The ambitious proposal is designed to address a perceived security threat by allowing the continued barring of most Palestinians, but it carries the risk of fueling fresh anger and disillusionment in the West Bank by removing what many policymakers see as a key economic valve keeping the motivation for terror in check.
Under the reported plan, Israel would bring in over 80,000 workers, mainly from Asia, for jobs in construction and agriculture normally filled by Palestinians.
Israel sharply restricted Palestinian entry to Israel after the Hamas attacks of October 7, in which thousands of Gazan terrorists rampaged across southern Israel, slaughtering some 1,200 people and taking 240 hostage.
Thousands of foreign farmhands in southern Israel left the country in the wake of the attacks. Dozens of foreign nationals, most of them from Thailand, were killed or kidnapped during the assault, and some remain hostage in Gaza. READ MORE
