The Ma'aleh Adumim municipality came to a precedent-setting agreement with its Palestinian employees last week, whereby it will recognize their rights in accordance with Israeli labor laws. Until now it was the Jordanian Labor Law from 1965 that was applied to the labor arrangements in this Jewish settlement beyond the Green Line, based on the local authority's legal argument that it is that law that applies in the territories.

The agreement is considered precedent-setting, because it relates for the first time to the routine employment conditions of Palestinian workers and their equalization to the conditions of Israel workers. In the agreement, the Ma'aleh Adumim municipality has taken upon itself a commitment to employ the workers under Israeli law and to apply to them the collective work agreements in force for municipal employees throughout the country. This means that henceforth they will enjoy social benefits that were not given to them previously. Moreover, the municipality will pay the workers NIS 1.5 million, for wage differentials and for lawyers' fees.