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Irish Congress of Trade Unions calls on EU to impose   sanctions on Israel

Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit
 
sent by Simon McGuinness - Sep 13, 2007

Irish Congress of Trade Unions calls on EU 
to impose sanctions on Israel


[...]

On July 6, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, representing trade unions
and labour councils in the north and south of Ireland, passed motions
condemning the European Union's policy of appeasement in the face of
Israeli "crimes against humanity" and calling on the European Union to
impose sanctions on Israel. The ICTU motions also pledged to "actively
and vigorously" promote a campaign of divestment from Israeli companies
and a boycott of Israeli goods and services.

A July 6 media release from the ICTU's Trade Union Friends of Palestine
stated, "It should be noted that there was no opposition at all to any
of the motions, despite the fact that they represent what must be one of
the strongest positions adopted by any trade union congress in the
world".  [...]

                               ***

Green Left Weekly via ZNet - Aug 11, 2007
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=13511

Israel boycott campaign momentum grows

by Emma Clancy

The campaign to isolate Israel through boycott, divestment and
sanctions (BDS) has taken meaningful steps forward in the past few
months, with major trade unions in Britain, Ireland, South Africa and
Canada declaring their support for an international boycott.

The BDS campaign has been gathering momentum since the 2004 "Call for
Boycott" was issued by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and
Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), a coalition of more than 50
Palestinian civil society organisations. A May 27 PACBI statement
explained that the boycott campaign "is based on the same moral
principle embodied in the international civil society campaign against
the apartheid regime in South Africa: that people of conscience must
take a stand against oppression and use all the means of civil
resistance available to bring an end to oppression".

At its inaugural conference in May, the University and Colleges Union
(UCU), which represents 120,000 academic and teaching staff, passed a
resolution with a clear majority calling for a discussion within union
branches about an academic boycott based on the PACBI call. The motion
also encouraged UCU members to "consider the moral implications" of
links with Israeli academic institutions.

In June, Unison, Britain's largest trade union representing 1.3 million
public sector workers, passed a comprehensive resolution at its
national conference in support of an "economic, cultural, academic and
sporting boycott", and the right of return for the Palestinian refugees
from the 1948 establishment of the State of Israel. In early July, the
Transport and General Workers' Union conference, representing 80,000
members, voted to organise its members in an economic and cultural
boycott of Israeli products and sports contacts.

On July 6, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, representing trade
unions and labour councils in the north and south of Ireland, passed
motions condemning the European Union's policy of appeasement in the
face of Israeli "crimes against humanity" and calling on the European
Union to impose sanctions on Israel [See below]. The ICTU motions also
pledged to "actively and vigorously" promote a campaign of divestment
from Israeli companies and a boycott of Israeli goods and services.

A July 6 media release from the ICTU's Trade Union Friends of Palestine
stated, "It should be noted that there was no opposition at all to any
of the motions, despite the fact that they represent what must be one
of the strongest positions adopted by any trade union congress in the
world".

Also in early July, the Dutch government warned a Rotterdam-based
company to stop working on the construction of the 700 kilometre-long
"separation barrier" in the West Bank (referred to by Palestinians as
the "apartheid wall"), as its construction was ruled illegal by the
International Court of Justice in 2004.

The British National Union of Journalists (NUJ) passed a motion in
favour of a boycott campaign at its annual conference in April, however
the decision has since been overturned by the union's national
executive council.

Academic freedom

The trade union motions have provoked a predictable backlash from
Israel's government and some public institutions, and from Zionist
politicians and academics in Britain and the US.

Some of the strongest reactions have come from Zionists in the US, and
much of the public debate has centred on the proposed academic boycott
and its impact on "academic freedom". The US Congress unanimously
passed a resolution characterising the UCU's motion as "anti-Semitic".

Despite former British PM Tony Blair's flustered attempts to assure the
Israeli government that the UCU's resolution was "not representative of
public opinion" in Britain, the Israeli labour federation the Histadrut
is cutting ties with several unions involved in the boycott, and some
Israeli politicians are calling for counter-boycotts of the countries
involved.

The pressure was too much for the leadership of the NUJ, which hastily
overturned the membership's decision. Following an anti-boycott
campaign driven by pro-Israel journalists from the BBC and the London
Guardian newspaper, the NUJ national executive council voted not to
take any further action on the boycott as the British Trades Union
Council had rejected the call. A 2005 boycott motion by the UCU's
precursor had been similarly overturned at an emergency meeting of the
leadership.

Leading US Zionist academic Alan Dershowitz, a Harvard law professor,
has also called the union resolutions "anti-Semitic". According to the
July 14 Guardian, Dershowitz has gathered a team of lawyers to
"devastate and bankrupt" those seeking to boycott Israel, in the name
of protecting academic freedom. In June, Dershowitz led a successful
campaign to have sociologist Norman Finkelstein denied tenure at De
Paul University on the basis of Finkelstein's criticisms of Israel.

Those protesting the loudest about infringing upon academic freedom and
open discussion, such as Dershowitz, have been leading the campaign to
silence academic and political dissent against Israel's policies. In a
July 25 article for Electronic Intifada, Margaret Aziza Pappano points
out the hypocrisy of those calling for academic freedom for Israeli
academics while failing to call for corresponding freedoms for
Palestinians: "Surely if university presidents are up in arms over a
proposed boycott of Israeli academics, they must have something to say
about the shutting down of universities, jailing and shooting of
students and faculty, daily impeding of students and faculty from
getting to classes, denial of student permits to attend universities,
and revoking of visas to visiting scholars and researchers that
characterizes academic life in Palestine. If a boycott of academic
institutions is considered unfair, what does one call the methodical
destruction of an educational system?"

UCU executive member Tom Hickey, who led the proposal for an academic
boycott, points out that Israeli universities are not neutral
institutions but rather are actively complicit in perpetuating the
occupation. "No Israeli college or university has publicly condemned
what is being done in the occupied territories in the name of every
Israeli citizen. Some Israeli educational institutions have established
campuses for settlers on illegally confiscated land; others conduct
archaeological digs on land from which Palestinian farmers have been
expelled."

Boycott tactic

Behind the cries of anti-Semitism and the debate about academic
freedom, a serious debate over the effectiveness of the boycott tactic
- - and the legitimacy of its goals - has opened up within Israel's peace
movement, in the public debate between Gush Shalom leader Uri Avnery
and Dr Ilan Pappe. This discussion about the boycott tactic relates
directly to the different proposed solutions to the question of
Palestinian self-determination.

Avnery argues that the only solution is for a Palestinian state to be
established alongside Israel, and that a general boycott aimed at the
collapse of the Israeli state would fail and would drive the Israeli
population into the arms of the far right.

However, each day that the occupation is prolonged, the settlements and
checkpoint networks expand, and the apartheid wall annexes more
Palestinian land, an independent Palestinian state becomes less viable.
Pappe argues that a single democratic state, to which the Palestinian
refugees are granted the right to return, is the only feasible and just
solution, and that the BDS campaign is a crucial part of achieving this.

In response to Avnery's claims that the Israeli population would not be
moved to reconsider the basic premise of Zionism by a worldwide
boycott, Pappe argues a boycott "will not change this position in a
day, but will send a clear message to this public that these positions
are racist and unacceptable in the 21st century ... They would have to
choose."

                             ***

Electronic Intifada - Jul 6, 2007
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article7103.shtml

Irish Congress of Trade Unions calls for boycott and divestment

Press Release, Trade Union Friends of Palestine, Jul 6, 2007

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) -- representing trade unions
and trades councils from the whole island of Ireland -- have today
passed two motions on Palestine that are extremely critical of the
actions of the Israeli government in its oppression of the Palestinian
people. The two motions condemn Israel for its human rights abuses, its
policy of ethnic cleansing and its war crimes. The motions have been
proposed by Belfast Trades Council and by Derry Trades Council. Both
motions go into considerable detail about the suffering endured by the
Palestinian people under Israeli occupation. Conference also criticizes
the British and Irish governments and the European Union for the failed
policy of "constructive engagement." It characterizes EU policy as one
of as "appeasement," and in particular criticises the EU for failing to
end the preferential trading status granted to Israel under the
Euro-Mediterranean Association Agreement -- as it is formally obligated
to do under the human rights clause in Article 2 of that agreement.

In voting for the motions Conference has not only brought to the
attention of the world the massive and enduring injustices being
carried out by the Israeli state and by those who collude with it --
companies such as Caterpillar and Irish Cement Roadholdings -- but it
has also authorized the leadership of the Irish trade union movement to
undertake a wide range of measures to oppose such oppressive actions
and to register its solidarity. These include a commitment to "actively
and vigorously" promote a policy of boycott and of divestment, to make
direct representations to government and to the EU, and to mobilize
EU-wide trade union solidarity action. Conference also called upon ICTU
to send a senior delegation to the Palestinian territories to establish
solidarity links. It also welcomed the establishment by ICTU of Trade
Union Friends of Palestine.

The ICTU is the largest mass organization of the Irish working class.
It represents all sections of labor -- from low-paid to senior
management -- and all sectors of industry and employment. At its last
Biennial Delegate Conference in 2005 the ICTU commited itself to
"campaign in solidarity with the Palestinian people." In its actions
today conference has put meat on the bones of that policy. It is highly
significant and it should be noted that there was no opposition at all
to any of the motions, despite the fact that they represent what must
be one of the strongest positions adopted by any trade union congress
in the world. Today's conference has thereby demonstrated that all
sections of the Irish working class and of Irish civil society continue
to be appalled at the inhumanity of Israeli state policy. It
demonstrates that the people of Ireland -- north and south -- are
steadfast in their commitment to stand in solidarity alongside their
long-suffering and heroic Palestinian brothers and sisters.
 
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