RAMALLAH, August 6, 2015 (WAFA)
– In their Thursday issue, the three Palestinian Arabic dailies
continued to focus on the pressing issue of UNRWA’s unprecedented financial
crisis, which might possibly result in postponing the beginning of the
school year 2015 - 2016 for about half million Palestinian students.
They said UNRWA’s administration
considered a legislative change granting the commissioner general the power to
put any employee on unpaid leave for one year. Al-Quds daily said UNRWA workers
union considered this legislative change a first step to laying them off.
Al-Hayat al-Jadida said UNRWA sent an
emergency report to the UN Secretary General, warning that unless funding for
the full amount of the Agency’s General Fund shortfall of $101 million is
secured by the middle of August, the financial crisis may force the suspension
of services relating to the Agency’s education program.
Al-Hayat al-Jadida also focoused on
remarks made by President Mahmoud Abbas, in which he cynically warned that some
700 thousand Palestinian refugee students might be a good recipe to engage in
terror groups, including the “Islamic State” organization, in case UNRWA delays
the start of the school year.
Al-Quds and al-Ayyam said Israeli
authorities demolished some 18 Palestinian-owned agricultural structures in the
Jordan Valley, as well as a house in the Hebron district town of Beit Ummar.
Al-Quds and al-Hayat al-Jadida said
Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails asked the Palestinians to go on a “day
of rage” in solidarity with them on Friday. The prisoners have recently
been subjected to a yet another crackdown in multiple Israeli jails, during
which prison guards savagely raided prisons’ rooms and physically assaulted and
beat up numerous prisoners.
In yet another incident, Al-Ayyam said
Israeli Jewish settlers spray painted graffiti calling for “death to Arabs” in
East Jerusalem, turning this kind of assault into an almost daily routine
for settlers.
M.N/M.H
