PGFTU

Taken from Al-Jazeera English, by Omar Khalifa.

With 47 per cent of the potential Palestinian labour force unemployed and a per capita income 23 times less than that of Israel, the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU) has a difficult enough job.

Rasem Al Bayari, Deputy General Secretary of the PGFTU (Palestine General Federation of Trade Unions), an ITUC affiliate, knows that well: following the destruction of a PGFTU building in October 2006 and the firing of two rockets at his home in January, on 6 April Rasem Al Bayari was injured by masked men who attacked him while he was in a car with his family.

Circumstances surrounding the explosion are unclear and attackers are unknown. A statement by the Association of Banks in Palestine suggested it may be a reprisal for their complicity in the unpaid wages dispute which led to mass strikes by public sector workers, pointing to stone throwing attacks on banks by strikers.