Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, November 2008, pages 14, 48

Gaza on the Ground

Gaza Teachers Pawns of Both Palestinian Parties

By Mohammed Omer

	Students at the Tabaria primary school, most of whose teachers were on strike, sit in the school hall (Photos M. Omer).

AS THE NEW academic school year began in Gaza, a strike called by the Palestine Teachers’ Union—a non-elected body controlled by the PLO and supported by the Ramallah government of President Mahmoud Abbas—continued into its second week.

Enforced by what the Hamas-controlled government’s Ministry of Education (MOE) cited as threats from Abbas’ Fatah government to withhold teachers’ salaries, the strike seriously disrupted Gaza’s public school system, compounding the already substantial misery resulting from Israel’s ongoing siege and lockdown of the Gaza Strip.

Two years ago the education sector underwent a similar strike. That, however, was a strike endorsed by the employees themselves, who were suffering from more than six months of unpaid salaries—the result of Israel and the West halting the transfer of funds to the Palestinian Authority (PA) following the January 2006 election of Hamas in free and fair elections. This year’s strike arises from very different motivations and pressures.

Teachers in Gaza report being warned by the Ramallah-based PA to stay home or be penalized by withheld salaries and dismissal. Conversely, the Hamas government, seeking to keep teachers in school, threatened to fire employees who participated in the strike. The MOE estimated that, because of the strike, 55 percent of Gaza’s teachers stayed home in the opening days of the academic year.

“I was told by an unknown official that I had been dismissed for not complying with the strike,” said Mussa Al Astal, a social studies teacher in a Khan Younis secondary school. Along with hundreds of others, Al Astal found his name listed on a Fatah-affiliated Web site as one of those dismissed.

In Ramallah, Palestinian Minister of Media Riad Al Malki denied the allegation: “We did not call for a strike,” he stated, “and there will be no cutting-off of salaries for Gaza’s employees.”

The teachers’ strike coincided with a similar strike in the health sector, with doctors in Gaza’s hospitals also instructed not to go to work. As was the case with the teachers, doctors were told they must stay home, and that they would be paid by the Abbas government.

Hamas immediately called for new doctors and teachers to take the places of those on strike. Many of those who responded to the call, however, were inexperienced or unqualified.

According to Jameel Shehada, secretary-general of the Teachers’ Union, the strike was called to protest “the actions Hamas took against [Gaza’s] teachers,” including the transfer of dozens of educators to different schools, allegedly to place Hamas supporters in key posts. Deputy Minister of Education Mohamed Abu Shoqeir denied this in an interview: “The transfer of teachers was an administrative issue,” he said, “enforced after we saw that just 16 percent of students succeeded in some secondary schools last year.”

The strike affected the estimated 282 government-run schools throughout the Gaza Strip, where some 300,000 students study. U.N.-run schools, which number approximately 213 and serve over 197,000 refugee students, are not affected and continue to function.

Despite the widespread confusion the dispute caused, nearly 100 percent of public school students reported to school. ”The first day, we had just half a day in school, and half of the teachers were away,” explained 16-year-old Isra Al Najjar. “We are not happy with this strike,” she added.

Fatima Zaqzouq, a headmaster with 13 years’ experience currently administering a school in Khan Younis, expressed concern about the future of education in the Gaza Strip. She blamed the Hamas-run MOE, saying: “The transferring of schoolteachers was not a well thought-out and rational decision. It served only political interests.” No improvements have occurred inside the schools, Zaqzouq added, charging that Hamas is using the educational system to benefit its supporters.

Half the teachers on her staff were absent, she noted, frightened by the threat of salary cuts. “It’s the students and the people who lose out in these education and health sector strikes,” Zaqzouq lamented. “A student can wait and deal with such changes,” she elaborated, “but a patient in a life-or-death situation can’t wait.”

The independent Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) described the salary threat as effectively being directed at any teacher who does not participate in what it described as “politically-motivated” strikes—a view confirmed by Gaza’s teachers. Indeed, the situation leaves teachers, and doctors, trapped between dual pressures: Hamas forces on the ground in Gaza—where police invited many doctors and teachers to visit police stations or report to work, forcing some to work—or threats of salary cut-offs by the Ramallah government. The untenable dilemma rendered teachers and physicians as much the victims as their students and patients.

PCHR further highlighted that the PA’s threats to cut salaries in order to impose strikes on public employees not only are illegal but expose the politicized nature of the strikes as representative of Fatah machinations rather than employee demands. This has caused critics abroad to question whether the Ramallah government is using funds contributed by international donors to divide Palestinians and serve its own political agenda.

Meanwhile, 16-year-old Isra and hundreds of thousands of students like her, keen to study, called on Fatah, Hamas and the international community to respect their right to education and end the entirely political dispute.

Award-winning journalist Mohammed Omer reports from the Gaza Strip, where he maintains the Web site <www.rafahtoday.org>. He can be reached at < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >.

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