|
From Challenge # 62
July - August 2000
Hanitzotz News
Jobless Women in Nazareth Demand their Rights
On June 5, over
a hundred unemployed Arab women confronted the guards of the bureau where
they sign up for unemployment benefits. The women broke down the main door,
which the guards had locked against them, and several women fainted in
the clash. Among them were Wadha Gadir (51) from Bir al-Maksur and Fathieh
Ghazi (52) from Nazareth. This is by no means the first such conflict in
Nazareth. (See Challenge # 58 on Ein Mahel.) The background for this latest
dispute was a bureau decision to build its new center on the city's outskirts
of Nazareth, a place which the jobless would find it difficult to reach.
The Workers Advice Center (WAC) warned the Ministry of Employment that
it regarded this move as an attempt to discourage the jobless from signing
for their benefits, thus saving the government money, as well as causing
an artificial reduction in the percentage of unemployed.
June 5 was
the day set for registering women. Only four clerks were available, so
the guards ordered the group to wait outside in the scorching sun. The
women protested, banging on the glass door until it broke. They then phoned
WAC representatives, who came to the bureau, contacted the press and drafted
a petition, which 700 workers have signed so far.
Our demands were as follows:
-
To organize free
transportation from downtown Nazareth to the bureau.
-
To increase the
number of clerks.
-
To create shade
for everyone
-
To see the tender
for the new center.
If there was no
tender, or if there was an offer to build the center in a more accessible
place, we shall take legal action. So far several improvements have been
made. The number of clerks has risen to seven. Women are now permitted
to sign up twice a week. The yard has been shaded, so that women can sit
outside. Buses have been promised.
WAC will continue
to monitor the situation.
HPH
alerts international delegates to the danger of transfer in Jaffa
On
June 20, Hanitzotz Publishing House (HPH), with its Right-to-a-Roof Committee
(RRC), invited members of the international community working in Israel,
the West Bank and Gaza to its office in Jaffa. Our purpose was to alert
them to the danger of ethnic-economic transfer in this city. Members of
eleven organizations attended. Speaking for HPH were Roni Ben Efrat, who
is responsible for international relations, and Asma Agbarieh, coordinator
of the RRC in Jaffa. Agbarieh then led the delegates on a tour, including
the former home of the Sawaf family, now a luxury apartment house (see
front cover) and the present quarters of the Sawafs in the public park.
Later in the day, a parliamentary group from the German SPD, together with
representatives from the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung in Tel Aviv, met with
our representatives concerning this issue. |
[ Home | This Issue|
Contents | Archive|
Subscribe]
|
|