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Palestinian public education teachers in the occupied West Bank continued their general strike for the 10th day in a row on Wednesday, in the largest mass strike by a social movement within the Palestinian territories .

The officially recognised General Union of Palestine's TeachersÌýhad called for a partial strike in late March which lasted three weeks.

The union then reached an agreement with in mid-April, which was rejected by a large number of teachers, who announced an independent general strike ten days ago.

According to organisers, the strike is being observed in all the West Bank governorates with a participation rate of 97%.

"We rejected the agreement of the union because it did not fulfill the minimum of our legitimate demands," one of the strike organisers, who is also a teacher at a public school in Ramallah, told °®ÂþµºÌýand requested anonymity to speak freely.

"The union is directly and is loyal to the government, not to the teachers," she said. "The agreement was that we will receive a 10% raise in January 2023, and a 5% raise in 2024, which has nothing to do with our demands."Ìý

"We are demanding the restoration of the 'life-expense'Ìýraise which has been suspended since 2013Ìý," the organizer added.

Palestine: Palestinian teachers to strike again today

— ATUC (@ArabTradeUnion)

"We also demand an improvement of our retirement conditions, the definitive hiring of thousands of teachers who have been serving with temporary contracts for years, and most importantly, the reformation of the child and spouse raise," she said.Ìý

According to Palestinian law, receive a special increase in their salaries if they have family members who depend on them economically. In the case of women, they have to provide additional proof that they are the main provider for their families.

"Each year, I have to spend a full day at the court filling a form to ask for my children'sÌýraise, then I have to go with two witnesses to the personal status religious court and prove that I am a widowÌýand am the sole provider for my three children, all to receive a 20 shekels (less than 7 US dollars) per child," she pointed out.Ìý

"The response might vary"

On Sunday, the spokesperson for the , Tharwat Zeid, told Palestinian media that "it is and finish their academic year correctly", calling upon teachers "to resume their classes and fulfill their sacred message of education."

Zeid added that the Palestinian government's response to theÌýstrike "could vary according to the situation on the ground, but all scenarios are possible."

Last week, the ministry of education had discounted a day's discount on teachers'Ìýsalaries, in response to the strike.

"We know that the government's retribution comes later," said the organiser. ", which is why we don't want to appear in the media with our real names today."

' marks major rift between public and PA: via

— Al-Shabaka الشبكة (@AlShabaka)

In 2016, Palestinian public education teachers'Ìýstrike lasted four weeks and included more than 50,000 teachers from all the occupied West Bank governorates. The strike ended after Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas promised in a televised speech that the teachers'Ìýdemands will be met.

"But what happened next is that the government began to , some of whom were as young as 31," Issam Abdeen, a human rights lawyer who advised the strikers at the time, told °®Âþµº.

"The organizers and those who were in public were the first to be put into forced retirement, which represented an additional blow to their movement, and added to the failure of the strike," Abdeen added.

"ItÌýis very difficult for any social movement to organize in Palestine lately, especially after the executive branch of the Palestinian government ," he noted.Ìý

"Our own union"

"This is why we are also demanding the right to form our own, independent union," asserted the strike organiser. "Currently, we organize through social media platforms in a horizontal way, which means that there is no leader on whom the government can put pressure, but they have to deal with ."Ìý

"We have the papers for our independent union ready since 2016, and this time we want to have it fully legalised," she added.

Organisers deny having had any negotiations with the Palestinian governmentÌýand stress that the strike can continue for months to come.