Protesting Palestinians want Fayyad to go

Ramallah: The West Bank virtually shut down yesterday and Palestinians in all cities demonstrated against rising prices demanding the Prime Minister Salam Fayyad to step down and called for a government focused on reviving the national economy.

The group calling itself the Revolution Against the Increasing Prices Committee also demanded a deadline to form such a government.

Fed up with high prices and unpaid salaries angry Palestinians shuttered shops, halted traffic with burning tyres and closed schools throughout the West Bank in the largest show of popular discontent with the governing Palestinian National Authority in its 18-year history.

Palestinians say their salaries can’t keep up with the rising price of living and blame Fayyad for the economic policies of the Western-backed Palestinian National Authority, which has partial self-rule over Palestinians in the West Bank. But Fayyad’s government is grappling with a sharp budgetary shortfall because the US and Arab countries that sustain it haven’t delivered promised aid money. And he hasn’t been able to pay full salaries in months.

“Nobody is able to live, except the big officials,” said Sami Saleh, a 57-year-old taxi driver, one of hundreds across the West Bank to turn out for the rallies. “We have to pressure this government to change.”

As he spoke, youths hollered and cheered as they set tyres alight behind him, sending plumes of black smoke into the air and blocking the main road from the West Bank city of Ramallah to the nearby city of Jerusalem. Nearby, striking taxi and bus drivers daubed a donkey yellow and scrawled “taxi” on it.

A statement read by the committee on Al Manarah Roundabout in Ramallah said that new taxes imposed by the government should be withdrawn immediately and that the Oslo Accord and the Paris Agreements with Israel be suspended with immediate effect.

The committee warned with tougher action if the leadership does not heed the calls. It said the policies of the Fayyad government have hit the society hard and Palestinians have been forced to leave their territories.

Thousands of Palestinians have been demonstrating in the West Bank against increasing prices for fuel and basic goods.

The syndicate of the public transportation also went on a general strike which led to thin attendance in offices.

Hamed Abdul Hamid, an activist in Ramallah told Gulf News that the demonstrations will continue until their demands are met.

“We hold Salam Fayyad responsible for the increasing prices, as the man is publicly known for being solely responsible for the financial matters of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA),” he said.

Abdul Hamid also claims that the Palestinian public is not satisfied with the PNA call to Israel to review the Paris Economic Agreement. Demonstrators at rallies have demanded the Palestinian leadership announce the immediate suspension of what protesters have branded a disgraceful agreement.