The protests and violence that have marred the Palestinian territories since early October are now casting their shadow on all aspects of life there, including the economy and especially the working class, the first to pay the price of the ongoing unrest. Dozens of Palestinian workers have been dismissed from their jobs in Israeli settlements, in the West Bank and Israel, while tens of thousands fear they will be next.

The layoffs follow an Oct. 14 decision by Israeli settlement councils in the West Bank to bar Palestinian workers from entering their workplaces in the settlements. The decision has yet to be fully enforced, but numerous Palestinian workers confirmed to Al-Monitor that their employers told them to leave their workplaces permanently.

Mohammed Saeed, a resident of Ramallah in the central West Bank, worked in an aluminum plant in the settlement of Beit El, northeast of Ramallah. He told Al-Monitor that the plant owner fired him one week after the unrest broke out.

Saeed, now unemployed, explained that he and a number of his coworkers were dismissed because of Israeli settlers’ fear of being attacked. He added that the firings coincided with the new security measures to prevent workers from entering the settlement.