Palestine

Palestine: West Bank public sector workers strike

Palestinian students leave school during civil servants strike in the West Bank in 2006 (MaanImages/Rami Swidan)

Palestinian public service workers walked off their jobs Tuesday at the beginning of a two-day protest against their government's efforts to force them to pay their utility bills.

The new measure reflects widespread economic hardship in the West Bank after seven years of conflict with Israel, including international economic sanctions and tough Israeli restrictions. Many Palestinians are unable to pay even routine bills and have run up huge amounts of debt.

First day of school cancelled in Palestine due to strikes

Palestinian children were due to begin their first day back at school on Saturday, however in the West Bank, school was suspended due to a teachers' union strike.

The teachers are protesting a government decision to reduce weekends to one day per week and end having Saturday as a day-off. In Tulkarem, in the northern West Bank, Ma'an's correspondent reported that the streets were teeming with students returning from school after finding their teachers absent from the classrooms.

Reservation Politics: the Palestinian experience through the historical monocle of Native Americans - Melancholic Troglodytes

Palestinians in Native American costume protest Condoleeza Rice visit

An historical examination of the similarities and differences in the situations of the Palestinians and the Native Americans.

"Our historical analogy aimed to demonstrate the failure of the present course of action for the region’s proletariat and suggest an alternative. It is the social and not the military dimension of the struggle that has the potential to transcend capital."

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Palestinian union hit on all sides

Hamas militants have repeatedly attacked Palestinian trade unionists

An article from the Al-Jazeera website detailing the repression faced by trade unionists in Palestine not only from the Israeli state but also from the 'national liberation' militias of Hamas and Fatah.

Taken from Al-Jazeera English, by Omar Khalifa.

With 47 per cent of the potential Palestinian labour force unemployed and a per capita income 23 times less than that of Israel, the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU) has a difficult enough job.

The new world order - Noam Chomsky

Noam Chomsky discusses the New World Order - tri-polar economically, three major economic powers, the United States still the biggest, but declining, relatively, but uni-polar militarily, one military force.

The following is a transcript of a speech given at a benefit for The Middle East Children's Alliance (president, Barbara Lubin) and KPFA radio (manager, Pat Scott).

The topic, as you saw, is The New World Order with primary concern for the Middle East.

Interview with Rasem Al Bayari, Palestinian trade unionist

Being a trade unionist is a very dangerous business in Palestine.

Rasem Al Bayari, Deputy General Secretary of the PGFTU (Palestine General Federation of Trade Unions), an ITUC affiliate, knows that well: following the destruction of a PGFTU building in October 2006 and the firing of two rockets at his home in January, on 6 April Rasem Al Bayari was injured by masked men who attacked him while he was in a car with his family.

Gaza: public sector strike spreads

Since last week, 15,000 public sector workers across the Gaza Strip's five biggest towns have walked out in protest at unpaid wages.

The strike began on Saturday, when workers in Gaza City walked out over 6 months of unpaid wages, and since then this has grown to include 15,000 people.

The International Herald Tribune reported:

Fragments of struggle from Palestine: new videos of past Anarchists Against the Wall actions

Activists dismantling a part of the wall near the village of Zbuba

Since 2002, Israeli anarchists have been joining the Palestinian popular resistance to the wall. These are six new videos of joint demonstrations and direct actions from past years.

Saffa, 22.05.05 – Soldiers use extreme violence to disperse farmers from their lands.

Independent Israeli occupation resister released from prison

Tali Fahima at a press conference right after her release

After having served 877 days in prison on spurious charges, Tali Fahima, an Israeli citizen who independently crossed the lines with Palestine to befriend a chief militant and to initiate humanitarian work in the Jenin refugee camp, was yesterday released from prison.

Fahima's plea bargain meant that her release was supposed to have occured on September 13th, but it was delayed due to an incident in which she was "rude to a warden." This was just the latest step in a campaing to leave her in perpetual custody, ever since she was imprisoned on August 9th, 2004 for allegedly plotting to take part in a terrorist attack.

Health worker and bank strikes in Palestine

Banks in Palestine went on a one-day general strike yesterday after a bomb was detonated outside the Arab Bank in Gaza early on Friday.

Circumstances surrounding the explosion are unclear and attackers are unknown. A statement by the Association of Banks in Palestine suggested it may be a reprisal for their complicity in the unpaid wages dispute which led to mass strikes by public sector workers, pointing to stone throwing attacks on banks by strikers.