GAZA PUBLIC SECTOR STRIKE EXTENDED TO 9/16

C O N F I D E N T I A L JERUSALEM 001697

SIPDIS

NEA FOR FRONT OFFICE; NEA/IPA FOR GOLDBERGER/SACHAR; PRM
FOR PRM/ANE; NSC FOR PASCUAL; TREASURY FOR ROSE; PLEASE
PASS TO USAID FOR KUNDER/MCCLOUD/BORODIN

E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/29/2013
TAGS: ELAB PHUM PTER EFIN PGOV KWBG
SUBJECT: GAZA PUBLIC SECTOR STRIKE EXTENDED TO 9/16

REF: JERUSALEM 1644

Classified By: Consul General Jake Walles, Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)


1. (SBU) Summary: The Gaza public sector labor strike has
been extended to at least September 16, according to union
leaders. Participation rates are 80 percent among teachers
and around 40 percent among health care workers. PA contacts
said that the Hamas-led government has reacted by jailing
some 1,000 teachers and health care workers. Hamas also
reportedly hired some 4,000 replacement teachers since the
strike began August 30. Hamas forces have obliged hundreds
of employees to go to work and employed groups of children to
stone the homes of doctors who remain on strike. End summary.

Participation numbers down from last week
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2. (C) Secretary General of the Teachers' Union Jamil
Shihadah told Econoff on September 10 that the
labor strike will continue until at least September 16. He
said that 80 percent of Gaza's 10,000 public sector teachers
continue to strike (down from 90 percent participation last
week),as public sector employees protest Hamas's violent and
discriminatory policies against non-Hamas-affiliated
teachers. (Note: UN contacts said on September 10 that
around 60 percent of public sector teachers in Gaza remain on
strike. End note.) Shihadah said that Hamas security forces
have jailed approximately 1,000 teachers and health care
workers since the strike began.

Hamas hires 4,000 replacement teachers
--------------


3. (C) UN OCHA Gaza representative Hamada al-Bayari told
Econoff on September 10 that the Hamas-led government has
hired 4,000 new, replacement teachers since August 30. He
said that Hamas "plans to replace each teacher" who goes
strike, noting that the majority of new hires are unqualified.


4. (C) Shihadah confirmed that the Hamas-led government
replaced most of the teachers on strike with unqualified
individuals, many of whom have little formal education - most
have not even completed secondary school. He alleged that a
teacher in Gaza City began writing English script from right
to left (like Arabic),unaware of the left-to-right English
structural flow. He reiterated that the strike continues to
expose and undercut the Hamas leadership's intention to "lead
Gazans down the road of an Islamic state rule by Hamas's iron
fist."

Kids hired to harass doctors on strike
--------------


5. (C) PA Deputy Minister of Health Anan Masri told Econoff
on September 10 that Hamas gunmen have entered the homes of
doctors- many of them U.S.-trained -literally pushing them
from their living rooms to their places of work. He said
that Hamas has recruited children to stone the houses of
those doctors on strike, instructing the children to loudly
chant against participation in the "anti-Islamic,
anti-Palestine" strike. UN contacts said that 35 percent of
Gaza hospital employees and 50 percent of health clinic
employees remain on strike.


6. (C) OCHA representative al-Bayari said that most people
in Gaza approve of Hamas's response to those doctors on
strike because physicians cannot be replaced like the
teachers have been. "Most doctors on strike are relieved
when Hamas forces arrive at their home, as everyone will know
they had been forced to break the strike," he said.
WALLES