Democratic Palestine : 38 (ص 7)
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- Democratic Palestine : 38 (ص 7)
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consistent with the sacrifices and aspi-
rations of the working masses.» At a
press conference in East Jerusalem,
Shaher Saad, general secretary of the
reunited federation, said that the
executive committee will focus on
reaching collective agreements with
employers and seek «ways to help our
workers defend their rights while
promoting the economy.» Another
primary task is to found new produc-
tive projects in order to provide work
for the unemployed, especially those
who were given green cards by the
Israeli authorities, preventing them
from entering Israel. The federation
will also work to have employers pro-
vide health insurance for all workers
and their families, and to secure
academic scholarships for them. The
federation will seek financial support
from Arab and international trade
unions, because lack of funds for start-
ing any of the planned projects is one
of the main obstacles to its work at
present.
In an interview with Al Fajr,
March 5th, George Hazboun, the
deputy general secretary of the federa-
tion, stressed the importance of trade
union cooperation between the West
Bank and Gaza Strip: «First we have
to be united, then we can proceed to
unify the entire union movement in all
of Palestine.» Trade union work has
always been even more difficult in
Gaza than in the West Bank. Until
1980, the trade unions were totally
banned by the occupation authorities.
When trade unions were allowed to
start functioning in 1980, the
authorities appointed the leadership.
In the ensuing years, however, the
nationalist forces have gained ground
in union work.
At a time when Israeli and part of
the international media are trying to
show that the Islamic forces are over-
taking the nationalists, especially in
Gaza, the results of elections in three
Gaza professional unions give a more
objective picture of the balance of
forces. In the January 19th elections of
the Gaza Medical Association, the
nationalist list won nine of 11 seats in
the leadership; in the Engineers’
Association elections on January 26th,
the nationalists won four seats, while
the Islamic forces won five; the Gaza
Democratic Palestine, March-April 1990
Bar Association elected six nationalists
and one from an Islamic group to
serve in the leadership council.
Free the trade unionists!
An important political task of the
federation is exposing Israeli repres-
sion against the Palestinian people and
unionists in particular. Indeed, union
leaders and activists figure prominently
among those who have been arrested,
expelled or martyred during the
intifada. A recent case is that of Hani
Baidoun who was_ arrested’ in
Jerusalem on March 20th, brutally
beaten and dragged to an Israeli milit-
ary vehicle. Since then, there’s been
no information about him; no charges
were specified and he was not allowed
to see his wife, attorney or an ICRC
representative.
Hani is 35 years old, the father of
three children and a UNRWA officer.
He was prominent in the formation of
the West Bank Trade Union Federa-
tion and the founder of the Hotel
Workers’ Union in Jerusalem. Hani
has been imprisoned by the occupation
authorities before. In 1985, he was
arrested and tortured, as a result of
which he developed an ulcer, had a
heart attack and lost hearing in his left
ear. For this reason, his recent arrest is
doubly alarming.
Hani may be known to some of
our readers, since he visited the US in
June 1989 as a guest speaker at the
NGO convention, and toured 18 US
and Canadian cities to speak about the
Palestinian trade unions. He met with
congressmen, and other politicians,
such as Jesse Jackson, as well as with
activists from the peace and human
rights movements.
The reunification of the trade
unions gives new impetus for more
international solidarity with Palestinian
workers to materially support the work
of their federation, and to demand the
release of imprisoned unionists, along
with all political detainees in Israeli
jails. - هو جزء من
- Democratic Palestine : 38
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