[News] Gaza: Protesters Highlight Workers' Plight as Casualties Mount Due to Israeli Repression

[Anti-Imperialist News]

https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Gaza-Protesters-Highlight-Workers-Plight-as-Casualties-Mount-Due-to-Israeli-Repression-20180504-0006.html 



  Gaza: Protesters Highlight Workers' Plight as Casualties Mount Due to
  Israeli Repression

4 May 2018
------------------------------------------------------------------------

*Palestinians* in *Gaza* held their sixth Friday protest as part of the 
*Great March of Return*, which began on March 30 with the commemoration 
of Palestinian Land Day 
<http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Palestinian-Land-Day-And-Why-It-Matters-Today-20180329-0009.html>. 
On Friday demonstrators highlighted the plight of Palestinian workers 
and the unemployed in a demonstration labeled "Friday of Workers."

As in all previous weeks, Israeli occupation forces fired tear gas, 
rubber-coated bullets and live ammunition at unarmed protesters injuring 
hundreds.

According to the Ministry of Health, *Israeli forces* injured at least 
350 protesters Friday, including 21 minors and three journalists. Three 
of the injured persons are reported to be in serious condition.

The use of live ammunition by Israel’s army has been condemned by the 
international community and human rights activists. However, in response 
to the challenge to its *open-fire policy 
<http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Israel-Court-Hears-Challenge-on-Open-Fire-Policy-in-Gaza-20180501-0022.html>*, 
Israeli officials have insisted that their response comply fully with 
their army’s rules of engagement and international law arguing human 
rights law is not applicable in a “state of war.”

Human rights groups have consistently rejected this argument.

As the world celebrated International Workers’ Day on May first, reports 
emerged that at least 400,000 Palestinians are currently facing 
unemployment, and 150,000 work under precarious conditions in Israel and 
Jewish-only settlements within the West Bank.

The situation in Gaza, which has endured an over-a-decade-long blockade 
is even worse. The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics estimates 
that almost 50 percent of the population in Gaza is unemployed and about 
80 percent is dependent on foreign aid.

Gazan workers are affected by the blockade that prevents construction 
materials from entering Gaza to reconstruct the Strip, which has been 
bombed several times by Israeli warplanes. The blockade also affects 
Gazan fisherman who risks being shot if they attempt to fish beyond the 
six nautical miles Israel allows them to use. Furthermore, the 
establishment of no-go zone near the border fence has effectively stolen 
miles of arable and productive land from Gazan farmers.

According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, the number of Palestinians 
killed by Israeli forces during demonstrations in Gaza reached 45 on 
Thursday. No Israeli civilian or military forces have been killed or 
injured.

The *Great March for Return 
<http://www.telesurtv.net/english/multimedia/The-Great-March-of-Return-Palestinian-Refugees-Defy-Israel--20180414-0008.html>* 
has rallied tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza who have set up 
tents along the northern and eastern border with Israel in a symbolic 
act to claim their human right as refugees to return to their homeland, 
a right Israel has denied them for fear of losing its Jewish majority.

The march will last until May 15, when Palestinians will commemorate the 
70th anniversary of the Nakba, or catastrophe. The day marks the date 
700,000 Palestinians were expelled or fled from their towns and cities 
after the creation of the state of Israel on May 14, 1948.

-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/
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