Abbas warns workers won't get full salary
Sunday 09 September 2012
Printable
EmailPalestinian President Mahmoud Abbas warned at the weekend that government employees will not receive their full salaries this month because donor countries have not delivered promised aid.
The US and Arab countries have failed to come through this year with the aid money they have pledged, leaving the Palestinian Authority with a budget shortfall that has contributed to rising prices and delays in the payment of salaries to 154,000 Palestinian civil servants.
In Ramallah today, dozens of Palestinian lorry drivers blocked the main streets of the West Bank city to protest against rising prices.
Dozens of quarry workers also demonstrated nearby.
The West Bank has seen a series of small but snowballing strikes over rising prices and delayed payment of civil servants' salaries.
The Palestinian Authority has done little to calm the protests, apparently hoping to show foreign donors the potential consequences of their neglect causing the fragile Palestinian economy to fall apart.
If you appreciated this article then please consider donating to the Morning Star's Fighting Fund to ensure we can keep developing your paper.
Editorial
No excuse for drone killings
Foreign Minister Alistair Burt's admission that the Cameron government has "supported" a survey of attitudes to US drone strikes in Pakistan's tribal areas amounts to a tacit admission of British involvement.
Features
The Nigel buildings rent strike
As Britain faces a new housing crisis we can learn from an occasion when tenants banded together to beat their landlord - and won new council housing
The truth about universal credit
Iain Duncan Smith's brainchild came into force at the end of last month. It's bad news for almost everyone