{"id":981668,"date":"2023-02-03T20:56:10","date_gmt":"2023-02-03T20:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/therealnews.com\/?p=295205"},"modified":"2023-02-03T20:56:10","modified_gmt":"2023-02-03T20:56:10","slug":"palestinian-worker-says-un-refugee-agency-is-retaliating-against-him-for-leading-strike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2023\/02\/03\/palestinian-worker-says-un-refugee-agency-is-retaliating-against-him-for-leading-strike\/","title":{"rendered":"Palestinian worker says UN refugee agency is retaliating against him for leading strike"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Workday<\/figure>
\n

This story originally appeared in Workday Magazine<\/a> on Feb. 3, 2023. It is shared here with permission.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

A Palestinian worker for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in the West Bank is accusing the agency of retaliating against him for leading a strike for better pay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The strike of nearly 4,000 workers began on January 23, and is still ongoing. \u201cWe need an increase in our pay now. We are suffering a lot,\u201d Jamal Abdullah, general president of the West Bank\u2019s UNRWA staff union, told Workday Magazine over the phone. The strike has shut down some schools, medical facilities, and services, according to<\/a> news reports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abdullah, who has been a prominent face of the strike, and quoted in press reports<\/a>, tells Workday Magazine that he may now be facing discipline, or even termination, as a result of his role. \u201cUNRWA took my ID and told me I am under investigation, and we might dismiss you,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abdullah, who has been a prominent face of the strike, and quoted in press reports<\/a>, tells Workday Magazine that he may now be facing discipline, or even termination, as a result of his role.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Abdullah was told of the investigation on January 18, he says, well after the union gave notice of a strike in mid-November, 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When asked for comment, Juliette S. Touma, director of communications for UNRWA, told Workday Magazine, \u201cOne of the staff members was put on administrative leave while he goes under investigation. Until the results of the investigation come out, there\u2019s no decision if he\/she will be dismissed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis decision came following and as a direct result of  the local staff union in the West Bank closing the UNRWA Premises in East Jerusalem for 10 days starting 15 January,\u201d she said \u201cClosing down a UN premises or any other UN installation or facility and banning  access to it by any party  is a violation of the UN staff rules.\u201d Touma added, \u201cThe strike on the other hand started on 23 January, 8 days after the closure of the compound.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Abdullah says these remarks are \u201cmisleading.\u201d The union \u201conly protested at the office in Jerusalem, and that is within our rights as union representatives and staff,\u201d he said, adding: \u201cI assure you that the unions did not block access to anyone, including the director of office in the West Bank, who stopped reporting to the office only after being instructed by the executive office in an attempt to pressure us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furthermore, Abdullah says that he was not present at the UN premises in East Jerusalem. \u201cI haven\u2019t had a permit to enter Jerusalem in over a year,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When asked if Abdullah is being investigated for actions that he wasn\u2019t present at, because of his leadership role in the union, Touma said, \u201cOur colleague Jamal is currently under investigation and administrative leave. UNRWA  cannot provide any more information until the end of the investigation also to protect the privacy of our staff member and in respect to the process.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abdullah says he is certain that the investigation is retaliation for his role in the strike. But, he argues, the problem predates the current work action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abdullah says \u201cthere is a constant fear of retaliation, especially for Palestinian staff. This management is selective and discriminates between national and international non-Arab staff.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0\u201cLong before the calling for an open strike, UNRWA management started harassing me and my colleagues at the staff union, who were all democratically elected by UNRWA national staff, simply because we are representing staff interests and because we disagreed with management\u2019s unjust decisions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abdullah says \u201cthere is a constant fear of retaliation, especially for Palestinian staff. This management is selective and discriminates between national and international non-Arab staff.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The union is composed of Palestinians in the West Bank who work as teachers, engineers, laborers, sanitation workers, doctors, and more, explains Abdullah, who is a school principal in Ramallah. He says that workers are being hit hard by soaring prices, but that URWA is using<\/a> its funding crisis to justify the suppression of wages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UNRWA says<\/a> it is \u201cmandated by the UN General Assembly to serve \u2018Palestine refugees.\u2019\u201d It is 93 percent funded by UN member states, and also partners with businesses and foundations, according to the agency\u2019s website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UNRWA aggressively criticized the strike in a public statement. \u201cAs the UNRWA Director in the West Bank, I call on the union to end the strike and resume activities for the benefit of Palestine refugees, including to reopen the schools so that more than 45,000 girls and boys are afforded a safe space,\u201d UNRWA Director of West Bank Affairs, Adam Bouloukos, said<\/a> on January 30. \u201cThe last place we would want these children to be is on the streets, unsupervised, during heightened violence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is common practice for employers to accuse workers of putting the public in danger by going on strike. As up to half a million British teachers, rail workers, and civil servants stage mass walkouts, conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is accusing them<\/a> of not caring about children\u2019s schooling, even though the workers say they are waging strikes to save public institutions, like schools. Late last year, President Joe Biden said<\/a> \u201ca rail shutdown would devastate our economy\u201d when justifying his denial of rail workers\u2019 right to strike, even as rail workers warned<\/a> it was corporate greed that was devastating the workforce. Nurses are routinely accused of putting patients in danger by going on strike, even though it is nurses\u2019 willingness to withhold their labor<\/a> that has improved patient safety by, for example, winning better nurse-to-patient ratios.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UNRWA\u2019s statement is notable because it indicates that the oppressive conditions Palestinians face are a reason why it is morally inexcusable for them to exercise their basic right to strike.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But UNRWA\u2019s statement is notable because it indicates that the oppressive conditions Palestinians face are a reason why it is morally inexcusable for them to exercise their basic right to strike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Israel is occupying the West Bank. It controls<\/a> borders, air, security, and movement of people and products, and maintains \u200b\u200bcomplete administrative control of Area C, which makes up 60% of the West Bank. Israel even has control<\/a> over identity cards for Palestinians, who are officially considered stateless. Settlement expansion, with government support, upholds an apartheid system, in which West Bank towns are separated from each other, and Palestinians are forced to travel on Palestinian-only roads. Ethnic exclusion is overt state policy; Israel\u2019s 2018 constitutional law declared it is solely the \u201cnation state of the Jewish people.\u201d This system is enforced with tremendous violence from the Israeli military, which receives $3.8 billion from the United States every year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These conditions are intensifying as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu consolidates the most far-right government in Israeli history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lara Kiswani, executive director of the U.S.-based Arab Resource and Organizing Center, says, \u201cIt is important for Palestinians in diaspora and for the international solidarity movement to support all workers under apartheid and occupation. The struggles of working people in Palestine to organize unions, to collectively bargain, to be treated with dignity and respect in the workplace, and to take collective action, are critical to our movement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDivide-and-conquer tactics that pit workers against their communities are not helpful, especially in this moment of increased Israeli colonial violence,\u201d she adds. \u201cIf UNRWA directors in the West Bank want to prioritize the health and wellbeing of Palestinian refugees and children, then I believe they should respect the actions and voice of Palestinian and UNRWA workers and proceed with good-faith urgency to accommodate their demands.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Abdullah, \u201cI know the strike is very hard, but there is no choice for us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

This post was originally published on The Real News Network<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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