Palestinian Children Head Back to School

Palestinian students have filled the schools again after several months of absence. Their classes resumed after a seventy day teacher strike that interrupted their classes across the West Bank and Gaza. Around 8,000 students have returned to school after the Hamas-led government finally agreed to pay teachers their partial salaries and end the stoppage of work by 40,000 instructors.

The international sanctions put on the government that came into power in March has made it almost impossible for the government to pay its 165,000 civil servants, causing widespread hardship in the West Bank and Gaza. Everyone in the West, including the United States, has already said that they will not lift the sanctions unless the Hamas will recognize Israel, renounce violence, and accept past peace deals (which was something the Hamas have refused to do so far).

The Hamas-run Education Ministry has promised to begin paying teachers and have started to scrap up enough money to pay them a partial salary of about $235. According to Jamil Shahade, the teachers have some of the lowest salaries in the public sector, earning between $420 and $820 a month. The union has already said that if the Hamas government fails to pay the teacher's their wages again they will resume the strike.

Sam McCloud, Associate Editor