GAZA: Workers protest unemployment, journalists demand press freedoms in Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip

Residents of the economically-crippled, Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip took to the streets on Tuesday (August 28) to protest against their deteriorating living conditions, while journalist demonstrators called on the Islamic movement to respect press freedoms after it briefly detained three journalists last week. Dozens of employees and labourers marched through Gaza streets, demanding politicians reach an agreement which would guarantee tens of thousands of Palestinians receive unpaid wages. Hamas defeated Abbas's Fatah faction in parliamentary elections in 2006, and economic sanctions have been a centrepiece of an international campaign imposed to topple the Islamist group, which refuses to recognise Israel. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed a Hamas-led government, headed by Ismail Haniyeh, in June and appointed a Western-backed cabinet in the occupied West Bank, headed by Salam Fayyad. Ismail Haniyeh has refused to recognise Abbas's order disbanding his government, which followed Hamas's seizure of control in the Gaza Strip on June 14. Fayyad has been trying to reduce the influence of Hamas and its welfare arms by building a government-run social services system using Western and Arab funds. Fayyad has pledged to pay civil servants in Gaza if they follow his government's instructions. And Gaza members of the Fatah-dominated security forces have been told they will be paid if they stay at home. But up to 23,000 workers hired under Hamas after it won January 2006 parliamentary elections will be excluded from Fayyad's payroll, an aide to Haniyeh said. Also excluded are nearly 6,000 members of Hamas's elite Executive Force, which played a key role in the fighting that routed Fatah in Gaza. At Tuesday's demonstration, Hamas's Ahmed Bahar, Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, told protesters the Islamic movement was doing its utmost to reach such an agreement. "We assure you that we will exert our greatest effort to work with the government and philanthropists to reach an agreement to fulfill your demands. We might not be able to fulfill all your demands, but we are supporting you with whatever we can," Bahar told demonstrators. One demonstrator -- an unemployed labourer -- said his children were being refused entry into schools because he didn't have the money to pay school fees. Dozens of Palestinian journalists from local and foreign press organisations also staged a demonstration in Gaza city on Tuesday, calling on the Islamic movement to respect press freedoms a week after Hamas security forces detained three journalists for questioning. Hamas security men briefly detained the three journalists, including a photographer from French news agency Agence France-Presse, witnesses said. They also smashed a journalist's television camera and roughed up and threatened a Reuters photographer. Last week saw the biggest demonstration to take place against the Islamist group since it seized control of Gaza. Hamas security men opened fire after protesters hurled rocks at them in the Gaza Strip on Friday (August 24). No injuries were reported, but the confrontation between supporters of President Mahmoud Abbas's secular Fatah faction and Hamas's Executive Force policing the Gaza Strip underscored the volatility of the bitter rivalry between the two movements. In the most recent escalation of the feud, a minister in President Mahmoud Abbas's government said on Tuesday it will close 103 charities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in an apparent attempt to weaken Hamas Islamists. Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters the decision to close the charities is part of an attempt by the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority to "uproot the Hamas movement" and that it will only increase hardship among Palestinians.

ITN Source | August 29, 2007

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