Democratic Palestine : 18 (ص 8)
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- Democratic Palestine : 18 (ص 8)
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Bir Zeit students protest administrative detention.
diture of any funds, including our salaries, in an attempt to push
us to give up.”’
Hebron trade unions issued statements on May Ist dealing
with the situation of the Palestinian working class. The state-
ments described the workers’ situation as highly unstable-they
are subject to low wages, mass lay-offs, rapidly increasing
unemployment and exploitation. The trade unions called for
designating May Ist as the international day against exploita-
tion. Signatories to the statement included the unions for tai-
lors, construction workers, public service employees and public
institution workers.
The Progressive Front for Trade Union Action organized a
mass festival in Al Hakawati Theater in Jerusalem. The main
speech emphasized the necessity of trade union unity in occu-
pied Palestine on a national basis, untouched by opportunism
and blackmail. The division in the trade union movement was
condemned, for this aggravates the movement’s crisis. The
right-wing leadership was held responsible for the deteriorating
political situation and the reactionary regimes’ intervention in
Palestinian internal affairs. The US aggression on Libya was
roundly condemned. In attendance at the festival were delegates
from the Sons of the Village movement in 1948 occupied Pales-
tine, and from the Golan Heights.
Also commemorating May Ist were the Union of Public Ins-
titution Workers in Bethlehem, Restaurant and Coffee Shop
Workers in Jenin, and Al Ahlee Hospital Employees’ Com-
mittee in Gaza.
The Federation of Palestinian Trade Unions in the Gaza Strip
was prohibited from holding a celebration or issuing a publica-
tion, despite the fact that it had submitted a request to the
occupation authorities on April 18th to obtain a permit.
In the part of Palestine occupied in 1948, all trade union
branches called for transforming the entire month of March this
year into a season of political, social, cultural and educational
festivals in commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the Day
of the Land, and for escalating the struggle against racism.
WOMEN’S ACTIVITIES
The situation of the women’s movement in occupied Palestine
does not differ from that of other mass organizations in terms
of the constant pressure and repression exerted by the Zionist
occupation authorities to limit its activities. A current example
is the arrest and trial of Yusra Barbari, president of the
Women’s Union in Gaza. She was accused of rendering public
services without a permit. The services she had rendered were
two courses in the English language and a sewing course! Des-
pite such harassment, however, there were many women’s acti-
vities in the past period. The celebration of Women’s Interna-
tional Day became a forum for campaigning against the Jorda-
nian regime’s anti-Palestinian policies.
8
UNION OF PALESTINIAN WOMEN’S
COMMITTEES
Early in the year, the Palestinian Women’s Committees held
their sixth annual bazaar in Jerusalem. The opening night, there
was a meeting where the main speech stressed the importance of
mobilizing Palestinian women in the organizational, political,
economic and social fields, by recruiting them into the 41 bran-
ches of the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees in the
West Bank and Gaza Strip. The speech also highlighted the need
for giving more attention to Palestinian children by enrolling
them in the union’s 15 kindergartens.
Other activities of the Palestinian Women’s Committees
included medical days, arranged in coordination with the
Popular Committee for Health Services and Care, where many
people were treated and given free medicine, in most cities and
villages of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. On March 6th, the
union brought out a special issue of its publication entitled The
Struggle of Working Women, devoted to its activities of the
foregoing year and a communique condemning King Hussein’s
February speech. On the International Day of Women, the
union issued statements. Union members visited the families of
martyrs and prisoners. The union’s main celebration was held in
Al Hakawati Theater in Jerusalem. Folklore groups performed,
and there was a speech on the theme of cancelling the Amman
accord and the Cairo declaration (about ending armed
struggle), as prerequisites for restoring the PLO’s unity. The
union also celebrated the International Day of Women at Beth-
lehem University and at Bir Zeit University in cooperation with
the Student Action Front. It sponsored a celebration in Beit
Hanoun in the Gaza Strip, where there was a speech and sho-
wing of the film ‘‘With My Own Eyes’’, based on Felicia
Langer’s book about torture in Israeli prisons.
The union organized many outings to different areas of
occupied Palestine in order to acquaint women with the geo-
graphy of their homeland. The Women’s Committee in
Duheisheh camp in the West Bank arranged a trip to Acca and
Haifa, and participated in a trip to the Golan Heights.
In late March, a delegation from the union and the Progres-
sive Women’s Union visited Majdel Shams in the Golan
Heights, delivering a message of solidarity with the people
there. The union also sponsored a successful market in Bir Zeit’s
athletic club, in cooperation with the club.
OVERALL ACTIVITIES
All four major women’s organizations in the occupied terri-
tories issued statements against King Hussein’s February
speech. In their statements, the Union of Women’s Committees
for Social Work, the Union of Women’s Work Committees, the
Working Women’s Union, and the Union for Palestinian - هو جزء من
- Democratic Palestine : 18
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- المنشئ
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