Israeli businessmen hire them for day labor at one-third of the wages paid to Jewish workers. When a job is completed, some unscrupulous Israeli employers, instead of paying pre-agreed wages, report to the police that these workers have been working without permits, and have slept overnight on Israeli soil. As a result, the Palestinians lose their wages and may be jailed and fined. I met a pretty little Palestinian girl, blinded by an Israeli plastic bullet. Some years earlier, a Jewish settler had attacked her father with a knife and gravely wounded him as he was returning from work.
Israeli law provides little protection from such attacks.
For example, if a Jewish settler kills a Palestinian, he may get less than six months in prison. A Palestinian killing a Jew can expect a life sentence. These are just a few of the things I saw before returning to the United States, my mother's pledge redeemed. But now I've made a vow of my own. Paralyzed by fear, I failed to act when I might have saved a child.