Palestinian demonstrators fed up with high prices and unpaid salaries shuttered shops, halted traffic with burning tires and clashed with riot police in demonstrations across the West Bank
Palestinian demonstrators fed up with high prices and unpaid salaries shuttered shops, halted traffic with burning tires and clashed with riot police in demonstrations across the West Bank on Monday.
The violence showed that the unrest, initially supported by Palestinian leaders in hopes of drawing international attention to the struggling economy, risks backfiring and morphing into a broader movement against the government.
Youths hollered and cheered as they set tires alight, sending plumes of black smoke into the air and blocking the main road from the West Bank city of Ramallah to the nearby city of Al-Quds. Nearby, striking taxi and bus drivers scribbled the word "taxi" on a donkey in yellow paint.
The most heated clashes occurred in Al-Khalil, where hundreds of protesters smashed the windows of a municipality building with rocks. The crowd tried to storm the building but was thwarted by riot police who fired tear gas and beat back some of the demonstrators. Later, protesters tried to attack the police station, prompting a pitched rock-hurling battle between police and demonstrators.
There were no injuries. Most of the rage has been directed toward Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, a U.S.-educated economist who oversees the government's finances. But at least part of the anger appeared engineered by Fayyad's powerful rivals in the Fatah movement led by President Abbas.
Fayyad says the troubles are beyond his control. Finance Ministry officials say donors owe $1.2 billion in pledged money, more than a quarter of the government's annual budget. The authority, by far the largest employer in the West Bank, hasn't been able to pay full salaries in months.
The troubles have been compounded by the global phenomenon of rising fuel and food prices.
Abbas himself has expressed sympathy with the protesters, but made clear that he would not tolerate violence.
