Palestinian President Outlaws Labor Union

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-ABC News

RAMALLAH, West Bank

President Mahmoud Abbas has outlawed the West Bank's largest labor union and arrested its top two officials in what critics say is a sign of increasing heavy-handedness by the Palestinian leader.

An announcement by Abbas' office followed a series of strikes by the union demanding more benefits. It said the strikes were illegal and "harmed the public interest."

Moayad Amer, an official of the 40,000-member union, said Sunday that officials were trying to get their leaders released. "It is our right to have a union," he said.

FULL short breaking story at link.

X post in Labor & Socialist-Progressive

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/palestinian-president-outlaws-labor-union-26791069

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Remember when Hitler did this with all unions in Germany too?

[rtracey]

1. US

US should IMMEDIATELY cease any support to Palestine, completely. Not allowing labor unions.. sounds like Stalinist behavior.

[rpannier]

6. If this had had been done by the elected government (the Hamas Gov't)

We'd have been outraged and cited it as more proof of their illegitimacy
But, it's the guy we support

[cheapdate]

2. Being the head of the West Bank government can't be an easy job.

[AverageJoe90]

23. Looks like this guy ain't much better than anyone Hamas could offer up.

Not these days, anyway.

[The Wizard]

3. Republican sympathizer (NT)

[freshwest]

9. Shades of Ronnie Raygun and PATCO. Ugh. What a horrible world wide trend.

[Odin2005]

4. Fuck him.

[jtuck004]

5. Has he machine-gunned any like the Colorado National Guard did? n/t

[rpannier]

7. Your point being???

[jtuck004]

13. Oh, my little p.o.v. doesn't matter, especially if there are barriers to seeing it.

That High Horse of Self Righteousness

Here, wisdom from the tea party.

I just like to remember my good neighbors in this nation hurl insults from atop the bodies of a lot of people we profited from, and never ever paid them what we took.

[freshwest]

8. Arrested them? So he expects the 40K workers to shut up? What a jerk!

[Rhinodawg]

10. Just add it to the list....

holocaust denier
freedom of speech denier
terrorist honoring sicko
union buster.

what a pos.

[7962]

12. Other than that, a pretty nice guy!

[Comrade Grumpy]

17. Your concern for the plight of Palestinian unionism is duly noted.

[Rhinodawg]

18. Grumpy !!!!!

great to see you.

[LanternWaste]

27. The dullard is unable to realize that criticism for A does not equal tolerance for B.

The dullard is unable to realize that criticism for A does not equal tolerance for B; yet half-wits abound... not much to do about that except to let them know in case they already didn't.

[tclambert]

11. And then he went back to his other job--governor of Wisconsin.

[Ash_F]

14. Boooooo! /nt

[Spitfire of ATJ]

15. First they came for the trade unionists.

[azurnoir]

16. Thanks because it seems no Israeli or Palestinian publication has nabbed this story

maybe they're too busy with stories about Abbas upcoming UNSC petition concerning Israel's West Bank settlements and occupation in a couple of weeks

oh wait one publication did pick it up

http://www.unitedjerusalem.org/index2.asp?id=1840943

and I thought your Abbas-Hitler equation an especially nice touch, really imparts a message at this juncture in time

[The Stranger]

19. Great, let's criticize the leader of some of the most brutalized people on the planet.

Well cone.

[Rhinodawg]

20. LOL.... Brutalized by their own leaders they voted for.

[The Stranger]

22. They've been occupied for four decades, dispossessed of their land and livelihood,

robbed even of their culture, and you want to complain that they don't like labor unions.

You can't post enough emoticons to hide what everyone on this site already knows.

[Rhinodawg]

24. 4 decades of wanting to kill israeli's.

maybe try a new strategy ??

[The Stranger]

25. You've got it massively backwards.

You're wasting bandwidth posting that here.

[Rhinodawg]

26. Nope.... You do.

67
73
Intifada 1
Intifada 2
The recent 5000 rocket war


Got a idea...maybe they should tell the Israelis we recognize your state and we want to work with you.


Oops...Hamas would never go for that.

[The Stranger]

29. The Palestinians have been recognizing, and re-recognizing, and re-re-recognizing Israel

since the early 1980's. So that's bullshit.

The Oslo Accords were intentionally scuttled by Likud who never wanted to give up a single piece of dirt in the first place. That is why there were any Intifadah's.

The wars were just opportunities to take more land and blame the dispossessed for it, except for the one in 2006 (oops).

Hamas? Israel helped spawn Hamas as a counterweight to Fatah. Even the Wall Street Journal can tell you that.

http://online.wsj.com/articles/SB123275572295011847

How Israel Helped to Spawn Hamas
Andrew Higgins
Updated Jan. 24, 2009 12:01 a.m. ET

Moshav Tekuma, Israel

Surveying the wreckage of a neighbor's bungalow hit by a Palestinian rocket, retired Israeli official Avner Cohen traces the missile's trajectory back to an "enormous, stupid mistake" made 30 years ago.

"Hamas, to my great regret, is Israel's creation," says Mr. Cohen, a Tunisian-born Jew who worked in Gaza for more than two decades. Responsible for religious affairs in the region until 1994, Mr. Cohen watched the Islamist movement take shape, muscle aside secular Palestinian rivals and then morph into what is today Hamas, a militant group that is sworn to Israel's destruction.

Instead of trying to curb Gaza's Islamists from the outset, says Mr. Cohen, Israel for years tolerated and, in some cases, encouraged them as a counterweight to the secular nationalists of the Palestine Liberation Organization and its dominant faction, Yasser Arafat's Fatah. Israel cooperated with a crippled, half-blind cleric named Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, even as he was laying the foundations for what would become Hamas. Sheikh Yassin continues to inspire militants today; during the recent war in Gaza, Hamas fighters confronted Israeli troops with "Yassins," primitive rocket-propelled grenades named in honor of the cleric.

Got any more?

[Omaha Steve]

28. You mean the citizens of the USA????

[AverageJoe90]

21. Way to go, Mr. Abbas....that's showing them Zionists, right?

In case it's needed-

Also:

[KinMd]

30. Did Scott Walker send Abbas a letter saying "way to go!"