Stay in Israel, or flee? Thai workers caught up in Hamas attack and war are faced with a dilemma

BANGKOK — When Hamas militants stormed into Israeli villages and towns along the border of the blockaded Gaza Strip last month, many Thai migrant agricultural workers shared the fate of hundreds of Israelis who were killed, kidnapped or forced to run for their lives. In a visceral illustration of the fate met by some, Israel’s U.N. envoy drew a rebuke from Thailand’s Foreign Ministry after showing the General Assembly a video last week of what he said was a Hamas fighter decapitating a Thai agricultural worker with a garden hoe as he lay on the ground. Please help him.” THAI WORKERS LOOKING FOR HIGHER WAGES Farm laborers from Thailand and elsewhere in Southeast Asia seek work in more developed countries where there is a shortage of semi-skilled labor — at wages considerably higher than what they earn at home. Hours after the Hamas attack, Kurlander, a sociologist with Israel’s Tel-Hai College who specializes in agricultural labor migration with a focus on Thai workers, said she and other scholars and members of nongovernmental organizations started talking about what they could do to help. “If we won’t gather together and reach a hand to the Thai workers, nobody will.” The first priority was to evacuate “highly traumatized” workers and provide food and other aid, she said.