ISRAEL Thousands of Palestinian teachers protest against corruption and lack of resources

This is the most important manifestation of the teaching body in recent years. The unrest affects both the West Bank and Gaza territories. They are expected to hold a firm position until the claims are addressed. The “movement” is coordinated by anonymous leaders using social media platforms. Ramallah would have breached the commitments he made last year.

Ramallah () – Defying the directives of the Palestinian Authority (PA), thousands of teachers are idly suspending classes in various areas of the West Bank and Gaza, joining the largest protest demonstration by teachers in recent years. Among the causes of the strike are the economic crisis that affects the institutes and management funds, including those used to pay salaries, Israel’s policies with its blockades that slow down the economy, and corruption at the top of the Palestinian institutions. Teachers and teachers are determined to protest, interrupting classes and occupying the streets, until their claims are met.

For two months now, all Palestinian public school teachers, from the first to the twelfth grade, have only taught in the morning, and then hold demonstrations to demand improvements in working conditions, salary increases, and the independence of the education system. . The protest, in the form of a strike, is coordinated through digital platforms such as Facebook and Telegram by an independent group of teacher-activists. The leaders chose to remain anonymous – calling themselves the “Teachers Movement” – to counter the investigation by security forces.

“We are still on strike,” one of the leaders told the website +972 under anonymity, “because the government continues to fail to meet our demands.” “We announced the strike at the beginning of February,” he continued, “after seeing that [la cúpula de las instituciones] did not comply with the obligations assumed” previously. During the last school year, professors and professors carried out a 57-day strike, which ended with an agreement signed by the Prime Minister of the PA, Mohammad Shtayyeh, in which he promised to increase wages by 15% and create an independent and democratic committee.However, neither of these two points was fulfilled in practice and the promises remained as dead paper.

The strike affects 52,000 teachers and almost a million students in the West Bank and Gaza. The public education system in both territories is administered and financed by the Palestinian Authority, while education in the refugee camps is managed by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). ). This body provides services, including schooling, to those displaced by the 1948 Nakba and their descendants. UNRWA workers have been on strike for 85 days, also protesting unfair working conditions.

In recent years, public sector workers across the West Bank have protested against the government: among others, doctors, lawyers and judges, but also among teachers, unrest and demonstrations are not uncommon. The protests are part of a framework of discontent and a serious economic crisis, also caused by Israel’s punitive measures against Ramallah.

The most important of these is a law passed in 2018 to withhold 500 million shekels (just under 140 million euros) of the taxes that Israel collects and transfers each year to the Authority under the Oslo Accords. Behind the measure would be the financial support of the Palestinian leaders to the families of those detained in Israeli jails.

Between the Covid-19 pandemic, last year’s strike and the current crisis, the education of an entire generation of Palestinian students has suffered repeated interruptions and profound damage.