Palestinian teachers in the occupied West Bank continued their strike yesterday defying government calls to return to school, stressing they would continue with their industrial action until their demands were met, Felesteen newspaper reported.
Thousands of teachers also staged a protest in front of the headquarters of the Palestinian government in Ramallah, calling for it to raise their salaries and improve their living conditions in line with promises it made to them in 2013.
The teachers started industrial action on 10 February.
Palestinian police setup checkpoints in Ramallah to stop the planned protests in Ramallah. A number of the teachers reported being threated and suffering harassment by the Palestinian security services, who attempted to arrest a female teacher after she took a picture of one of the checkpoints.
On Sunday, the Palestinian security services arrested at least 20 teachers in an attempt to deter their peers from continuing the strike.
However, the protests continued and the teachers called for the head of their union to resign after reports claimed he had reached an agreement with the government on Saturday and called for the teachers to return to schools.
Deputy Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Committee (PLC) Hassan Khreisheh condemned the government’s response to the protests. Speaking to Quds Press, he said: “The party which took these measures wanted to escalate the situation in an unnatural way. We reject the detention of the teachers and we reject the harassment against them.”
He went on to describe the security services’ actions as “immoral”.
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