Teachers, Health Workers Unions Said Extending Gaza Strip Strike

Excerpt from report by privately-owned, pro-Fatah Palestinian daily newspaper Al-Quds on 3 September

[Unattributed report: "Health workers, teachers, and public sector employees in the Gaza Strip extend their strike until 9 September"]

Teachers, health workers, and other public sector employees in the Gaza Strip yesterday decided to extend their strike until 9 September.

During a press conference in Ramallah, Jamil Shihadah, secretary general of the teachers union, said: “We expected to see a more realistic and positive view from the dismissed government in Gaza after more than a week of a teachers strike. We thought the government would reconsider its calculations and practices against teachers there.” He added that it was decided to extend the strike until next Tuesday [ 9 September]. He called on the dismissed government in Gaza to apologize to the teachers for labelling them infidels and traitors.

For his part, Usamah al-Najjar, head of the health workers union, said the health minister in the dismissed government had a premeditated plan to take action against the health sector employees. The minister visited health centres and threatened striking workers with the loss of their jobs if they did not go back to work. Therefore, he had a plan to suppress the strike and not to agree to the strikers’ demands.

Al-Najjar warned of a health disaster in the Gaza Strip if the health workers’ demands were not met. He appealed to human rights organizations and Arab ambassadors to intercede with the dismissed government to take its hand off the health sector.

In the meantime, Bassam Zakarinah, head of the union of the public sector employees, said that participation in the strike had reached over 85 per cent. He added that the strike would continue for another week, calling on the employees to adhere to the strike.

Zakarinah called on the dismissed government to apologize to the employees for labelling them traitors and infidels, reopen the union offices, above all the teachers union office, go back on the decision to relocate employees, reinstate those dismissed since 14 June 2007, and release all detainees.

On another level, Palestinian media sources said a new born baby has died at the Gaza European Hospital in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip. It is the third baby to die since the strike began a week ago.

The sources said Nadia Abu-Salih from the Tall al-Sultan quarter in Rafah gave birth to a baby boy after a difficult birth at the Tall al-Sultan hospital in Rafah. Her baby needed constant supervision and care in view of his bad health. The sources added that in view of the difficult condition of the baby boy, he was transferred to the nursery section in the Tall al-Sultan Hospital, but the doctors were on strike at that time. This compelled the police to summon Dr Farid Duhayr to treat the baby. On the second day, no doctor came to the nursery ward. Dr Duhayr, who is head of the nursery ward, also did not come. The baby’s health got worse. He was rushed to the Gaza European Hospital in Rafah where he died.

In the meantime, Hamas has called for sit-ins outside the houses of striking doctors, starting with sit-ins outside the houses of three striking doctors in Khan Yunis. Hamas stressed that these sit- ins will cover all the Gaza Strip until the striking doctors go back to work.

Ashraf Abu-Diyah, spokesman for the popular action section in Hamas, said: “A few days ago there were sit-ins by relatives of patients when they saw that hospitals were empty of doctors. Afterward, there was a discussion about these sit-ins.” He added: “Sit-ins began today. They will cover all the Gaza Strip to urge them [striking doctors] to go back to work, especially because their work is humanitarian.”

Press sources said that scores of relatives of patients had staged sit-ins outside the houses of doctors in Gaza City, carrying placards describing the doctors as “killers of children and participants in the siege.”

For his part, Dr Yusuf al-Mudallal, head of the office of the health ministry in the dismissed government, said the rate of attendance in the health sector in Gaza yesterday was nearly 60 per cent, noting that the rate of attendance is increasing daily. [passage omitted]

Originally published by Al-Quds, Jerusalem, in Arabic 3 Sep 08.

(c) 2008 BBC Monitoring Middle East. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.