The teachers in the Palestinian Authority are striking because the PA is not paying their full wages and has reneged on promises it made to them in 2022. As a result, according to different reports, over a million Palestinian children have not had school since the strike started on 5th of February, 2023.
Instead of paying the salaries of the teachers, the PA prioritizes paying hundreds of millions of shekels to terrorists. As Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas says, time after time: “Even if I’m left with one penny, I’ll pay it to the families of the Martyrs, to the prisoners, and to the wounded.”
Referring to the strike, Muwaffaq Matar, Fatah Revolutionary Council member and regular columnist for the official PA daily summarized the PA approach – Blame Israel!
According to Matar, the teachers’ strike is due to the implementation of the Israeli Anti Pay-for-Slay law, the law that penalizes the PA for paying huge monthly cash rewards to terrorists:
“The wheels of educational life are put on strike now and then, under the headline of ‘the right to strike’ or abstaining from providing services to the citizens for particular periods of time until the realization of material monetary demands.
Trying to present a positive spin, Matar then added that hardships were caused by the Abbas’ “loyalty” to the terrorists:
“Out of loyalty to them, [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas has promised that their allowances will be at the top of the table of allowances and salaries, until the last [Jordanian] dinar in the treasury of the PA and the PLO.”
PA Ministry of Education Director-General of Measurement, Evaluation, and Examination, Muhammad Awad, accepted that the demands of the teachers are justified:
“All the teachers’ demands are correct and we have no reservations about them. On the contrary, we are fighting and defending the agreement that was signed [with the teachers] in all its aspects, especially everything concerning the monetary aspect.”
Awad then explained that the non-payment of the teachers’ salaries is due to the general financial hardship of the PA:
“Awad emphasized that the monetary and financial blockade that the Palestinian [PA] government is in has prevented the implementation of the agreement until now, and added: ‘Therefore, the government is paying partial salaries to all the employees, and it cannot treat the teachers as exceptional.”
For approximately 2 years, the PA has been punishing its law-abiding employees by paying them only partial salaries. To deflect the anger of the employees from the PA to Israel, the PA blames Israel for its alleged financial crisis….