http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1112442,00.html

Chinese workers in Israel sign no-sex contract

Conal Urquhart in Tel Aviv

Wednesday December 24, 2003

The Guardian

Chinese workers at a company in Israel have been forced to agree not
to have sex with or marry Israelis as a condition of getting a job.

According to a contact they are required to sign, male workers may not
have any contact with Israeli women - including prostitutes, a police
spokesman, Rafi Yaffe, said.

He said there was nothing illegal about the requirement and that no
investigation had been opened.

An Israeli lawyer who did not want to be named said while the contract
might appear legal, it would be rejected if challenged in court. "The
point is that a Chinese worker will agree to anything and then will
not have anyone to help them if there is a problem," he said.

The labourers are also forbidden from engaging in any religious or
political activity. The contract states that offenders will be sent
back to China at their own expense.

About 260,000 foreigners work in Israel, having replaced Palestinian
labourers during three years of fighting. When the government first
allowed the entrance of the foreign workers in the late 1990s,
ministers warned of a "social timebomb" caused by their assimilation
with Israelis.

More than half the workers are in the country illegally. Israeli
police have increased efforts to deport those working without permits
because of rising Israeli unemployment, which has reached 11% in
recent months.

Advocates of foreign workers, who also come from Thailand, the
Philippines and Romania, say they are subject to almost slave
conditions, and their employers often take away their passports and
refuse to pay them.

Analysts say there is much division within Israeli society over
immigration and status, although the conflict with the Palestinians
has given it an appearance of unity. Recent immigrants such as
Russians and Ethiopians are disliked by older immigrants, and there is
much resentment among secular Israelis at the privileges given to
ultra-orthodox Jews. The foreign workers are at the bottom of the
pile.