Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat

Palestinians protest at prime minister’s office | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Several hundred demonstrators have gathered outside the Palestinian prime minister’s office to protest rising prices and the government’s failure to pay full salaries to civil servants.

Most of the protesters were government workers or labor union activists. They accuse Prime Minister Salam Fayyad of worsening poverty in the West Bank.

Fayyad says he is powerless. He says the donor nations that sustain his government have failed to deliver hundreds of millions of dollars in promised aid, and there is little he can do about rising fuel and food prices.

He is to hold a news conference later Tuesday.

Anti-government protests have erupted throughout the West Bank in recent days. Tuesday’s demonstration was peaceful but the previous day, crowds set fires and smashed a building elsewhere in the West Bank.