Eilat, Israel
Israel and Jordan signed their peace treaty in 1994 — that is a generation ago — but it has often been a cold peace, without real people moving back and forth, without workers, wages or bosses.
Now Jordan and Israel have launched a pilot project that is so small and simultaneously so ambitious that it tells the story.
For the past six months, very quietly, Israel has been allowing Jordanians to cross the border to its Red Sea resort to work minimum-wage jobs at hotels.
The first 700 of 1,500 have started.
So far, nothing bad has happened.
“The Jordanians need work, and we need workers,” said the head of the Eilat Hotel Association, Shabtai Shay.
Getting the Jordanians work permits to cross the border from Aqaba to Eilat took three years of negotiations with 10 Israeli ministries, he said.
“It was mission impossible,” Shay said.
On the Israeli side, there were concerns about security, vetting, the checkpoint, unions, the hours and how Israeli tourists would feel about being attended — even behind the scenes — by service workers who were Muslims from the Hashemite Kingdom.
Jordan and Israel fought two wars, in 1948 and 1967. Their relations have been further strained by the fact that Jordan is filled with Palestinian refugees.
“I never thought I’d live to see the first Jordanian worker in our hotels,” Shay said.
The Israeli resort of Eilat is not exactly the French Riviera. There is a short strip of beach with a touristy promenade of duty-free outlets, chain restaurants and swimming in the Red Sea.
During the intense heat and humidity of July and August, it is packed with holidaying Israeli families. To the East is Jordan and to the West is Egypt. In the distant haze is Saudi Arabia. Few Israelis venture to those destinations.
There are 55,000 Israelis living in Eilat and 40 hotels with 12,000 rooms that employ 9,000 workers, about a third of them in housekeeping — jobs Israelis won’t do anymore, or won’t do for the money offered.
A dozen Jordanian hotel workers interviewed by The Washington Post said they were either happy with their new jobs in Eilat — or as happy as someone who changes dirty sheets in a foreign country can be.
“It has made my life,” said Ahmed Riashi, 25, who washes dishes at Isrotel’s Royal Garden Hotel.
He previously worked as a waiter at a five-star hotel in Amman, the capital of Jordan.
He estimates his wages have doubled in Israel. He is saving; he feels he is going somewhere.
“I was surprised, in a good way, when I arrived here,” Riashi said.
He said Jewish Israelis are surprised, too, to see a Jordanian — then want to take a selfie together.
“We haven’t had a single complaint from customers,” said Etty Krichly, recruitment manager for Isrotel, which employs about 170 Jordanians.
If this is what peace looks like, it is still a wary and tenuous thing.
The Jordanian hotel workers cross the border into Israel at six in the morning but must return to Jordan by eight every evening. They sleep in Jordan in a company dormitory. They are not allowed to travel outside the Eilat city limits, nor can they change employers without getting new permits. The Jordanians are only allowed to work as cleaners, not cooks, waiters or bartenders.
The Jordanian hotel employees are allowed to enter Israel with only the clothes on their backs — and one opened pack of cigarettes, because the Israelis do not want them to smuggle cigarettes, which are cheaper in Jordan than Israel.
Ahmad Salahat, 25, who cleans rooms at the Dan Eilat Hotel, a posh place on the beachfront, said the hours and the wages were not as high as he had hoped – but nobody was cheating him.
“They have treated us very well,” he said of his Israeli employees.
One Jordanian worker professed love for his human resources manager, who doles out candies and hugs.
Another employee wanted to learn Hebrew and immigrate to Israel. One complained about the two-hour commute across the border on a bad day.