2020-12-16

West Bank

West Bank / Core Program / position paper

MUSAWA Demands The Withdrawal Of The Decision To Refer Teacher Sahar Abu Zina To Retirement, As It Is Null And Void

In the Palestinian Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession " MUSAWA", we were informed of the decision of the Ministry of Education, which is signed by Dr. Basri Saleh which reports that the teacher Sahar Abu Zaina, headmaster of a school in the Jenin governorate, has been transferred to retirement as of November 4, 2020, due to what the decision called “her violation of the regulations, laws and instructions in force at the Ministry of Education, represented in her failure to carry out the assigned tasks to her, and her incitement of teachers to refrain from work ... ". the term "violation" here refers to the strike that the teacher Abu Zaina and other teachers organized a short time ago to protest the delayed payment of their salaries and dues on the Palestinian government. This decision was based on what was stated in its statement on the findings and recommendations of the investigation committee issued on October 28, 2020, and on the General Personnel Office's approval of the recommendations of the aforementioned committee on November 30, 2020 who based their decision on Article (67) and Article (68 Paragraph 9) of the Civil Service Law No. (4) of 1998 and its amendments.

We, MUSAWA, received this decision with great shock - which, by the way, was communicated to the teacher Abu Zaina on the Palestinian Teacher's Day, which falls on the 14^th of December every year. Unfortunately, it is an expression of the continuation of the institutions of the State of Palestine in the approach of silencing and suppressing other opinions in clear and explicit contradiction to the declared official discourse, which has consistently affirmed its respect for pluralism, democracy, freedom of expression, human rights and the rule of law, but in practice it is involved in harassing citizens because of the exercise of their legitimate rights guaranteed by the constitution, either by deprivation of liberty, dismissal from public office, or by obstructing the formation of trade unions or by forming them on purely partisan foundations far from independence and free participation. We have many evidences for this in the continued detention of activists and bloggers, in the decision to dissolve the civil service union, and in the dismissal of the two employees of the Supreme Constitutional Court, Marwa Farah and Doaa Al-Masry, for carrying out their legal duty to report suspicions of corruption in their workplace, and many others.

Punishing teacher Abu Zaina by transferring her to the retirement for going on strike in protest against the delay in receiving employees, including teachers, their salaries and dues from the Palestinian government is another blow that the institutions of the State of Palestine direct to the right to strike guaranteed in the Basic Law (Article 25), which is superior to all legislation and procedures in accordance with the principle of the supremacy of the constitution. In this context, we point out that however the Basic Law has assigned to the law the regulation of the exercise of the right to strike, this does not mean that this law voids the right to strike or other constitutional rights of their content by making their exercise burdensome for citizens, or by overriding the principle of legitimacy in defining violations and administrative penalties in a way that makes employees hostage to the various interpretations of their superiors. In our case, the competent authorities, according to the principle of hierarchy of legal rules, should have applied the provisions of the Basic Law and excluded the vague and broad legal texts that contradict it in the Civil Service Law or interpreting them in a way that restricts the right to strike or other rights to the point of disrupting them and considering them to be offenses and crimes incurring accountability.

Therefore, we in In the Palestinian Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession " MUSAWA", and based on the fact that the State of Palestine belongs to all Palestinians wherever they are, there is no discrimination between them for any reason whatsoever, and that human rights and fundamental freedoms are binding and must be respected as stated in the Declaration of Independence and in the Basic Law, we demand the withdrawal of the decision of the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Education to transfer teacher Sahar Abu Zaina to the retirement as a punishment for her going on strike and demanding sustenance on that day as it is a null decision for violating the Basic Law.

Issued on December 16, 2020