A Palestinian man was fired from his job in Gaza after the war that started the European Union for allegedly breaking Belgian Law.
Mohammed Baraka, who worked in the EU’s Assistance Mission at the beginning of the year 2006 as an unarmed Civilian Third-Party Presides, filed his case in the Belgian court.
He was evacuated to Cairo after the war broke out with the help of the EU and continued to work there, as did other colleagues in the West Bank.
But he was not expelled earlier this year after the EU decided to close its office in Rafah because of the war.
In the claim submitted to a Brussels Tribunal, his lawyer, Selma Benkhelifa, said that Baraka “does not criticize the decision to close it”.
However, he says that his EU counterparts, who also worked for Eubam in Rafah, “were not dismissed, they were moved to” discrimination based on his nationality. “
The European Commission said it had no comment to make.
The core of his argument remains in the claim that Baraka works under Belgian Law but the EU activates national laws that should be made into workers’ rights.
“A provision that allows an owner to change fixed-term contracts is contrary to Publician and European policy,” says the claim.
The lawsuit adds:
Baraka said that he “filed this case because of the injustice that” He suffered.
“In the first days of the war in Gaza, I, like other residents of Gaza, faced an unknown and terrifying fate,” he said.
“When I was offered evacuation by the EU to a safe place, as an EU employee who had served for 20 years, I accepted the offer. But had I known that my fate would be dismissal from my job and being left in a place with no residence or basic human rights, I would have never agreed to it. None of this was explained to me beforehand.”