The deaths of Akkhaphol Wannasai, Prayad Pilasram, Thana Tichantuek and Kaweesak Papanang, killed together with their employer on an Israeli farm near the Lebanese border on 31 October, were foretold. These workers, who came to Israel from Isan to provide a better future for their families, were killed by a rocket fired by Hezballah -- an indefensible attack on civilians by the Lebanese organisation. But they were exposed to danger by the Israeli and Thai states, both motivated by cold economic calculations.
Kaweesak, Akkhaphol, Thana and Prayad are only the latest, and probably not the last, in a horrific litany of agricultural migrant workers (including Thais and others) who have fallen victim in the war raging in Israel/Palestine. The plight of this marginalised and forgotten group of migrant workers briefly made world headlines when 41 were murdered and 31 abducted by Hamas in its attack on the "Envelope" region surrounding Gaza on 7 Oct 2023.
But as Israel's retaliatory offensive turns into an endless bloodbath that threatens to engulf the region -- killing more than 43,000 Palestinians and 3,000 Lebanese to date -- and as the Netanyahu regime's indifference to the fate of even the Israeli hostages becomes clear, the fate of the remaining eight Thai workers held in Gaza (two already confirmed dead), and the exposure of thousands of others to danger fade into the dismal background.
To understand why Thai migrants in Israel are so disproportionally likely to fall victim to violence, it is necessary to delve into the history of Zionist agriculture. For the Jewish settlers who came to the country from Europe while it was under British control, taking over land and working it themselves was a crucial aspect of national "regeneration" as well as of the strategic battle against the indigenous Palestinian Arabs. Farming became an efficient and ideologically valued way to occupy and defend frontier areas.
Following the establishment of Israel and the expulsion of most of the Palestinian population during the war of 1948, however, Israeli farmers began employing the remaining Palestinians (and Jewish immigrants from the Middle East) in large numbers. After the West Bank and Gaza were occupied in 1967, their Palestinian residents -- denied Israeli citizenship -- became the main workforce. When they rebelled against Israeli rule in the First Intifada, the government decided to free the Israeli economy of its dependence on them.
The replacement workforce was found in Thailand, where military officers interested in the Israeli model of settlement provided personnel for agricultural "training". This training quickly became a funnel for labour importation, and by the mid-1990s, over 20,000 Thais, mostly from Isan, were working in Israel. Naturally, they were concentrated in the parts of the country where agriculture was dominant -- its frontiers, including the Arabah, on the border with Jordan, the northern border with Lebanon, and the "Gaza Envelope".
From the beginning, highly placed people in both Israel and Thailand encouraged labour migration, from which they gained in both legal and illegal ways. (In 2008, an Israeli minister of labour was imprisoned for corruption related to the trafficking of workers.) Workers' welfare, however, has never been a great concern for either side. International NGOs have repeatedly described migrants' illegal low wages, substandard housing, and exposure to health risks to no avail beyond verbiage from the relevant officials.
While the October attack was not the first time Thais fell victim to violence, it was the most spectacular. Briefly, the Thai government was spurred into action, evacuating 10,000 workers from the country. Left to endure poverty and unemployment in Isan, most have since returned to Israel at their own expense, and the number of Thai workers in Israel's fields now nears what it was before the war. Migrants have few allies in Israeli civil society beyond NGO Workers' Hotline and the activist group Aid for Farm Workers.
Thailand claims that it opposes the ongoing violence in the Middle East as well as the exposure of Thai workers to danger in Israeli fields. Recently, over 3,500 Israelis, myself included, have called on the international community to apply real pressure on Benjamin Netanyahu to force a ceasefire and an end to the bloodshed.
Given the importance of agriculture in Israeli strategy, Thailand could promote an end to the bloodshed as well as the safety of migrant workers by immediately recalling all Thai workers in Israel pending a ceasefire while providing them with adequate compensation -- which would cost little in comparison to the billions the state has earned from taxing their incomes.
Failing that, the Thai government should stop deferring to the Israeli security forces -- who have proven utterly incompetent at protecting workers -- and delineate safe zones in the country for its citizens through consultation with independent international authorities. Thai citizens, poor and desperate for livelihood as they may be, should not serve as cannon fodder in Israel's war.
Matan Kaminer is an anthropologist, an activist, and a lecturer at Queen Mary University London. His background is in cultural anthropology, political economy, and political ecology. He holds a PhD in Anthropology from the University of Michigan and an MA in Sociology and Anthropology from Tel Aviv University. He is the author of 'Capitalist Colonial: Thai Migrant Workers in Israeli Agriculture' (Stanford University Press, 2024).