A Palestinian teachers union launched a strike today, disrupting operations in schools across the West Bank over the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority’s continued cuts to salaries.
For the past several months, the PA has been paying only 60% of teacher salaries due to a financial crisis caused by Israel’s withholding of $4.4 billion in tax revenues from the PA, in violation of the Oslo Accords that established the framework for transferring the revenues.
Last month, 100 teachers reportedly had their salaries withheld for participating in protests against the PA over the salary cuts, leading to today’s open-ended protest by the Coordinating Committee for Teachers in the West Bank.
The committee is an offshoot of the main Palestinian teachers union, which is aligned with the ruling Fatah party.
The influence of the smaller committee is more limited, but it still managed to disrupt classes at half of the schools across the West Bank, a Palestinian source familiar with the matter says.
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From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, February 17, 2026
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