Nearly 10,000 Palestinian teachers demonstrated in Ramallah to improve their working conditions, the largest West Bank protest since the anti-Gaza war rallies in 2014. Palestinian teachers currently earn about $615 per month.
Thousands of people, mostly women, gathered in front of Palestinian Authority government offices and marched to Ramallah’s central Manara Square blocking most of the city’s arteries, shutting down the West Bank’s economic capital and chanting “They won’t be able to break our teachers.”
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The massive demonstration marks the fourth week of a teacher’s strike across the West Bank.
Palestinian police attempted to block the streets leading to the Authority’s offices but were unable to hold the crowds back.
Teachers from outlying areas arrived in Ramallah on Sunday night in order to participate in Monday’s demo, and local media reports that Palestinian police detained and even several of the women on the road between Bethlehem to Ramallah. A male teacher at the protest joked that his friends from Nablus found a way out of the city that was not blocked by the Israeli army, yet had to wait at a Palestinian checkpoint upon entering Ramallah.