Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath on Tuesday said in the Assembly that over 5,600 persons from the state had been employed in Israel for construction work. This prompted Opposition leaders to question how sending people to a war zone could be cited as an achievement.

During the Winter Session of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly, the chief minister, referring to Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, said: “Yesterday, a Congress leader was seen walking around Parliament carrying a Palestine bag, while we are sending our youth to Israel for opportunities.”

Adityanath said that those employed in Israel get free food and accommodation, as well as a monthly salary of Rs 1.5 lakh. “There is also a full guarantee of safety,” he claimed.

The Bharatiya Janata Party leader contended that when the workers send money back home, it contributes to the state’s economy. While the chief minister said that the workers would have only earned Rs 20,000 to Rs 30,000 in Uttar Pradesh, he blamed previous governments for the state’s low per capita income.

Adityanath also said that a team of Israeli officials recently visited Uttar Pradesh and expressed interest in hiring more young people from the State, praising their “excellent work ethic and skills”.

Over the past year, around 12,000 Indian workers were recruited by Israel to replace Palestinians whose work permits were cancelled after Israel’s war on Gaza began in October 2023

Tel Aviv hired foreign workers to replace around 90,000 Palestinians whose work permits were cancelled after the war began. In November, it signed a bilateral agreement with New Delhi to conduct a recruitment drive.

Of the workers who were recruited, around 220 were sent back from Israel after they were found to lack the requisite skills and faced language barriers, the Ministry of External Affairs confirmed in November.

A report in The Indian Express in September had put the number of workers who had to return to India at 500 to 600, citing labour agencies. Most of those who returned were said to have been hired through government channels.

For workers from Uttar Pradesh, the prospect of earning between Rs 1.37 lakh and Rs 1.92 lakh a month – much higher than what they were earning in India – was what drove them to seek work in Israel, according to The Wire.

“Unemployment is killing us here,” a worker told the news website earlier this month. “I earn only Rs 500 a day, and with prices of essential commodities skyrocketing, it’s impossible to survive.”

Matter of shame, not pride: Priyanka Vadra

In response to Adityanath’s statement, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said that sending young people to work in a war-torn country was not “a reason to pat one’s own back”, but was a matter of shame.

She said that the Adityanath-led government was neither aware of the state of unemployment, nor of the pain of young people and their families.

Vadra referred to reports saying that workers in Israel had to hide in bunkers amid the war, and that they were being exploited by the companies that recruited them.

“Their families are always scared,” she said in a post on X. “Our promising youth are forced to risk their lives for employment because you [government] cannot provide them jobs.”

All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief Asaduddin Owaisi also questioned why anyone would go to Israel for work if there had been employment opportunities in Uttar Pradesh itself.

Owaisi also pointed out that the Indian government itself had advised Indians not to travel to Israel. “It is clear proof of the failure of the BJP’s state and central governments that poor people are forced to go to places like Israel to work,” he said in a social media post.