Ramallah: Public sector workers in Gaza will stage ongoing protests against pay cuts by the Ramallah consensus government for the third month in a row.
The Gaza branch of the Public Servants’ Syndicate will start almost daily protests from tomorrow.
The Ramallah government, under Dr. Rami Al Hamdallah, has slashed salaries by 30 per cent for tens of thousands of Gaza public servants. It has also stopped paying Gaza-based academics, and halted pensions for retired or injured workers.
The pay cuts are aimed at punishing Hamas for its rejection of Fatah’s calls to hand over Gaza responsibilities to the Al Hamdallah consensus government that was formed in 2014 after agreement between the Palestinian rivals.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas had warned he would take unprecedented measures against Gaza and Hamas for refusing to end the internal split and hand over control of Gaza ministries, institutions and crossings to the Palestinian government in Ramallah.
Hamas violently seized the coastal strip in 2007 following a brief civil war that ended with the ousting of Abbas and his Fatah movement from Gaza. Since then, Israel and Egypt have been imposing a land and maritime siege of the area.
Gaza has not been getting the diesel needed to run its power generators since Abbas decided to sell the coastal strip the fuel for its full price, including tax, and the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) has suspended all medicine shipments to Gaza.
Gaza public servants have made it clear they want no part in the political power struggle between Fatah and Hamas.
A total of 62,000 public workers (26,000 civil servants and 36,000 security personnel) in Gaza Strip receive their wages from the PNA, which says it will not pay full salaries while Hamas rules without responsibilities.
The PNA says if Hamas wants to remain in full control of Gaza, the Islamist movement should pay the public workers’ salaries, which work out at up to $54 million (Dh198 million) a month.
Arif Abu Jarad, who heads the Gaza branch of the Public Servants’ Syndicate, said that because all mediation attempts to solve the crisis had failed, the workers would now take “serious measures” to ensure full payment of their wages.
Fatah members of the Central Committee had vowed that the government would reimburse the workers for the pay cuts, but Abu Jarad said the deductions for May clearly show the consensus government is determined to go on with the salary cuts.
He said the protests would include a “strike tent” to be set up on Al Saraya Square in the centre of Gaza, expected to attract tens of thousands of public workers daily until the pay deductions are reimbursed. The strike tent will be the base for coordinating all the protests.
“The salary deduction is a vicious crime by the consensus government,” said Abu Jarad. “We have not revolted against Abbas and his ruling party. On the contrary, when Hamas took over Gaza and the president asked us to stay at home, we committed to his regulations.”
Gaza lawmakers have pledged to support the public workers.
