They were not convinced by the promises
Escalating teachers' strike in West Bank reflects deep Palestinian crisis
Shtayyeh threatens to hire new teachers on temporary contracts to save the educational process. Archival
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All over the world, students have reached the middle of the second semester, but in a Palestinian refugee camp south of Jerusalem, children wake up at one in the afternoon, play football, move between barbershops, and aimlessly watch everything happening on TikTok, and then watch TV until dawn, starting a new day of doing nothing worthwhile, without studying.
Palestinian public schools in the West Bank have been closed since February 5, in one of the longest recent teachers' strikes against the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority.
Teachers' demands for higher salaries have escalated into a protest movement that stands as a thorn in the side of the Palestinian government, which is increasingly mired in an economic crisis.
As the largest category of government employees in the West Bank, teachers are also demanding a democratically elected union. The PA did not respond to them for fear that its rival, Hamas, would use these moves against the ruling Fatah movement.
Shireen al-Azzeh, a social worker and mother of five who lives in al-Azza refugee camp in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, said: "Everything is in chaos." Determined to keep her children in school, she raised her savings ($200) to give her children private lessons and to send her eldest son to remedial classes. "It's impossible for most camp residents," she says.
Hostage-taking
President Mahmoud Abbas's Palestinian Authority, which rules parts of the West Bank not under Israeli control, likens a teachers' strike to a hostage-taking of some one million students until their demands for better wages are met.
But teachers say they have no choice but to strike. Mohammed Barjieh, 44, an Arabic teacher for 23 years, said: "I am horrified about the fate of the children, but the way the Palestinian Authority has treated us is humiliating. I want to live with some dignity."
For years, teachers across the West Bank have struggled to make ends meet with salaries of about $830 per month, far fewer than other professions that require the same degree. Now, a year and a half after the PA cut government salaries by 20 percent to address a budget deficit, teachers say "enough is enough and they are fed up."
The beginning of the crisis
The crisis began in January when teachers expected a 15 percent pay increase in addition to their delayed salaries, according to an agreement that ended a brief strike in May. The agreement also provided for changes to their representation system, allowing long-awaited union elections. But at the start of the year, teachers took a look at their pay slip, and their trust in officials was shattered.
Yousef Agha, a 37-year-old history teacher in Bethlehem, said: "They lied to us." Agha and other teachers are pushing for an independent, elected teachers' union, and do not recognize the ongoing union stacked with Fatah supporters. Their movement founded a Telegram channel with about 20,<> followers, joined by huge angry crowds, and a call was issued through the channel for two sit-ins in Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority.
In response, the PA threatened mass dismissals and even arrests, drawing attention to what critics described as the PA's crackdown on civil society and freedom of expression.
A lawsuit filed by the Ministry of Education on March 13 includes the names of 151 teachers threatened with dismissal if they continue their strike, and arrest if they show further resistance.
Agha, whose name is on the list, says: "It's not enough for them that we're not being paid, we're literally not allowed to speak."
Ahead of a demonstration in Ramallah earlier this month, Palestinian security forces set up checkpoints and roadblocks on the way to the city, according to teachers diverted through rocky hills. These tight security measures struck a chord with Palestinians living under Israeli occupation.
"They made us feel like criminals," said Omar Muhaisen, a science teacher, after stating that "the Palestinian police stopped him and forced him to show his identity card while driving from Hebron."
Analysts argue that the increasingly unpopular PA fears that rival groups such as Hamas will control the teachers' union if it is freely elected, and then have authority over a large and vital segment of the government workforce.
Hamas wrested power in the Gaza Strip from Fatah in 2007.
Former Palestinian peace negotiator and former minister Ghassan al-Khatib asserted that the opposition's ability to achieve a victory is the result of the PA's declining ability to fulfill its commitments.
After the teachers' movement recently rejected an offer from the Palestinian Authority to gradually compensate for cutting their salaries over an indefinite period of time, the Ministry of Education announced that it was preparing to hire more than 45,<> teachers on temporary contracts to replace all strikers next month.
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh appealed to teachers to return to school, telling a cabinet meeting: "We must fulfill our responsibility to guarantee the right to education for our sons and daughters."
The government, struggling with an economic slowdown and mounting debt, says it is unable to pay all its employees. Earlier this year, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's far-right government dealt a further blow to the PA when it decided to deduct another NIS 50 million (more than $14 million) per month from tax revenues it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, among other punitive measures.
Government spokesman Ibrahim Milhem said: "We have done everything we can. "We face the risk of declining donor support, a promise that denies our existence and prolongs our financial crisis with unfair deductions."
The teachers' movement did not rest and warned that it would erect tents in Ramallah's main square for the rest of Ramadan.
As the crisis escalates, parents worry that their children will not be ready for university entrance exams or even next semester. Ahmed, a 43-year-old lawyer and father of six, who gave his first name only for fear of being abused, said: "This is our lost generation."
It was past noon, his children were rubbing their eyes and had just woken up, entered the kitchen and started playing on their mobile phones.
Because he and his wife work all day and leave the children alone, Ahmed said, "He can't commit them to a specific task schedule, or even set a bedtime and wake up." "As a father, I suffer," he added.
His 15-year-old son is completely happy: "I never want to go back to school," he says.
• The Palestinian Authority likens a teachers' strike to a hostage-taking of about a million students until their demands for better wages are met.
For years, teachers across the West Bank have struggled to make ends meet with salaries of about $830 per month, far fewer than other professions requiring the same degree.
After the teachers' movement recently rejected an offer from the Palestinian Authority to gradually compensate for cutting their salaries over an indefinite period of time, the Ministry of Education announced that it is preparing to hire more than 45,<> teachers on temporary contracts to replace all strikers next month.