Palestinian workers donate 1% of wages to rebuild homes

The Palestinian Public Workers’ Union announced yesterday that its members would donate one per cent of their wages this month to the families of suspected Palestinian attackers whose homes were demolished by Israeli occupation forces.

The union’s head Bassam Zakarneh told Ma’an that he expected 16 million shekels ($4.07 million) to be raised, allowing the families to move into new homes within six months.

He added that if other Palestinian unions were to make the same offer, up to 90 million shekels ($22.9 million) could be raised.

Zakarneh said the donation marked a bid to “face the policy of collective punishment against our people.”

He said that the donations would be transferred to a government committee, with the union assigning a representative to follow-up with these committees.

Punitive home demolitions were expedited at the request of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in mid-October, and a number of them have been carried out since.