Internal Palestinian troubles are always swept under the rug ~ Elder Of Ziyon

Monday, March 03, 2025

Internal Palestinian troubles are always swept under the rug

The Palestinian Federation of Health Profession Association, the health workers union, has called for a general strike for March 11 and again March 18.

Even after reading the official announcement of the strike, I cannot figure out why. Here's what the message says:

As the strike continues for the twentieth day in the Ministry of Agriculture by your colleagues in the supporting health professions there, and in light of the government’s intransigence and failure to respond to the law and its implementation, and even the tyrants of the Ministry of Agriculture continue to challenge the Palestinian Basic Law and the Palestinian Civil Service Law by refusing to comply with those laws and also violating them in an explicit and blatant manner, then in this case, and out of our national and moral commitment towards the system of laws that govern us and which the government, represented by the Minister of Agriculture, has broken, and to protect the laws of the State of Palestine and our insistence on adhering to them and resorting to them, we announce the following:

1- A comprehensive strike on Tuesday, 3/11/2025, with no presence at workplaces for all supporting medical professions in the Ministry of Health, the Environmental Quality Authority, school health in the Ministry of Education, the Water Authority, the Ministry of Economy and Industry, and the Ministry of Social Development.

2- In the event that the government continues to kick the Palestinian Basic Law and the Civil Service Law, represented by the Minister of Agriculture, there will be a comprehensive strike on Tuesday, 3/18/2025, in all of the aforementioned ministries and bodies, with a central sit-in being held in front of the Council of Ministers in Ramallah. You will be informed later of the gathering places for transportation by buses from all governorates to the sit-in site in Ramallah.

It appears that the strike is in solidarity with a three-week old strike by the workers (or maybe health workers) of the Ministry of Agriculture.

But I cannot find any news stories about that strike, or the reasons for this strike. In all probability it is about wages, but it is not being reported anywhere.

And that is the real story here.

There appears to be an unwritten but ironclad rule within Palestinian media to minimize any reports of internal problems (the exception being between Hamas and Fatah media.) This is almost certainly due to the honor/shame culture - internal disagreements are shameful and therefore must be swept under the rug as much as possible.

The only stories to be emphasized, even in Arabic, are anti-Israel stories. Everything else is a source of embarrassment and must be minimized.

When these stories are barely covered in the Palestinian media, they certainly aren't covered in Western media. Given the huge number of journalists in the region, the only conclusion is that reporters themselves do not want this information to be publicized.

This is all more proof that the world doesn't care about Palestinians. If Israel would shut down all health clinics for a day, we'd see wall-to-wall stories about how sick patients are not being taken care of because of Israeli evil; but when Palestinians themselves close the clinics it does not merit even the smallest mention.