Dozens of university graduates protested in a demanding sit-in today, Tuesday, in front of the headquarters of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza City, at the invitation of the Union of Democratic Teachers´ Committees, to demand job opportunities for them and an increase in the agency´s services and programs provided to the masses. refugees.
The graduates raised placards reading, “UNRWA reduces its services, a crime against refugees, and this means high rates of poverty and unemployment in Gaza,” amid chants of UNRWA calling for job opportunities for graduates, especially refugees.
A number of sons of unemployed graduates lined up, emphasizing their rights to life, food and safety, and the rights of their parents to live, decent living and job opportunities.
Raeda al-Khor, head of the Union of Democratic Teachers’ Committees in the Gaza Strip, gave a speech in which she affirmed her support for graduates, especially refugees, to ensure their right to urgent job opportunities and to defend their rights and demands, noting that the union will continue its peaceful protest sit-ins to denounce the arbitrary and inhumane policy of the agency, which always seeks to reduce its services and programs .
Al-Khour stressed that the union will not allow UNRWA to infringe on the rights of tens of thousands of refugee graduates, which is a major cause of the misery of Palestinian refugees.
She pointed out that international laws and charters, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and international humanitarian law, all emphasize the rights of people to life and not be denied it.
University graduate Khaled Clapp called for providing the necessary humanitarian services for Palestinian refugees, foremost of which is providing urgent job opportunities for graduates and providing them with the most basic necessities of life in a way that guarantees a decent life for them and their families in light of the high rates of poverty, unemployment and food insecurity.
In his speech, the unemployed graduates renewed his demand for UNRWA to reverse its recent decision to classify poor families, and to work to expand the circle of beneficiaries of the residents of the Gaza Strip in light of the deteriorating economic conditions resulting from the Israeli blockade and the Corona pandemic.
