Some 1,000 PA workers protests near Abbas' office over unpaid wages
Protesters demand payment promised by PA chairman; some 165,000 Palestinian civil servants remain unpaid since March.
By Avi Issacharoff the Associated PressGAZA CITY - More than 1,000 Palestinian government employees protested outside Palestinian Authority Chairman's Mahmoud Abbas' office in Gaza Saturday, demanding payment of long-overdue salaries.
The workers, many of whom have been on strike since the beginning of September, said Abbas promised he'd pay them a full salary at the start of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which began Saturday.
The 165,000 civil servants, including teachers, police and health care workers, have largely gone without salaries since the Islamic militant Hamas came to power in March and the international community froze foreign aid.
Last week, Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh's bodyguards beat protesters in Gaza City who demanded their salaries.
Legislator Naima Haj Ali of Fatah was hurt in the clashes. Fatah delegates decided to boycott that day's parliamentary session in protest, while the Palestinian Legislative Council secretariat in Ramallah decided to cancel its meeting due to the clashes as well.
The bodyguards began beating the protesters and firing shots in the air when they failed to push back the hundreds of demonstrators who approached Haniyeh's vehicle in the courtyard of the parliament building.
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This story is by: Avi Issacharoff the Associated Press
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I am confused. Otheray story reported so many trying to return. There will be a lack of food and medicine. Now we are told they are not grtting bad. I think te Pal like it this way.
Replace them . They travel all over the world , checking up luxurious restaurant , Sleek expensive clothes , shiny watchs , 24 hours limousine service , And they find the nerves to bitch at , push and shove and brutalize their public servants who just want something to enjoy and respect ramadan like normal muslims persons . Topple these liars , dirty and hypocrites dictators , they surely don't deserve your sweat , your efforts , your services .
Every day they are using some stupid pictures of wemen and children, to make them self look good. Why not just drop this bull, and stick to the storry.
This article is so disturbing and yet, so predictable. Gaza and the West Bank really needed more instability, more misery, more not knowing how they will make it through another day of indifference,cruelty and deprevation. The joint plan being implemented by the U.S. and Israel - to punish the people until they turn their backs on their own duly elected government. Next time they will understand they should first ask who has been approved to receive their vote! Isn't liberty and democracy grand?
It's so simple, but the pals don't get it... If you destroy your own farms and need to eat, you have to buy food from a country that doesn't destroy their farms. That cost money. And if you don't make very many things to sell to other countries because you'ld rather build rockets, you can't make any money to buy food. For awhile, peaceful western governments like America were giving the pals money so they could buy food. We did this even though the pals were burning our flag and chanting "death to America". But now the pals hate America more. Whether or not it was their intention, the pal in their ways have indicated that giving them money is only making things worse for the rest of the world.
Don't those Palestinians who want to have normal live understand that if Abbas and Haniyeh don't spend all their money supporting terrorists to attack Israel that their propoganda value for the rest of Eurabia will disappear? They'd quit getting all that money they can embezzle into private offshore accounts at regular Pal expense, and that should never happen...