Palestinian public sector employee attempts suicide in protest of not being paid by the gov.

Monday April 30, 2007 15:26 by Ghassan Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies

A Palestinian public sector employee from the city of Khan Younis, located in the southern part of the Gaza strip tried to commit suicide on Monday midday by throwing him self from a window of the city municipality building. The act was in protest of not being paid by the Palestinian government.

Khan Younis city - File 2007

The man who's name remains unknown lost hope after suffering from severe economic hardships caused by not getting his salary for months from the municipality were he works. The municipality stated that the man entered the office of the Khan Younis Mayor then opened a window and tried to jump. Other fellow employees and some of his friends rushed to him and tried to convince him not to jump, after several houres of talking to the man he was persuaded not to jump.

Dr. Faiez Abu Shamalih, the Mayor of Khan Younis, said that the municipalities in the Gaza Strip are suffering a lack of funding from the Palestinian government and that it's employees do not have money to travel to work. The Mayer added that the government should find a solution soon otherwise what happened today, or something even worse, will happen again soon.

The Palestinian Authority has not been able to pay it's employees since the USA, EU and Israel decided to impose an economic embargo on the Palestinian people shortly after Hamas won the parliamentary elections in January 2006.

khan younis | internal unrest | news report ghassanb at imemc dot org