Monthly Archives: February 2016

Video: Did Israel target Gaza’s ambulances? (Electronic Intifada)

Electronic Intifada

Video: Did Israel target Gaza’s ambulances?

A new documentary shows the devastation Israel’s 2014 bombardment of Gaza caused to medical and rescue teams.

In the documentary, which can be viewed at the top of this page, three medics recall incidents during which their colleagues came under attack.

In total, 11 ambulance drivers and civil defense workers were killed during Israel’s 51 days of aerial bombing and ground invasion.

Twenty-four ambulances and 70 medical facilities were damaged or destroyed.

In many cases, ambulances and facilities appear to have been directly targeted despite having provided their coordinates to the Israeli army.

The documentary was produced by Al Mezan Center for Human Rights in Gaza.

Ambulances targeted

According to Mahmoud Abu Rahma, an Al Mezan representative, ambulances were targeted after Israel’s ground invasion began on 17 July.

“International law is crystal clear concerning its inviolable protection of health facilities and workers, including ambulances,” Abu Rahma says in the documentary, noting that Palestinian ambulances are well marked in colors agreed with Israel.

Al Mezan submitted complaints to the Israeli authorities demanding a credible investigation into what appear to be targeted attacks on medical facilities and personnel.

The Israeli military has opened two investigations into the killing of ambulance drivers in separate attacks on 25 July 2014.

However, to date only one instance of an apparent direct attack on a medical facility has prompted the military to open a criminal file. That case was only opened after media reports exposed the deliberate shellingof a clinic in the Shujaiya neighborhood of Gaza City.

A senior military officer ordered the shelling to avenge the killing of an Israeli soldier the previous day.

“Totally burned”

Mohammed Hessi, a medic with the Palestine Red Crescent Society, says in the documentary that his team was not prepared for the “intensity of the war.”

In some of the cases described in the documentary, medics say they had been given a green light by humanitarian aid coordinators to enter an area following an attack by Israel. Yet when they arrived near the scene of the attack, they found that it was still surrounded by Israeli troops.

This suggests that Israel deliberately tried to frustrate the work of and endanger the lives of rescue and aid teams.

Rami al-Haj Ali, a Red Crescent medic, recalls trying to rescue a colleague named Aed in the Beit Hanounarea of northern Gaza. As Ali approached al-Masri street in Beit Hanoun, he saw an ambulance that “was so destroyed that you could barely say it was an ambulance,” he says.

Because he came under Israeli fire and was wounded in one of his feet, Ali was unable to reach his colleague.

Jaber Drabiah, a medic with the Palestinian health ministry, had to place the remains of a colleague named Atef in a body bag. Atef had been “totally burned” in an attack on an ambulance.

Afterwards, Jaber headed to al-Najjar hospital in Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city. He was exhausted and sat down in a yard.

It was there that he was told that his son Yousef, a volunteer at the hospital, had been killed in the same attack. As a photograph of Yousef appears on the screen, Jaber says: “The staff all loved him.”

“We are being treated as if we were criminals”: PA cracks down on massive Palestinian teachers strike (Mondoweiss)

Mondoweiss

“We are being treated as if we were criminals”: PA cracks down on massive Palestinian teachers strike

“We are being treated as if we were criminals”, said Ayed Al Azzeh, shaking his head. A schoolteacher from Bethlehem, Ayed is one of thousands of public-sector teachers across the West Bank who have been striking since February 10th.

The strike comes after teachers claim the Palestinian Authority (PA) failed to follow through with wage increases, promised afterstrikes in 2013. Apparently teachers’ salaries have been frozen for the past few years, despite rising living costs.

The average teacher’s salary in the West Bank does not usually exceed 3,000 shekels (NIS) per month – or $766.70 – according to local news source Ma’an. However, the average expenses of a Palestinian family per month amount to approximately $1,333 – meaning that many teachers struggle with financial shortfalls.

“I have three children who are at university; they have to travel from our village to their lectures every day. This alone costs almost the entirety of my wages; I only get 3,100 NIS a month”, said Jamal, a sports teacher from a village near Nablus.

“The worst of my students who drop out of my classes go on to earn more than me, because they join the army or the police”, he sighed, continuing to describing how he has to supplement his teaching work with odd labour jobs to make ends meet.

With the absence of a union divorced from government control, many teachers are demanding the realization of basic workers’ rights, starting with democratic elections in the Teacher’s Union.

Government clampdown

Approximately 20,000 protestors demonstrated in Ramallah upon the launch of the strike in the largest gathering since Arafat’s death in 2004, initiating a government crackdown on any further attempts of mass mobilization.

Despite the efforts of the Palestinian police and army, an estimated 15,000 protestors gathered in Ramallah for a second time on Tuesday, demanding the government meets their demands.

Over 20 teachers were arrested due to their involvement with the strike, and temporary blockades were erected around Ramallah to prevent strikers from joining the demonstration.

“The strike and security checkpoints set up by the PA are unconstitutional and are in violation of the Palestinian Basic Law – particularly the right to freedom of movement, the right to freedom of expression, and the right to freedom of assembly and association”, a Legal Research and Advocacy officer at Al Haq said to Mondoweiss.

“Following the ratification of international treaties, particularly the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), the PA is under further legal obligation to ensure that the teachers are provided with their right to enjoy just and favorable conditions of work”, she added.

The government’s management of the strike has sparked anger, and it seems that the recent strike has touched a chord with many who have long-felt discontented with the PA.

In an exclusive video for Mondoweiss, teachers at Tuesday’s protest reveal the obstacles they had to overcome merely to be present, and why they are resolute to continue the strike until the government concedes.

About Megan Hanna

Megan Hanna is an independent freelance journalist and photographer, based in the occupied Palestinian territories. You can follow Megan on twitter via @Megan_Hanna_.

Other posts by .

About Maya al-Orzza

Maya al-Orzza is a human rights lawyer and freelance journalist, who has been based in occupied West Bank for the past four years.

Other posts by .

– See more at: http://mondoweiss.net/2016/02/we-are-being-treated-as-if-we-were-criminals-pa-cracks-down-on-massive-palestinian-teachers-strike/?utm_source=Mondoweiss+List&utm_campaign=070dae327d-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b86bace129-070dae327d-398519677#sthash.Z242XHIm.dpuf

Palestinian teachers strike in largest protest since Arafats death (Mondoweiss video)

Published on Feb 25, 2016

“We are being treated as if we were criminals”, said Ayed Al Azzeh, shaking his head. A schoolteacher from Bethlehem, Ayed is one of thousands of public-sector teachers across the West Bank who have been striking since February 10th.

The strike comes after teachers claim the Palestinian Authority (PA) failed to follow through with wage increases, promised after strikes in 2013. Teachers’ salaries have been frozen for the past few years, despite rising living costs.

Approximately 20,000 protestors demonstrated in Ramallah upon the launch of the strike in the largest gathering since Arafat’s death in 2004, initiating a government crackdown on any further attempts of mass mobilization.

Despite the efforts of the Palestinian police and army, an estimated 15,000 protestors gathered in Ramallah for a second time on Tuesday, demanding the government meets their demands.

In an exclusive video for Mondoweiss, teachers at Tuesday’s protest reveal the obstacles they had to overcome merely to be present, and why they are resolute to continue the strike until the government concedes.

Video: Megan Hanna and Maya al-Orzza

Press Release: Locals Call on UAW IEB to Respect 2865 Vote (UAW 2865 BDS Caucus)

A man arrives at a UAW Hall before listening to Democratic presidential candidate, former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley and others seeking political office address members of the Ankeny Area Democrats in Des Moines, Iowa, Thursday, Jan. 14, 2016. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Press Release: Locals Call on UAW IEB to Respect 2865 Vote

Stunning Development for Union Democracy and Palestinian Justice as UAW Locals Across the Country Call Upon UAW International to Recognize UAW 2865’s BDS Vote

Press Contacts:

BDS Caucus
uaw2865bds@gmail.com

Elizabeth de Martelly
elizabeth.demartelly@gmail.com

Jennifer Mogannam
jennifer.mogannam@gmail.com

In December 2015, the International Executive Board (IEB) of the United Auto Workers (UAW) nullified a membership vote conducted by University of California academic workers’ union local UAW 2865 which endorsed joining the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israeli apartheid. The first major U.S. labor union to endorse BDS, members voted in support of this position by a landslide, in an unusually high-turnout election. Since then, numerous organizations, including other unions, have supported UAW 2865 and called on the IEB to reverse the nullification and respect local union democracy.

So far, UAW Local 4121 (University of Washington, Seattle), GSOC-UAW Local 2110 (New York University), and a caucus of members in GEO-UAW Local 2322 (University of Massachusetts, Amherst) have issued resolutions supporting UAW 2865 and expressed commitments of solidarity with Palestinian workers facing occupation. GSOC-UAW Local 2110, representing 1200 academic workers at New York University, declares: “At a time when the BDS demand is gaining traction on university campuses and more broadly among progressive forces in this country, why can’t the labor movement play a similar role?…As proud members of the UAW, we reject this attempt at marginalizing our comrades in Local 2865 and demand that the International reinstate their vote.” UAW Local 4121, representing 4,000 academic workers at the University of Washington, issued a similarly powerful resolution which states: “The UAW International Executive Board has intervened to nullify a democratic vote of the Union’s membership in support of Boycotts, Divestments, and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel’s abuses of Palestinian human rights. In so doing, the International Executive Board attempts to set a dangerous precedent that infringes on one of the fundamental rights of workers: the right to stand, even symbolically, in solidarity with oppressed peoples.” Washington workers reiterated that Palestinian trade unions have called on unions internationally to implement BDS. A caucus of UAW workers from GEO-UAW Local 2322 at UMass Amherst also declare their firm support for BDS and union democracy: “We stand with UAW 2865 and its support of the Palestinian struggle for freedom, justice, and equality. We urge you to reverse your decision, in the interests of the most basic standards of union democracy, and to send a clear signal that the US labor movement does not support apartheid.”

It is clear that a member’s appeal of UAW 2865’s vote, itself part of the anti-Palestine backlash following UAW 2865’s resolution, has backfired. If the intention was to silence debate on this issue and foreclose solidarity with Palestinian workers as a viable activist concern for U.S. labor unions, the opposite has happened: The IEB’s nullification has emboldened labor activists from other locals within and outside of the UAW to step up and voice support for BDS and for Local unions’ rights to take independent democratic stands. Before the nullification, the IEB had only UAW 2865 to contend with in its disagreement on the issue of Palestine. Now, it must contend with an increasing number of other locals who have taken steps to support UAW 2865’s right to have a position on this matter. Petitions by Jewish Voice for Peace, Labor for Palestine, and U.S. Campaign to End the Occupation have called on the IEB to reverse the vote nullification, collectively receiving nearly 18,000 signatures, many of them labor activists and prominent labor leaders across the country. Instead of having the chilling effect that opponents of the resolution desired, the IEB’s nullification has prompted an even greater response in support of BDS in the labor movement. Momentum is growing.

UAW 2865 has appealed the IEB’s nullification to the Public Review Board, a body that functions as an appellate authority for disputes between the IEB and its subordinate locals, and is awaiting a ruling.

This statement is issued by the BDS Caucus, a group of rank-and-file UAW 2865 members spanning every UC campus dedicated to organizing and advocating for equality and justice for the Palestinian people.

UPDATE: Al-Qeeq Denied Family Visits, Birzeit, Workers Union Rally in Solidarity (IMEMC)

IMEMC

UPDATE: Al-Qeeq Denied Family Visits, Birzeit, Workers Union Rally in Solidarity

Friday February 19, 2016 14:41 by IMEMC News & Agencies

Four Palestinians on hunger strike over administrative detention

The Detainees and ex-Detainees Committee announced, Friday, that Israeli security is still refusing to allow hunger striking journalist Mohammad al-Qeeq’s family the right to visit with him.

Students gather at a sit-in in Birzeit University, north of Ramallah, in solidarity with hunger-striking Palestinian detainee Mohammad al-Qiq. February 18, 2016
Students gather at a sit-in in Birzeit University, north of Ramallah, in solidarity with hunger-striking Palestinian detainee Mohammad al-Qiq. February 18, 2016

The committee said that the decision violates the latest Israeli Supreme Court ruling which permitted his family to visit him in Affula Hospiutal.

The family has been trying to see him, as his health condition has been rapidly deteriorating over the past couple of days. Mohammad has been staging his strike for a total of 86 days, now.

After suffering severe convulsions on Wednesday night, al-Qeeq lost the ability to breath, hear, see or speak until the morning.

The committee contacted the Civil Affairs Department at the Civil Administration Office, but, so far, the answer is still “No.”

According to WAFA Palestinian News and Info Agency, al-Qeeq’s family said, Thursday, that they wouldn’t object to transferring him to a hospital in Jerusalem, as long it is a Palestinian hospital, because they do not trust Israeli hospitals.

This announcement came after the family insisted al-Qeeq will not agree to any offer that doesn’t guarantee transferring him to a hospital in Ramallah, in order to be close to his family.

Shalash said that her husband continues to suffer from spasms of acute chest pain twice or more a day, adding that doctors have warned that he could die of a heart attack as a result of his ongoing hunger strike.

She confirmed that al-Qeeq is currently undergoing medical examinations in Israeli hospitals.

Meanwhile, Hanan Khatib, an attorney representing the Detainees and Ex-Detainees Commission, who visited al-Qeeq in Afula hospital, said al-Qeeq developed serious and disturbing symptoms signaling a possible fatal heart attack.

She noted that al-Qeeq continued to suffer from crushing pain in the chest and left hand, spasms in his legs and speaking difficulty.

In related news, Birzeit University’s administration, the Workers Union and a number of students organized a sit-in at the university campus in Birzeit town, north of Ramallah, on Thursday, in solidarity with the hunger-striking journalist.

The protestors called for immediate and unconditional release for al-Qeeq, a former Birzeit University student and head of students’ council.

They demanded all academic institutions and international organizations to work together to implement campaigns of boycott and sanctions against Israel and its illegal measures against Palestinians.

President of the university, Abdul-Latif Abu Hijleh, said during the sit-in: “Palestinian journalists have always been on the frontline, and al-Qeeq is now experiencing forceful and abusive measures from the Israeli occupation, because he practiced his normal right of speech and freedom of expression.”

On behalf of the Workers Union, Salem Thawaba demanded that officials should urgently interfere to end al-Qeeq’s torture. He stressed on the importance of unity and reconciliation for al-Qeeq whose health has deteriorated to the point of facing imminent death.

According to Samer Samaro, Chairman of the Detainees and Ex-Detainees Committee in Nablus, a total of 650 Palestinians and 16 journalists are held in Israeli administrative detention.

Since June 1967, 55,000 Palestinians had been placed under administrative detention, including 25,000 Palestinians during the second intifada.

Four Palestinian administrative detainees in Israeli jails are currently hunger striking in protest of being detained without a charge or trial, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS), a prisoner support group.

PPS said that, beside the case of al-Qeeq, two other detainees, Mohammad al-Muhur from Jenin and Rabee Jibril from Bethlehem, have been on hunger strike for 64 days and eight days respectively, also in protest of being detained based on secret information, without a charge or trial.

A fourth detainee, Samer al-Issawi from Jerusalem, himself a former hunger striking icon, has also been on hunger strike for five days in solidarity with al-Qeeq, PPS added.

Administrative detention is a controversial and archaic Israeli practice, dating back to the days of British Mandate, that allows the detention of Palestinians without charge or trial, and for up to six-month intervals that can be renewed indefinitely.

Multiple human rights groups have accused Israel of using administrative detention as a form of collective punishment against Palestinians, and that Israeli authorities use this kind of detention when they fail to obtain confessions in interrogations of Palestinian detainees.

Last month, the European Union’s mission in Jerusalem and Ramallah expressed their longstanding concern about Israel’s extensive use of administrative detention.

“Beyond the well-known cases of Etraf Rimawi of the Palestinian Bisan Center for Research and Development, and Mohammad Abu Sakha, a trainer at the Palestinian Circus School, there are over 500 Palestinians, amongst them at least 4 minors, who are currently being held in administrative detention”, the mission said.

The mission added it was especially concerned about the deteriorating health condition of Mohammad Al-Qeeq, held in administrative detention in Israel for more than three months now, and on hunger strike since November 25, 2015.

“The EU calls for the full respect of international human rights obligations towards all prisoners. Detainees have the right to be informed about the charges underlying any detention, must be granted access to legal assistance, and be subject to a fair trial.”

Letters: Israel boycott ban is anti-democratic (The Independent)

The Independent

Letters: Israel boycott ban is anti-democratic

The Government’s attempts to block public bodies from boycotting and divesting from companies involved in Israel’s oppression of Palestinians undermines local democracy in order to shield Israel from criticism (“Boycott of Israeli goods to be criminal offence”, 15 February).

Local councils, student unions, trade unions, political parties and other democratic bodies across the UK have voted to support the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS). BDS is a peaceful and effective way of challenging the international support that Israel receives despite its ongoing human rights abuses and violations of international law.

The Government’s proposal would effectively force local councils and other public bodies to unethically invest in Israel’s occupation and in arms companies.

Palestinians launched the BDS movement more than 10 years ago because governments, including our own, fail to hold Israel to account for its deliberate attacks on Palestinians and other war crimes. Instead, the UK sells Israel the weapons it needs to attack Palestinians with impunity.

Rather than attacking local democracy and insulating Israel from the consequences of its human rights abuses, the UK government should take steps in support of freedom, justice and equality.

An end to the arms  trade with Israel would  be a good start.

Ahdaf Soueif

Roger Waters 

Tommy Sheppard MP

Cat Smith MP

Malia Bouattia

NUS Black Students’ Officer

Len McCluskey

General Secretary, Unite the Union

Alex Cunningham MP

Chris Stephens MP

Clive Betts MP

Dave Anderson MP

Kate Osamor MP

Marie Rimmer MP

Martyn Day MP

Nic Dakin MP

Steven Paterson MP

Yasmin Qureshi MP

Louise Haigh MP

Lord Ahmed Nazir

Baroness Jenny Tonge

Matt Wrack, General Secretary FBU

Mick Whelan, General Secretary ASLEF

Tim Roache, General Secretary Elect GMB

Mick Cash, General Secretary RMT

Piers Telemancque, Vice president Society and Citizenship, NUS

Shelly Asquith – Vice President Welfare, NUS

Ken Loach, 

Mark Thomas,

Rizwan Ahmed,

Mike Leigh,

Andrew Smith, Campaign Against Arms Trade

Alexei Sayle

Anna Carteret

April De Angelis,

Baroness Jenny Tonge

Caryl Churchill,  

Fionn Travers-Smith, Move Your Money

Gillian Slovo,

Hari Kunzru,

Hugh Lanning, Chair of Palestine Solidarity Campaign

Jeremy Hardy,

Jo Ram, Community Reinvest

Joel Benjamin, Community Reinvest

John Hilary, Executive Director of War on Want

Maggie Steed,

Maxine Peake,

Mick Bowman, Newcastle City Council

Michael Radford,

Miriam Margolyes,

Niall Buggy,

Pauline Melville,

Peter Kosminsky,

Rachel Holmes,

Riya Hassan, Palestinian BDS National Committee

Robert Wyatt,

Vica Rogers, Debt Resistance UK

PCHR Demands Immediate Release of Teachers and Calls upon Government to Apply its Agreement with Teachers Union

 

PCHR

PCHR Demands Immediate Release of Teachers and Calls upon Government to Apply its Agreement with Teachers Union

February 18, 2016

Ref:12-2016

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) expressed its deep concern over the illegal mass arrest campaign conducted by the Palestinian Security Services, during which, more than 20 teachers at public schools were arrested on grounds of organizing a sit-in on Tuesday, 16 February 2016, in front of the Council of Ministers in Ramallah.  During the sit-in, the teachers called upon the government to apply the agreement reached between the later and the Teachers Union in September 2013.  PCHR calls upon the Palestinian Security Services to immediately release the arrested teachers and put an end to all measures taken to pursue all teachers, who participated in the strike.  PCHR also calls upon the Palestinian government to respect the Union’s right to function freely according to the Palestinian Basic Law and all international human rights standards and to fulfill its obligations by implementing the abovementioned 2013 agreement.

According to PCHR’s investigations, on Tuesday, 16 February 2016, teachers at public schools in the West Bank organized a sit-in, during which around 20,000 teachers participated to call for the implementation of the 2013 agreement.  On the same day night, the Palestinian Security Services launched an arrest campaign, during which 20 teachers were arrested.  This happened after raiding the teachers’ houses late at night without showing arrest warrants.

In Hebron, Palestinian General Intelligence Services (GIS) arrested Ziad ‘Ali al-Darabi’a (47), Principal of al-Bayader School, from his house in Hadab al-‘Alqah village, south of Dura, southwest of the city; Basel Ahmed Salim Dawawin (38) from al-‘Aqlah village, southeast of Dura and Mohammed Abu ‘Ajamiyah from al-Fawar refugee camp.  Meanwhile, the Preventive Security Services (PSS) arrested 8 teachers identified as Yousif Salamah ‘Abdul Muhsen Abu Ras (43) from al-Tabaqah, south of Dura; Ibrahim ‘Ezzat al-‘Asafrah (48) from Beit Kahel village, northeast of Hebron; ‘Ali Mahmoud Noah ‘Aqel (51) from Halhoul; Mahmoud al-Sharouf from Nubba village; Mohammed Abu ‘Aram; Qays Abu Zahrah and Anis Abu Zahrah from Yata.

In Qalqilya, at approximately 22:30, PSS officers raided two houses belonging to Mer’ie Nassar ‘Abdul Hadi (37) from Jeensafout village and Kenan ‘Abdel Ra’ouf Mohammed ‘Odah (40) from Kafr Tholth village, east of the city.  They arrested the two aforementioned teachers and took them to an unknown destination.

In Tulkarm, GIS officers arrested four teachers identified as Sadiq Samih Sadeq al-Qarout (51); ‘Alaa’ Rashad Taher Jayousi (28); Munir Mustafa Ahmed Abu Thiab (46) and Ra’ed Mohammed Dureidi (40).  Meanwhile, PSS officers arrested two teachers identified as Mohammed Hamdan Farekh and ‘Amer Barouq.

In Jenin, GIS officers arrested two teachers identified as Hasan Ahmed Zayed (54) and Tariq Ziad Mohammed Sammar (29); both from al-Yamoun village, northwest of Jenin.

PCHR calls upon the Palestinian Government and law enforcement services to:

•Respect the rule of law and provisions of the amended Palestinian Basic Law, including the third and fourth paragraphs of Article 25 that ensures the union’s right to function freely and to strike within the limits of law;

•Respect its legal obligations resulting from acceding to the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, which guarantees the respect and protection of union’s right to function freely and to strike in conformity with the applicable law; and

•Immediately release all teachers, who were illegally arrested, put an end to all security pursuits against teachers, who participated in the Teachers Union’s activities, and implement the agreement reached between the government and teachers in September 2013 to improve the teachers’ economic and social conditions.

PA security forces detain 22 teachers on strike (Ma’an News Agency)

PA security forces detain 22 teachers on strike

FEB. 17, 2016 3:54 P.M. (UPDATED: FEB. 17, 2016 8:45 P.M.)
TEACHERS

RAMALLAH (Ma’an) — Palestinian Authority security forces on Wednesday detained 22 Palestinian teachers who took part in a strike demanding the guarantee of teachers’ rights, sources in the Palestinian Teachers’ Union said.

The sources said that the teachers, two of whom are principals, were detained in raids across the occupied West Bank.

As part of the strike, an estimated 20,000 Palestinian teachers demonstrated in Ramallah on Tuesday to call for the implementation of an 2013 agreement guaranteeing teachers’ rights.

Most schools in the occupied West Bank shut down completely in protest, while other establishments closed before noon, as teachers gathered in front of the PA cabinet headquarters to demonstrate.

The teachers called for the resignation of the head of the teachers’ union, Ahmad Sahwil, and for the organization of elections within the teachers’ union.

“Teachers are not against the union as a union, but against the behaviors and abuses of the union,” one demonstrator, Adnan al-Durubi, told Ma’an.

Al-Durubi said the average Palestinian teacher’s salary did not exceed 3,000 shekels ($767) each month.

According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the average monthly expenditure of a Palestinian family in the West Bank is $1,333.

In 2013, the Palestinian teachers’ union signed an agreement with the government which guaranteed a significant increase on teachers’ basic salary.

However, three years after a lengthy teachers’ strike over unpaid salaries, the Palestinian Authority has yet to make good on its promise to increase wages.

The teachers have called on the Palestinian government to comply with the increase agreed on in 2013, as well as a secure university education for teachers’ children, reforms in retirement legislation, and promotions and bonuses based on experience.

The teachers detained Wednesday were identified as Ibrahim Izzat al-Asafra, Basil Dudin, Kinan Audah, Yousif Abu Ras, Bilal Jawabra, Muhammad Abu Ajamiya, Izzat Manasra, Mahmoud Shrouf, Anis Abu Zahra, Qays Abu Zahra, Muhammad Abu Iram, Ayman al-Asa, Mire Nassar, Muhammad Hamdan Farikh, Amir Burouq, Tariq Samar, Alaa Jayyusi, Sadiq al-Qarut, Munir Abu Thiab, and Ammar Shahrour.The two principals were identified as Ziad Ali Darabee and Hasan Zayid.

BDS Campaign Expanding: Let’s Forge Ahead (CUPW)

Thursday February 11 2016
2015-2019/070

At its 2008 Convention, CUPW adopted a resolution supporting the BDS campaign. The call for a boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against Israel was made by more than 175 Palestinian unions, groups and organizations in 2005, with a view to forcing the State of Israel to negotiate peace and recognize the right of Palestinians to self‑determination.

Ten years later, we know that international pressure is now playing a significant role in leading to the resolution of the Israeli‑Palestinian conflict. Here is a look at CUPW’s current solidarity work with Palestine:

CONCRETE ACTION

  • In late 2015, the National Executive Board adopted a project to support the work of the Palestinian Postal Service Workers Union (PPSWU). The project is aimed at financially supporting the preparation of the PPSWU’s Annual Conference, which is scheduled for May of this year.
  • The Union is now supporting STOP THE WALL, a Palestinian organization that coordinates the activities of groups involved in mobilizing local residents who are directly affected by the Separation Wall. You can visit its website at www.stopthewall.org. The Union encourages you to support this organization.
  • The Union also invites you to visit the website of WE ARE NOT NUMBERS (www.wearenotnumbers.org), where Palestinians share their day‑to‑day stories. Theirs is a call to sharing and solidarity.
  • The Union has agreed to fund a request by Independent Jewish Voices, which is sponsoring a tour by Hiedar Abu Thosh, a Palestinian who was driven from his village (Imwas) in 1967 by the Israeli army. Canada Park, financed by the Jewish National Fund of Canada, was built on the site of his village. His tour dates will be announced at a later date.

THE BDS Campaign!

There are several ways of demonstrating our solidarity and support for the BDS campaign:

Boycott:

  • SodaStream, an illegal product manufactured in an illegal Jewish settlement under an illegal occupation, but still sold at The Bay, Canadian Tire, Target, and Staples;
  • products with a barcode starting with “729” (Israel);
  • Ahava cosmetics, which are manufactured from Dead Sea minerals (in occupied territory), sold at The Bay;
  • products like underwear and hydration systems produced by Israeli defence industries, which are sold at Mountain Equipment Coop;
  • Indigo/Chapters, whose shareholders support the Israeli military through the Heseg Foundation.

Divestment:

  • Request the withdrawal of our Pension Plan investments in Israeli companies like Caterpillar, Motorola, ITT Industries and United Technologies;
  • suspend funding, financial or organizational support and recognition of Israeli research centres or cultural programs.

Sanctions:

Demand that the federal government:

  • vote in favour of resolutions censuring Israel for its violations of international law (the 5th Geneva Convention);
  • ban any imports from the occupied territories;
  • terminate its Free Trade Agreement with Israel.

Let’s show our solidarity with the palestinian people

 

Mike Palecek
National President

Resolution in Solidarity with UAW Local 2865 and Union Democracy (UAW Local 4121)

4121_logo
[Adopted by UAW 4121 membership, February 11, 2016]

UAW Local 4121 Resolution in Solidarity with UAW Local 2865 and Union Democracy Co­-Sponsored by: UW Academic Workers for a Democratic Union (AWDU), UW Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano/a de Aztlán (MEChA), UW Students United for Palestinian Equal Rights (SUPER), UW United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS)

WHEREAS UAW Local 2865, which represents over 14,000 student workers throughout the University of California system, has lent support to countless human rights struggles, both foreign and domestic. From Ayotzinapa, Mexico to Capetown, South Africa; from Ferguson, Missouri to Oakland, California—Local 2865 has consistently stood in solidarity with the oppressed in word and in action; and

WHEREAS in an effort to support Local 2865’s commitment to universal justice and democracy, 2865 rank­-and­-file members are asking other unions for help. The UAW International Executive Board has intervened to nullify a democratic vote of the Union’s membership in support of Boycotts, Divestments, and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel’s abuses of Palestinian human rights. In so doing, the International Executive Board attempts to set a dangerous precedent that infringes on one of the fundamental rights of workers: the right to stand, even symbolically, in solidarity with oppressed peoples; and

WHEREAS following the Israeli siege on Gaza in July 2014 which killed over 1,500 civilians, including 539 children[1], the Joint Council of Local 2865 was approached by a group of rank-­and­-file members asking them to support this divestment resolution. Rather than exercising their power to endorse resolutions under the UAW Constitution, the Joint Council chose to hold a member vote on the resolution, demonstrating their deep commitment to union democracy; and

WHEREAS Local 2865 engaged in months of educational forums and debates, engaging with rank-­and-­file members on both sides of this political debate; and

WHEREAS Local 2865 held a membership vote on December 14, 2014 where 65% of voting members endorsed a resolution calling on the UAW International and the University of California system to end investments in corporations complicit in violations of Palestinian human rights. This vote, taken in response to a call for solidarity from every Palestinian labor union and virtually all of Palestinian civil society, elicited a high voter turnout with 2,160 total UAW Local 2865 members voting in­-person at polling stations; and

WHEREAS Palestinian trade unions and civil society groups have urged allies to pursue Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) whenever possible[2] until such time as Israel ends its illegal occupation and colonization of Arab lands (which includes dismantling the wall in the West Bank), grants full equality to Palestinians living inside Israel who currently contend with a discriminatory legal system[3], and allows Palestinian refugees to return to their homes as mandated by UN resolution 194.[4]

WHEREAS the UAW International Executive Board (IEB), in its ruling, recognized UAW 2865’s education and outreach efforts and strongly defended the integrity of the voting process. Despite recognizing the vote results as the collective will of Local 2865 members, the International Executive Board chose to suspend democracy and ignore rank-­and-­file members who voted on the resolution; and

WHEREAS the UAW IEB justified its nullification of UAW Local 2865’s resolution by conflating criticism of Israel’s occupation of Palestine with anti­-Semitism, a practice that cheapens the ongoing reality of anti­-Semitism and ignores the extensive support and work for the resolution of many Jewish and Israeli UAW members. In addition, the IEB ruling also cited fears that divestment would interfere with “the flow of commerce,” a claim that UAW Local 2865 members have criticized as putting the interest of big business before the well­-being and livelihood of Palestinian workers; and

WHEREAS the UAW International has taken positions on many other human rights struggles, including the struggle to boycott and divest from the South African Apartheid regime. Nelson Mandela met with UAW President Owen Bieber to personally thank him for UAW’s divestment efforts after his release from prison. Rank-­and-­file activists initiated UAW divestment from South Africa, and UAW might not be able to proudly celebrate this piece of history if skeptical leaders had marginalized those early efforts by rank­-and-­file members; and

WHEREAS the UAW IEB’s ruling is at odds with the pro­-BDS position of many Black Lives Matter activists and international trade unions, including Britain’s largest trade union, Unite.

WHEREAS The BDS caucus of UAW Local 2865 has appealed the UAW IEB’s ruling to the UAW’s Public Review Board and is requesting solidarity resolutions from other UAW Locals; and

WHEREAS the power of a Union isn’t bestowed upon it by its elected leaders, but rather is a function of the volunteer activism of rank­-and-­file members; and

WHEREAS An injury to one, is an injury to all.

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY UNITED AUTO WORKERS LOCAL 4121:

THAT UAW Local 4121 stands in solidarity with UAW Local 2865 rank­-and-­file members in protesting this subversion of union democracy by the UAW International Executive Board; and

THAT UAW Local 4121 urges the UAW International to reverse its initial ruling against UAW Local 2865’s BDS resolution during the Public Review Board process; and

THAT A copy of this resolution be included in UAW Local 4121’s next email communication to its membership, as well as published on the http://www.uaw4121.org/ Homepage; and

THAT UAW Local 4121 President David Parsons send a copy of this resolution to UAW International President Dennis Williams and other members of the UAW International Executive Board, cc’ing UAW Local 2865 President Robert Cavooris, within three days of this resolution’s passage.