Palestinian media is reporting that a massive government strike which occurred yesterday may escalate and expand in the coming weeks. Yesterday 95% of Palestinian government workers launched a one-day strike, after their union chief called on them to do so.

The union is promising that next week it’ll be a two-day strike. And so on:

The union will escalate its strike to two days next week and three the following week before starting an open strike on Oct. 6, he added. Zakarneh claimed that Basel Ramahi, general director at the Ministry of Finance, issued a memo indicating that employees will receive pay cuts for days they go on strike.

Palestinian institution-building – both economic and political – has been described by the U.N. and others as “the cornerstone” of efforts to create a Palestinian state. The degree to which those institutions are robust has become a central issue in evaluating Palestinian readiness for statehood.

Analysts now worry that Palestinian political and economic stability are in tension with each other.

The IMF last week issued a report saying that the West Bank’s economic outlook was dim, specifically criticizing the Palestinian Authority (PA) for spending too much on “wages and pensions.” The PA responded that the IMF’s suggestions were “politically unpalatable.”

[Photo: Werner Joemann / YouTube]