ABSTRACT
The second element that explains why foreign workers cannot totally substitute Palestinian workers has to do with the geographic distribution of Israeli construction and with the accessibility of workers to work sites. There is reason to believe that Palestinian and overseas workers are distributed in different geographic areas. Overseas workers are concentrated in major Israeli cities such as Tel Aviv (Gesser et al. 2001). Moreover, Israeli regulations facilitate the supply of Palestinian workers to settlements and border regions, while making it more costly for them to get to Tel Aviv or Northern areas of Israel. Palestinian contractors and workers have found it easier to access Israeli construction sites within the West Bank, or along the Green Line which juxtaposes the Central District of Israel, especially in years of limited closures (see Map 11.1). As previously mentioned, construction in the settlements, Jerusalem and the Central District represents over 50 per cent of all growth in this sector since 1992.
