Unemployed workers in Gaza stage May day protest against Israeli embargo

Date: 01 / 05 / 2008 Time: 16:21
Gaza – Ma'an –

Hundreds of unemployed Palestinian workers from the Gaza Strip rallied on Thursday in a May Day protest at the dire conditions they are enduring under the Israeli-led embargo.

In an expression of their despair, the rallying workers performed the absentee prayer - an Islamic prayer similar to a funeral prayer, that is usually performed for fighters missing in actions.

Many of the workers held up signs offering their body parts for sale to raise money to feed their families.

Others set fire to their work tools which they now deem useless.

Abu Muhammad, an unemployed worker told Ma'an's reporter, "I came here to announce that I am willing to sell my body parts because I have no other way to provide basic food for my family, and the situation is getting worse."

Other workers said they frequently hear about aid shipments reaching the coastal sector but claim they have never received any of the much-needed aid.

Nabil Mabhuh, the coordinator of the Gaza Strip laborers' union, said that 350 factories in the Gaza Strip have closed as a result of the siege rendering dozens of thousands of workers unemployed.

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