In the late 1990s a series of strikes took place among Palestinian teachers, calling for an end to favouritism and corruption in the Palestinian National Authority (PNA). The PNA security forces responded by surrounding striking schools, breaking up demonstrations and arresting the leaders of the strike for ‘undermining’ the PNA. Such events were far from isolated. Since its founding in the mid-1990s, those acting in the name of the PNA have routinely suspended legal and judicial processes in the name of protecting the ‘national interest’. At times this has entailed the detention without trial of opponents of the regime, most notably, but not only, those connected with Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Most of these people were arrested for either criticising, or taking more direct against, the Oslo Peace Process. Others were detained for criticising the decisions of Yasser Arafat and the direction in which he was taking the Palestinian national movement. On several occasions the Palestinian courts ordered the release of these detainees, only to be ignored by the Palestinian security services (PICCR 1999). The suspension of legal rights in the ‘national interest’ seemed to be possibile whenever Palestinians encountered those who spoke in the name of the Palestinian national movement.

Knowing that my neighbour in Bayt Hajjar, Nimr, had been involved in the teachers' strike, I asked him what he thought about the response of the PNA to the teachers' demands.