Monthly Archives: May 2007

UCU boycott resolutions: Full text and results (PCACBI)

UCU boycott resolutions: Full text and results

On May 30th 2007 the UK University and College Union meeting at its first Annual Congress in Bournemouth passed the following resolutions. The final texts are the result of the approval of ‘friendly’ amendments to the original proposals which have the effect of strengthening them.Resolution 30 Boycott of Israeli academic institutions
Congress notes that Israel’s 40-year occupation has seriously damaged the fabric of Palestinian society through annexation, illegal settlement, collective punishment and restriction of movement.Congress deplores the denial of educational rights for Palestinians by invasions, closures, checkpoints, curfews, and shootings and arrests of teachers, lecturers and students.

Congress condemns the complicity of Israeli academia in the occupation, which has provoked a call from Palestinian trade unions for a comprehensive and consistent international boycott of all Israeli academic institutions.

Congress believes that in these circumstances passivity or neutrality is unacceptable and criticism of Israel cannot be construed as anti-semitic.

Congress instructs the NEC to
 circulate the full text of the Palestinian boycott call to all branches/LAs for information and discussion;
 encourage members to consider the moral implications of existing and proposed links with Israeli academic institutions;
 organise a UK-wide campus tour for Palestinian academic/educational trade unionists;
 issue guidance to members on appropriate forms of action;
 actively encourage and support branches to create direct educational links with Palestinian educational institutions and to help set up nationally sponsored programmes for teacher exchanges, sabbatical placements and research.

A count was taken of the voting on this motion which was as follows:
FOR 155 [61%]
AGAINST 99 [39%]
ABSTAIN 17

Resolution 31 European Union and Israel
Congress notes:
1. That since the Palestinian elections in January 2006 the Israeli government has suspended revenue payments to the Palestinian authority (PA), and the EU and US have suspended aid, leaving public-sector salaries unpaid and earning the condemnation of the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions;
2. That Israel is seeking to upgrade its relations with the EU to the same level as Norway and Switzerland, permitting free passage of goods, people and capital, while denying these freedoms to Palestinians.

Congress resolves to campaign for:
1. The restoration of all international aid to the PA and all revenues rightfully belonging to it;
2. No upgrade of Israel’s status until it ends the occupation of Palestinian land and fully complies with EU Human Rights law;
3. A moratorium on research and cultural collaborations with Israel via EU and European Science Foundation funding until Israel abides by UN resolutions

Congress instructs the NEC to encourage Branches/Associations to
1. raise these campaigns in their Institutions and
2. investigate the possibilities of twinning their Institution with a Palestinian University or College

This motion was declared passed on a show of hands –with a majority visibly still higher than that for Resolution 30.

Posted on 31-05-2007

 

South Africa’s Largest Trade Union Seeks to Boycott Israel (Haaretz)

Haaretz

South Africa’s Largest Trade Union Seeks to Boycott Israel
Union to launch campaign this week to persuade Pretoria to boycott all Israeli goods, end diplomatic relations.

Cnaan Liphshiz May 31, 2007 12:00 AM
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South Africa’s largest trade union federation will launch a campaign against “the Israeli occupation of Arab lands” this week, demanding that Pretoria impose a boycott on all Israeli goods and break diplomatic relations. South African Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils, who is Jewish, told Haaretz that he actively supported the initiative – which contradicts the policy of his own cabinet.
The president of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), Willy Madisha, announced the launching of the campaign last week in Johannesburg, calling on the government to cease all diplomatic relations with Israel after its attacks on Palestinian leaders.
“The best way to have Israel comply with United Nations resolutions is to pressure it by a diplomatic boycott such as the one imposed on apartheid South Africa,” Madisha said. Cosatu belongs to a recently-formed coalition of organizations operating under the banner “End The Occupation.”
Kasrils’ anti-Israeli organization Not In My Name belongs to the coalition working toward an embargo on Israel. This runs contrary to South Africa’s official stance, and to President Thabo Mbeki’s decision to strengthen trade ties with Israel. Mbeki, who heads the ANC ruling party, even appeared as a guest at Israel’s Independence Day celebrations in Durban last month.
Kasrils, a member of the ANC, told Haaretz that his support for severing all ties with Israel was not in opposition to his cabinet’s policy. “Cosatu is an ANC ally in the coalition against the Israeli occupation. Most elements of this coalition call for boycotting Israel, although the ANC does not,” he said.
“We respect their right to encourage people to boycott Israeli goods. As a South African consumer I personally will not purchase Israeli goods until Israel changes its present policy regarding the Palestinians.”
Cosatu’s spokesman, Patrick Craven, said Kasrils was involved in directing the campaign for imposing a political and economic embargo on Israel. “This is intended to include the diamond trade,” he added.
Craven acknowledged that his organization’s primary objectives did not pertain to the Middle East, noting that while Cosatu’s main goal was improving the material conditions of its 1.8 million members, “it could not stand idly by as Israel perpetrated atrocities in Palestine.” Adding that he anticipated “some short-term damage” to South Africa’s economy following the boycott, Carven said the damage was “vastly outweighed by the importance of stopping injustice.”
The campaign that Cosatu has helped mount will begin Friday, with sermons in South Africa’s mosques on “the plight of the Palestinian people”. The Christian organizations of the coalition will begin addressing the issue in churches Sunday.
The organizers intend to picket across South Africa next week, including a picket by members of parliament and a candlelight vigil outside the U.S. Consulate in Johannesburg. The ANC ruling party has called for a parliamentary debate on “Israeli occupation.”
Campaign activists will also hold pickets outside selected stores selling Israeli goods. The events will culminate in mass marches and rallies on Saturday, June 9, both in Cape Town and Johannesburg.

read more: http://www.haaretz.com/news/south-africa-s-largest-trade-union-seeks-to-boycott-israel-1.221851