By Daoud Kuttab

A partial Palestinian teachers strike last weekend turned into a full strike on Monday, Dec. 2, with plans to hold a demonstration outside the prime minister’s office on Tuesday. The Palestinian government thought that it could avert the full strike when it won a decision by the Palestinian High Court of Justice calling on the Teachers Union to delay the strike until the government has a chance to remedy some of the complaints.

But the teachers defied the court decision, claiming that they were not officially informed of the ruling and that they only heard about it in the media. A meeting late Sunday night between the head of the teachers union, Ahmad Suheil, and President Mahmoud Abbas failed to break the deadlock.

More than 1 million Palestinian students in the West Bank, including those sitting for the matriculation exams, have been affected by the strike. Schools in East Jerusalem have received a waiver from the strike because of their unique and sensitive situation.

The strike by the powerful teachers union comes only two months after a previous agreement was reached between the union and the Palestinian government. The Sept. 5 compromise was declared by the teachers union head a “unique and historic” deal. The agreement included a 10% increase in teachers’ salaries to be implemented in two stages, the first at the start of 2014. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

As is often the case, the news concerning the circumstances of the Nov. 27 Israeli killings of three Palestinian men is being told from one side because the other side is unable to be respond or be heard.

The undisputed facts are that members of the Israeli army stopped a vehicle carrying three Palestinian male passengers. They killed two of the passengers at that time, and the third apparently ran away but was later killed as well.

The official Israeli version is that the army had been tracking the occupants of the car for a few days when they were spotted in an area under its control. The army claims that the Israelis shot out the tires and after a short exchange, two Palestinians — Mahmoud Khalid al-Najjar and Mousa Makhamra — were killed, and a third — Mohammad Nayroukh — was chased and killed. The Israelis, who say that they recovered pistols and bomb equipment in the possession of the Palestinians, have made unsubstantiated statements that the three were planning to carry out operations against Israeli and Palestinian government targets.

Nasser Laham, editor of Ma’an News, criticized the Palestinian government’s silence on the killings, arguing that the Palestinians have allowed the Israeli narrative to prevail in tact. Ma’an, in its Arabic edition, provided sketchy information about the incident, but asserted that Nayroukh had managed to get to a nearby clinic in Yatta, where he died from his wounds. No eyewitnesses have been quoted to back up the Israeli version of events. Continue Reading »

by Daoud Kuttab

As the Christmas season approaches and as tourism to the Holy Land rises, the fight over holy sites has also escalated. The Palestinian Ministry of Information published on its website a report citing an official complaint by the Palestinian ambassador in Rome, Mai al-Kalia, against Israel, which is trying to appropriate Bethlehem.

According to the Palestinian ministry, the Israeli tourism office in Rome has published touristic literature stating that “Israel, thanks to a wide range of unique sites such as the old port of Jaffa, and Nazareth, Jerusalem and Tiberias, Bethlehem, Capernaum, Masada, the Dead Sea, Fort Herod and caves near Qumran …” Four of the sites mentioned lie in the Palestinian territories, but Israel is advertising them as part of Israel in an attempt to attract Christian pilgrims from Italy.

The Palestinian diplomat, according to the report, will file an official complaint to the Italian Foreign Ministry accusing the Israeli tourism office of publishing “false information.”

Palestinian efforts in Italy have been matched by a popular movement in Bethlehem itself. Young Palestinians holding signs in different languages protested outside the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem on Nov. 28. Their message was simple: Bethlehem is a Palestinian town. Continue Reading »