Pal-Think delivers episode two of «Youth Papers», under Civic Education phase two

What is freedom of movement? What are the international laws and covenants that set it down? Do the Palestinians enjoy this right? What is the minimum wage? And what are the mechanisms and challenges of applying it in the Gaza Strip?

These questions were answered by the researcher and civic-education body member Sami Shaqura in his research paper “Raising the minimum wage for workers in the Gaza Strip between enactment and application”, and by the researcher and civic-education body member Hadeel Ahel in her research paper “Freedom of movement for Palestinians between international law and the Israeli occupation” — in the second radio episode within the programme “Youth Papers”, broadcast on the local Zaman FM radio within the civic-education project — phase two, implemented by Pal-Think for Strategic Studies with funding from the National Endowment for Democracy “NED”.

Ahel opened her remarks by saying that freedom of movement is the individual's right to move from one place to another, or to leave their country or return to it — excepting certain legal cases such as the commission of crimes and the like — and it is a fundamental right guaranteed among human rights.

She said the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights set down this right expressly.

The researcher explained that “Israel always impedes Palestinians' movement at the checkpoints, given that all the Palestinian crossings are under Israeli control; Israel turns them into inspection points and harassments for 140 thousand Palestinians daily in the West Bank and Jerusalem” — pointing out that Gaza is subject to a total blockade, and a wall surrounding the Strip entirely was built in 2021.

Ahel affirmed that the support of international institutions and civil-society institutions is very important to pressure Israel to apply the right of freedom of movement for Palestinians.

In addition to the foregoing, the division between the Fatah and Hamas movements has made the matter more complicated, for the Palestinian political division has greatly affected the right to movement and travel.

For his part, the researcher Sami Shaqura said the minimum wage changed twice during the past years: the council of ministers previously decided the minimum was 1,450 shekels, then issued decision 121 last year, and it became 1,880 shekels in 2021.

He added that the unemployment rate reached 47% in the Gaza Strip and 16% in the West Bank; at the level of the sexes, it is 43% among females compared with 22% among males.

He explained “that there are several mechanisms for applying the decision: laying down a comprehensive national plan for advancing workers' conditions in Gaza, strengthening the economic structures, strengthening investment plans, lightening the levies and halting certain kinds of imported goods and manufacturing them locally, and the necessity of finding a national strategy to form fertile ground to set out from, given the difficulty of applying the decision”.

Shaqura pointed out that work opportunities are diverse and more available in the West Bank than in the Gaza Strip, which suffers bitterly from the deterioration of economic conditions — especially as Gaza's merchants pay taxes to the Palestinian Authority, the Hamas government, and Israel.

He continued: “It is true that wages in the West Bank are higher, but the comparison between them and Gaza is not fair, for the cost of living there is higher”.

The researcher showed that the division, the Israeli occupation, poverty, and high unemployment are among the principal obstacles to applying the minimum-wage law.

In closing, Shaqura and Ahel thanked Pal-Think for the training project, whose first phase comprised intensive trainings and awareness workshops for youth on the issues of democracy, human rights, and others — and in the second phase the trainees produced research papers on issues touching the core of young people's lives in Gaza.

They said: “The experience was very rich and helped us become effective citizens in Palestinian society”.