State Comptroller reported about 5,500 Israeli workers alongside the roughly 14,100 Palestinian workers in the zones in 2022, both figures carrying the audit’s own approximation. The audit also records that about 70% of the zones were defined by Central Command as the most threatened, on Central Command’s own definition, and it prints indictment counts of 2 in 2020, 1 in 2021 and none to its close in 2022 beside the Palestinian employment figure.
Those indictment counts arise from files filed in named years, while the roughly 14,100 is a Civil Administration permit stock for 2022. The two count different things over different periods, and the audit publishes no rate built from them.
The audit publishes no figure for any single zone
The State Comptroller published one Palestinian worker figure for the industrial zones of Judea and Samaria as a whole. No figure for Barkan, Mishor Adumim, Ariel or any other named zone appears in the audit, and the Israeli publications used here carry no month-by-month or year-by-year series for the zones.
The absences, stated as they stand:
- No breakdown of the roughly 14,100 Civil Administration permits by zone.
- No trend line: the record used here carries one dated total, not a series.
- No figure for Palestinians employed in Israeli localities outside the industrial zones.
- No update after 2022, the year in which the follow-up audit closes.
The 99,500 permits for work inside Israel are a separate count
The State Comptroller of Israel reported 99,500 permits to employ Palestinian workers in Israel, the quota approved by the government for 2018, in its audit of the staff officers in the Civil Administration. That is a government-approved quota for employment inside Israel, and it is a different universe and a different year from the roughly 14,100 permits in the West Bank industrial zones. The Knesset Research and Information Centre separately reported a statutory ceiling on foreign-worker quotas, calculated from a population base.
| Figure | What it counts | Who published it | Period |
|---|---|---|---|
| 14,100 | Employment permits issued to Palestinians employed by Israelis in the industrial zones, Civil Administration data | State Comptroller of Israel | May 2022 |
| 99,500 | Permits to employ Palestinian workers in Israel, the quota approved by the government | State Comptroller of Israel | 2018 |
| 324,786 | Maximum foreign-worker quota, 3.3% of a population of 9.842 million at the end of 2023 | Knesset Research and Information Centre | 2024 |
Which of these figures may not be added together?
The three permit figures above sit in three separate documents, cover three periods and count three different things, so none may be summed with another or read as a share of another. The 14,100 and the roughly 5,500 are the two components the 2023 audit prints for the zones; a total of 19,600 is a sum of those two published components and is not a figure the audit states. The indictment counts of 2, 1 and none arise from files filed in named years and may not be divided into the 2022 permit stock. Every worker figure here carries the Comptroller’s own approximation, and “about 14,100” is not restated as an exact 14,100.
Questions readers ask
Which Israeli body published the 14,100?
The State Comptroller of Israel published it in a February 2023 follow-up audit, recording it as Civil Administration data for May 2022.
Is the 14,100 a count of people or of permits?
The State Comptroller reported 14,100 employment permits issued to Palestinians employed by Israelis, so the figure counts permits held at one date.
How many Israelis work in the same zones?
The State Comptroller recorded about 5,500 Israeli workers in the industrial zones in 2022.
Do the two worker figures add to a workforce total?
The State Comptroller published the two as separate components, about 14,100 and about 5,500 for 2022, and the audit prints no combined total.
Does the audit break the figure down by zone?
The State Comptroller published one figure for the industrial zones of Judea and Samaria as a whole, and the audit names no single zone’s workforce.
How many of the zones are defined as most threatened?
The State Comptroller reported that about 70% of the zones were defined by Central Command as the most threatened, on Central Command’s own definition, as at the audit.
What indictment figures does the audit publish?
The State Comptroller recorded 2 indictments in 2020, 1 in 2021 and none to the audit’s close in 2022, set beside the roughly 14,100 Palestinians employed in the zones.
Can an indictment rate be worked out from those figures?
The State Comptroller printed indictments by year of filing beside a permit stock for 2022, and the audit publishes no rate joining them.
How many permits did the government approve for work inside Israel?
The State Comptroller reported 99,500 permits to employ Palestinian workers in Israel, the quota approved by the government for 2018.
Is that quota part of the foreign-worker quota?
The Knesset Research and Information Centre reported a maximum foreign-worker quota of 324,786 for 2024, being 3.3% of a population of 9.842 million at the end of 2023; that ceiling and the 2018 quota for employing Palestinian workers were published in separate documents covering separate years.
What period does the 14,100 cover?
The State Comptroller gives the Civil Administration permit data as May 2022 and the employment figure for the year 2022.
Does the record here carry a figure after 2022?
The State Comptroller’s follow-up audit closes in 2022, and no later figure for the zones appears in the Israeli publications used here.
Sources
- Knesset Research and Information Centre, 2025. Data on Quotas for Foreign Workers in the Various Sectors of the Economy and the Number of Foreign Workers. knesset.gov.il. Official or primary record.
- State Comptroller of Israel, 2021. Staff Officers in the Civil Administration in the Judea and Samaria Region. Annual Report 70C, English abstract, pp. 55 to 59. mevaker.gov.il. Official or primary record.
- State Comptroller of Israel, 2023. Industrial Zones Under Israeli Management in the Judea and Samaria Area, Follow-up Audit. Interdisciplinary audit, February 2023. mevaker.gov.il. Official or primary record.
