The Palestine Labor League: the history of a Palestinian labor union

This article explores the history of the Palestine Labor League (PLL) during the first years after Israel's establishment (1948-1953). Unlike most research, which views the PLL as an insignificant appendage to the major Zionist labor union, the Histadrut, this article wishes to investigate the PLL as a Palestinian organization operating within the corporatist industrial relations system of Israel’s early days. The article shows that PLL activists identified their position as a link between the Histadrut and the Palestinian population and used it to gain personal and collective achievements. The article therefore argues that the Israeli corporatist model, which was set to maintain social order and strengthen Zionist hegemony, unwittingly provided Palestinians with agency which was utilized by them to resist Israel's settler-colonial policies.