Tahmina will be starting English conversation clubs in Abu
Dis Girls from Guy Fawkes Day (5th November) for two reasons:
Strikes and Eid.
Eid is being celebrated in
Palestine on Friday 26th October,
and with it comes a 5 day holiday!
This week, however, the teachers
have been on strike because they haven’t been paid in 3 months. The strike is taking place all over the West
Bank (the part of Palestine we are in) as the Palestinian Authority (PA - the government in charge of for paying teachers wages in the West Bank) do not
currently have enough money. One reason is that Israel’s occupation of
Palestine means that the West Bank's economy income is linked to Israel’s
economy. The direct effect of this linkage is that the West Bank is prevented
from developing its own economy that can rely only on Palestinian businesses,
factories and economic projects. The West Bank is therefore partially dependent
on the money generated from Israel’s economic endeavours (Israel is
obligated to give money to the PA because as the occupying power they have to
financially support the Palestinians according to international law) and since
1993 has been largely dependent on foreign aid (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/03/palestinian-authority-salaries_n_1646032.html). In the wake of the current global financial crisis many
donor countries have cut back on their foreign aid agreements with the West
Bank (http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentid=20121012139351). Additionally, Israel have significant control over how much
money is given to the PA and consequently influences the amount of money that
is available to pay public sector workers in the West Bank.
Both of these factors mean that
the Palestinian authority do not currently have the $150 million dollars
monthly they say they need to pay their public sector employees, including
state school teachers and university lecturers. Although, the effects of the
linkage of the Palestinian and Israeli economies hugely influences the money
that is available to pay state school teachers in the West Bank, questions
should also be asked about the extent to which economic corruption within the
PA influences why they are currently not paying their teachers. This is a
popular view shown by a Palestinian Public Opinion Poll conducted in June 2012;
71% of Palestinians interviewed thought that there was corruption within the PA
(http://www.pcpsr.org/survey/polls/2012/p44efull.html#domestic).
These brief considerations
highlight how the Israeli occupation of Palestine is hindering the amount and
quality of education that state school students receive in the West Bank.
