Nablus – Ma'an – More than 400 Palestinian work permits were revoked by a private Israeli security company that operates guard posts in a number of settlements throughout the occupied West Bank, officials said Thursday.

The General Federation of Workers' Unions in Palestine accused the company, which it did not name, of confiscating permits from Palestinians working in the illegal settlements of Kiryat Sefer, Modi'in, Benyamin, and Karkur, all west of Ramallah.

Hussen Khalifa, a member of the union in Ramallah, said the unnamed Israeli company confiscated the permits as a penalty for the Palestinians' supervisors, who apparently failed to pay fees on time.

Shaher Sa'd, secretary-general of the federation, condemned the move.

Sa'd demanded that private contractors "stop pursuing Palestinian workers," whom he said are continuously exploited and suffer daily abuse at crossings. The official called on international organizations and human rights groups to follow up on the situation.

Khalifa urged the Ramallah government and its Ministry of Labor to intervene or find new positions for the unemployed laborers.

Last month, thousands of Palestinians hoping to gain work and higher wages in Israel were duped over the last three years by a gang of Israelis and Palestinians selling forged permits, Sa'd alleged at the time.

The scam was routed when Israeli police detained dozens of alleged gang members. The undercover investigation netted the arrests of 23 Israelis and 11 Palestinians were involved in the scam.

The head of the operation was identified as a high-profile Israeli security officer working in the Civil Administration offices, Linda Salem, while her second in command was an Israeli working in the Ministry of the Interior, Mariah Hashash.

The nature of the permits was taken advantage of for the scam, Sa'd said. The Palestinians would transmit the information to the Israeli Civil Administration office and Ministry of the Interior, which would grant the batch of permits. The group would travel to their work site and begin employment contracts, which depend on the issuance of a valid permit.

The permits would be canceled a few days after they were issued, with letters saying the men were not qualified to perform the work.

When the workers injured on the job went to claim insurance benefits, and when employers went to process cheques, the cancellation of the permits was discovered. While most of the men were paid for their time, they lost all rights of health, disability and unemployment benefits that may have been granted to them as workers in Israel.

Coordinating between the top two posts and the Palestinians involved, Sa'd said, was a man named Shlomi Cohen Sami, allegedly in charge of coordination between the Israeli Ministry of the Interior, Civil Administration and Palestinian partners. Sami charged 1,000 shekels (266 US dollars) per permit, approximately 30% of a monthly salary for a worker, he said.

As soon as the first batch of 100 permits was canceled, Sa'd said, another 100 were issued. "And on it went for three years."