On May 20th we mark the European Day of Solidarity with Palestinian workers, established in 2023 and endorsed by Palestinian trade unions. 

After over two years of ongoing genocide, European governments and institutions still remain complicit in Israel`s crimes by maintaining political, military, and economic relations that enable Israel’s grave violations of international law.

The mass onslaught on the Palestine people in recent years is highlighting the need for more solidarity work among the unions. Palestinian workers are not asking for charity but for solidarity. Palestinian trade unions have issued a very clear call to workers everywhere to stop arming Israel and end all complicity. Those are not just symbolic actions, those are very material actions that need to be taken because their very survival is on the line.

In May we also commemorate the ongoing Nakba, which began in 1948, when nearly 800,000 Palestinians were forcibly displaced—descendants of whom are still denied their right of return today. The Nakba is not a closed chapter. It is an ongoing process of colonization, apartheid, displacement, genocide, and denial of rights that continues to unfold before our eyes in 2026.

Testimonies from Palestinian workers collected recently by the Democracy and Workers` Rights Center in Palestine, are the evidence of the ongoing displacement, destruction of livelihoods and systemic oppression showing that Nakba is not a memory but a continuous crime against humanity.

Workers worldwide taking a stand for Palestinian workers send a powerful message: our collective strength can disrupt the flow of weapons! We call on European trade unions to join efforts in organising actions against complicit companies and governments.

TESTIMONIES FROM PALESTINIAN WORKERS 

Testimony 1

Name: Asaad Maher Al-Aswad
Age: 35
Location: Al-Karama area, Gaza
Occupation: Cleaning worker at Al-Shifa Hospital

I am Asaad Maher Al-Aswad, 35 years old, married, and responsible for supporting a family of six members, in addition to my parents and my two sisters with disabilities, aged 23 and 25. I used to live in Al-Karama area in Gaza, before it was completely destroyed.

Before the war, I worked as a cleaning worker at Al-Shifa Hospital through a private company, earning a monthly salary of 700 shekels [about 175 euros at the time]. My work was difficult, but it was the only source of income for my family. When the war began, everything changed. Work at the hospital stopped in November 2023, and we were never paid our salaries for September and October 2023. Since then, I have lost the only income that supported my family.

During the war, we worked inside the hospital under extremely difficult conditions. For the entire month of October, we worked 24 hours a day and could not leave the hospital, because of the work pressure and the situation outside. Our work was not limited to cleaning only. We were also moving the bodies of martyrs to the refrigerators and transferring injured people to hospital rooms. During that whole period, I did not see my children or my family for almost one and a half months.

At the beginning of November 2023, while I was going to work, I was injured by airstrikes. The injuries affected my lung, hand, and back. Despite the seriousness of the injuries, they were not registered as work injuries, and I received no compensation or support.

Later, my house was completely destroyed, and now my family and I live in a small tent made of cloth and nylon. Life in the tents is extremely difficult. There is no privacy for children or women, and rats, mice, and insects are everywhere, causing skin diseases and infections without any medical treatment or support to deal with them.

Every part of daily life has become a struggle. We have to carry water from very far places for drinking and daily use. We also spend hours waiting in food distribution lines that do not provide enough for the children, many of whom are now suffering from anemia and malnutrition.

Day and night, we hear the sounds of bombs and explosions, because we are close to northern Gaza and the areas [inside the Gaza Strip] still controlled by Israel. We live constantly in fear and insecurity.

During the entire war, the only assistance I received was flour and canned food from the World Food Programme. I never received any financial assistance. I feel that everyone abandoned us, including the companies we worked for and even the Ministry of Health, which did not pay us our rights.

Today, my greatest hope is for the war to end completely, for reconstruction to begin, and for people like us to have decent housing instead of living between sewage water, extreme summer heat, and winter cold.

We simply want to live like the rest of the people in the world. We are civilians and peaceful people, yet every day we continue to face fear, danger, and suffering.

Testimony 2

Name: Nihad Muhareb Joudeh
Location: Originally from Rafah, currently displaced in Al-Mawasi, Khan Younis
Occupation: Kindergarten worker and Head of the Kindergarten Workers’ Union in the Gaza Strip

I am Nihad Muhareb Joudeh, originally from Rafah. From 2017, I worked in Al-Ahmad Kindergarten together with other teachers, and all of us were supporting large families through this work. One of our colleagues was suffering from cancer. The kindergarten was not only our workplace, it was our dream and our only source of income. By the end of 2023, the kindergarten had around 100 children enrolled.

The kindergarten in Rafah was completely destroyed with all its contents. Since 2024, we, like all the residents of Rafah, have been displaced to Al-Mawasi area in Khan Younis. Today we live a life of humiliation in tents with our families. My family consists of 20 people: myself, my sick husband, my daughters, my son and his small children, and my divorced daughter with her children. The tent we live in is extremely small for all of us.

Life in the tents provides no privacy for women and girls. The tents are very close to each other, and girls cannot move around alone inside the displacement camp, because of fear of harassment or harm from others.

I am also sick. I underwent open-heart surgery and need specialized care and a special diet, but there is no source of income at all. I also support my divorced daughter and her young children. We have not received any assistance except food parcels containing flour and canned food from the World Food Programme once every three months.

The conditions in the tents are extremely bad for all age groups. We rent the land, where the tent is placed and pay 500 shekels monthly. We also suffer every day to bring water from outside the camp, and we have to buy it because it is not free.

Our food now depends completely on charity kitchens, which are unable to meet the needs. We are forced to wait in very long lines under the sun and cold weather, with men and women crowded together. In many cases, fights and assaults happen between people, because of overcrowding while trying to obtain food. The meals themselves are poor in quality and mostly consist only of rice.

Nowadays everyone suffers from malnutrition and diseases that we do not even know how to diagnose, in addition to the widespread skin diseases among women and children. Women also suffer greatly when washing clothes, because there are no washing machines, and we have returned to washing everything by hand. As a heart patient, I can barely carry out my responsibilities as a mother.

We hope the war will end, that people will be allowed to return to Rafah, and that we can at least put tents on the rubble of our homes. We once had large, fully equipped homes, but today we suffer from poverty, unemployment, lack of proper shelter, and the complete absence of income.

I am the head of the Kindergarten Workers’ Union in Gaza Strip, a legally registered union, but today I stand unable to provide any support to our members or even support myself. There are no fewer than one thousand women workers in this sector, and today they are all unemployed. These conditions stopped our work, our communication with workers, and even our ability to update memberships or know where many workers are now located. We lost contact with many of them, because of the war and the collapse of our union work. Many kindergarten workers continue contacting me, because they lost their income and need support, but honestly, we are helpless in front of this catastrophe.

We need urgent and real intervention to save us from this tragic reality and from the rats and insects that bite our children’s bodies every day, while we are unable to do anything.

Testimony 3

Name: Shaimaa Mohammad Shaker Al-Natour
Age: 32
Location: Al-Shati Camp, Gaza – currently displaced in Deir Al-Balah
Occupation: Tourism and hotel sector worker, archaeological guide

I am Shaimaa Mohammad Shaker Al-Natour, a 32-year-old woman from Gaza. Before the war, I lived with my family of five in Al-Shati Camp in a small and beautiful house that held all the details of our daily life. I graduated in History and Archaeology and worked in the tourism and hotel sector as an archaeological guide from 2014 until 2023. I was building my future and trying to create a stable life in my country. I am divorced and lived with my parents and family.

Suddenly, this painful war happened. I lost my work and the only source of income for me and my family disappeared. My father was working as a teacher at Dar Al-Arqam private school, but his work also stopped because of the war, and he did not even obtain his labor rights. Since then, our family has had no source of income except for very limited support from one of my brothers, who has a small street stall.

Our small beautiful home was destroyed, and we were displaced from Gaza City to Deir Al-Balah. We rented a small piece of land for 400 shekels monthly and pay another 100 shekels just to secure water. On that land, we built a tent to shelter us and shelter the dreams that disappeared in one moment.

Life is no longer comfortable. We no longer think about anything, except about the unknown future and how our lives have changed. My mother is sick and now needs specialized care, while all of us are struggling just to survive.

We are three sisters living in these conditions, trying to protect ourselves and preserve some privacy and safety in the middle of the unprecedented chaos of Gaza. Everything has to be very carefully calculated, because of the loss of income, fear, anxiety, tension, and the complete lack of security.

I tried to get on my feet again and start over. I created a small educational tent project with my sister in an attempt to build a new life and continue working, but people themselves are suffering financially and cannot even afford very small fees. My two brothers both hold university degrees in education, yet neither of them could find work anywhere.

My dream stopped, and the educational tent project also stopped and became meaningless under these conditions.

Before the war, I also had my own small income-generating project called “Asayel,” which focused on traditional wedding decorations, handmade baskets, pottery, and other Palestinian heritage items. At that time, the project cost me around 5,000 shekels and was my small dream that died immediately after it was born. The project was destroyed, and all its contents were stolen before we were displaced.

Our daily life today is extremely difficult, and we carry constant pain in our hearts. We need real support and solidarity that can restore at least part of our dignity and the sense of self we lost during this war, especially after losing even the luxury of privacy in our daily lives.

I am also a member of the Administrative Committee of the Tourism and Hotel Workers’ Union, a sector that included around 5,000 workers, among them approximately 600 women workers. Today, this entire sector has collapsed, because of the war and destruction, and all workers have been left to fend for themselves without humanitarian attention and support.

We need people to stand with male and female workers after official institutions and unions stopped playing their legal and moral role. Women especially need real support through small projects and opportunities to rebuild their lives.

Unemployment has spread in a terrifying way, and daily life has become extremely difficult. We can no longer secure even the simplest needs, because of the lack of gas, electricity, and the dependence on primitive means for everyday survival.

Testimony 4

Source: Testimony documented through the Southern Electricity Workers’ Union

Yousri Abu Qbeita, a worker from Hebron in his 30s, worked as a driver transporting workers every day to their workplaces, especially workers employed inside Israel. Like many Palestinian workers, he would leave home early each morning to earn a livelihood despite the dangers faced daily on the roads, at checkpoints, and from increasing settler violence targeting Palestinian workers.

On one of those mornings, while transporting workers near a village entrance in in Masafer Yatta in the Hebron governorate, settlers intercepted the vehicle he was driving and opened live fire toward it. In an attempt to escape the attack and protect the workers in the vehicle with him, Yasser turned onto dirt roads, but the settlers continued shooting at the vehicle, targeting its tires and those inside. As a result, the car overturned.

Yousri was killed during the attack, while simply trying to do his job and return home to his family.

He left behind his wife and five children, who are now facing life without their father and provider.

His story reflects the reality faced by many Palestinian workers, who risk their lives every day merely trying to reach their workplaces and secure a dignified life for their families amid ongoing violence, restrictions, and insecurity.

Testimony 5

Name: Doaa Balawneh
Location: Tulkarem refugee camp
Status: Displaced person
Occupation: owner and educator in a private education center.

Displacement is not just moving from one place to another. It is a very difficult experience that leaves deep psychological and human impacts on a person’s life. We were living our normal lives until the Israeli occupation forced us to leave our homes and the place where we lived. In the blink of an eye, our lives changed from relative safety to fear, anxiety, and displacement, and our only concern became finding a safe place to stay.

I worked as an educator and owner of a private educational center, and like many others, I suddenly lost both my stability and my work because of the displacement. Leaving our home was extremely painful. We left behind not only our belongings, but also the place that carried our memories, daily life, and sense of security.

During the displacement, we moved between different places searching for safety. At first, we stayed with relatives in Anabta, hoping the situation would improve quickly, but as the displacement continued for a longer time, we later moved to Zanouba area in Tulkarem. Since then, I have not felt any real stability. Every place feels temporary and uncertain.

Testimony 6

Name: Hanan Ahmad Abdulrabah Al-Sarrawi
Position: Member of the Administrative Committee of the Kindergarten, Private Schools and Day-Care Workers’ Union – Bethlehem Branch
Occupation: Director of Rowad Al-Mustaqbal Kindergarten and Teacher
Location: Doha, Bethlehem

I am Mrs. Hanan Ahmad Abdulrabah Al-Sarrawi, a member of the Administrative Committee of the Bethlehem branch of the Kindergarten, Private Schools and Day-Care Workers Teachers’ Union, the director of Rowad Al-Mustaqbal Kindergarten, and a teacher in the city of Doha.

From my position in the educational field, I live every day with the details of the reality imposed by the recent events related to the war in the region. After the latest military escalation, life is no longer the same, and education in kindergartens no longer continues in the normal way that children at this sensitive age need.

The first impact was clearly on the stability of the educational process. Repeated closures and sudden interruptions caused children to be separated from their educational environment. This separation cannot only be measured by the number of missed school days, but by its deep impact on the child, who needs a stable routine and a sense of safety in order to learn and interact.

Our kindergarten is a place that we always tried to make safe, but this is no longer the possible. The general atmosphere of tension, the sudden sounds of rockets, and the raids carried out by the Israeli occupation army at any time have created fear and panic among the children, and this feeling has spread among all of them in one way or another. We started noticing anxiety in their behavior, fear in their reactions, and even in the simplest daily details.

All of this cannot be separated from the difficult economic reality. Families were directly affected, and this reflected on parents’ ability to pay school fees, which in turn affected the ability of kindergartens to continue at the same level. Today, kindergartens are trying to balance between continuing their work and providing the minimum level of stability for children despite all the challenges.

As teachers and school directors, our role is no longer limited to providing education. It now includes psychological support and trying to create a safe environment in unsafe conditions. We try to comfort the children and give them reassurance, even though we ourselves live with the same fear and instability.

This reality cannot be fully described in words, but it is lived every day in all its details, from the moment the child leaves home until it arrives at the kindergarten, and then returns home again. Every day carries unexpected possibilities, and this alone creates a heavy burden on the child, the teacher, and the educational institution.

What we are living today is a difficult stage that has left a clear impact on kindergarten education and on the children themselves, who remain the most affected by everything happening around them.

Despite all of this, the children of Palestine still hold on to their right to education and life. We continue to protect their small dreams and stand beside them, because the hope we see in them is greater than all the fear.

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Pictures from the recent MayDay protest action in Gaza Strip, in cooperation with the journalists’ syndicate, seeking to highlight the issues workers are facing there.