of the PGFTU legislative unit until his dismissal in 2005. The head of the GFTU in 1982, Mahmud Ziyada—a friend of Al-Arouri and a unionist imprisoned for a total of four years during the Israeli crackdown on trade unions around the time of the First Intifada—resigned in protest over the lack of democratic elections; (today Ziyada is with the Democracy and Workers' Rights Center). Bassim Khoury of the Palestinian Authority raised similar concerns over the failure of the PGFTU to represent workers, decades later in 2007. Since 1993, independent unionists at the Democracy and Workers' Rights Center (DWRC) have asserted that many Palestinian workers regard the PGFTU as too closely aligned with Fatah and lacking in internal democracy and transparency. In a 2007 press release carried by the Advocacy Project, the DWRC noted that internal elections had not been held in decades. These critiques have been supported by scholars Joost Hiltermann, Nina Sovich and Sos Nissen, who argue that the PGFTU has long been dominated by political factions and has in turn failed to provide effective representation for workers. Through independent labor activists' and DWRC's efforts, hundreds of independent workers' committees have conjoined into the Independent Workers' Committees Federation since 2004. In 2005 the PGFTU sent a letter to the International Federation of Workers' Education Associations (IFWEA) charging that DWRC's Gaza head Mohammad Dahman "obtains funds from Norway and the Europeans and was arrested by the [Palestinian] Authority several times because of subversion against the [Palestinian] Authority and its leaders," and furthermore alleging that "the so-called Independent Workers' Committees are coordinating with the Democracy and Workers' Rights Center headed by Mohammed Dahman2[ii] as well as Hamas movement and the Palestinian National Initiative headed by Mustafa Barghouthi." Such charges, which could lead to Dahman's imprisonment, were heavily contested by DWRC. In 2007 building criticism of the PGTFU culminated in the creation of the Federation of Independent & Democratic Trade Unions & Workers' Committees in Palestine, representing over 50,000 male and female workers in independent, democratically elected unions and workers' committees across the West Bank and Gaza. Mohammad Al-Arouri, formerly of the PGFTU, is a main coordinator of the new federation. Footnotes External links PGFTU official site. Advocacy Project US Department of Labor Economy of the State of Palestine International Trade Union Confederation International Confederation of Arab Trade Unions Economy of the Arab League Trade unions in the State of Palestine National