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Action Alert

Palestinian trade unions & professional syndicates call for escalating BDS pressure to end complicity with Israel’s #GazaGenocide & apartheid

27 October 2024

More than one year into the livestreamed genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in the occupied and besieged Gaza Strip, Palestinians stand united in resisting Israel’s genocide and decades-old regime of settler-colonialism, occupation and apartheid. We call on trade unions and workers worldwide to escalate BDS pressure to end the complicity of states, corporations and institutions in Israel’s crimes against the entire Palestinian people, as well as the fraternal people of Lebanon, among others. 

International workers’ solidarity begins with ending complicity. This is not just a moral issue but also a legal obligation. The rulings by the International Court of Justice against Israel’s genocide, occupation and apartheid, the UN Human Rights Council’s call for a military embargo on Israel, and the UN General Assembly’s calls for sanctions all show that BDS measures are not just a right, but also a legal obligation. 

Here are some of the most inspiring measures taken by trade unions worldwide in the last year alone in support of the Palestinian liberation struggle:

• IndustriALL Global Union, a global union federation that represents 50 million workers in 140 countries in the mining, energy and manufacturing sectors, has endorsed BDS, becoming by far the largest trade union body to support BDS
• Norway’s one-million strong trade union federation LO has played a significant role in the divestment of the Norwegian sovereign fund, the largest in the world, of its entire holding of approximately $500 million of Israel Bonds.
• Major Indian trade unions representing tens of millions of workers have demanded of the Indian government to cancel an agreement to “export” Indian workers to Israel to replace Palestinian workers, urging workers to boycott Israeli products and to not handle Israeli cargo.
• Dockworkers unions in Belgium, India, Catalonia, Italy, Greece, Turkey, California, and South Africa have taken actions against Israeli ships or arms shipments to Israel.
• The UK’s Trades Union Congress (TUC), representing 5.5 million workers and 48 unions, has unanimously called for a full arms embargo against Israel’s system of occupation and apartheid, reminding government of its obligations to prevent genocide.
• IAATW, an international alliance of app-based transport workers unions with 100k members from over 27 countries and 6 continents, has decided to boycott Chevron gas stations. 
• USS, one of the UK’s largest pension funds, has divested its over $100 million holding of Israel Bonds after pressure from the University and College Union (UCU).
• For the first time ever, 7 major US labor unions, representing nearly half of all union members, have called to “shut off US military aid to Israel.”
• The General Union of Workers of Ecuador (UGTE) has endorsed BDS, including the cultural boycott of Israel, declaring itself an Israeli Apartheid Free Zone (AFZ). 
• Australia’s National Tertiary Education Union, representing 27,000 university workers, has endorsed the boycott of all complicit Israeli universities and called on Australian universities to end ties with the Israeli military and its suppliers.
• France’s CGT Thalès (trade union representing workers of this arms company) has called for “suspending all collaboration with Israel because of what’s happening in Gaza.” Most recently, the Paris section of the CGT trade union federation has endorsed BDS.
• 700 members of Hollywood’s SAG-AFTRA union, including Oscar winners, have condemned Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and its murder of Palestinian journalists.
• Argentina’s ATE Córdoba trade union has endorsed BDS, declaring itself an Israeli Apartheid Free Zone.
• The Scottish Artists Union and the Artists Union of Ireland (Praxis) have both endorsed BDS, including the cultural boycott of Israel, with the latter declaring itself an Israeli Apartheid Free Zone (AFZ). 

The Palestinian Federation of Unions of University Professors and Employees (PFUUPE), and the Palestine Academy for Science and Technology (PalAST), representing nearly 10,000 university workers, has welcomed measures by universities worldwide toward “reviewing, suspending and severing collaboration agreements with Israeli universities and research centers that are complicit in Israel’s war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.”

BDS pressure is the most effective form of international solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for liberation, justice, and the return of our refugees, building people power to end complicity. Accordingly, and in harmony with our call from October 2023, we call on all of you to escalate BDS pressure:

1. Divest & Exclude from Contracts and investments, where applicable, complicit companies like Intel, Chevron, Amazon, Google, HP, Caterpillar, HD Hyundai, Carrefour, McDonald’s, FANUC, Siemens, AXA, and others. Pressure your institution (city council, university, etc.) or employer to do the same. Also partner with strategic justice movements (including student-led groups) to mobilize pressure on institutions, like universities and city councils, to divest from and end ties with military, tech and other companies arming or otherwise enabling Israel’s genocide, apartheid, and military occupation. This has been successfully done at Columbia University-affiliated Union Theological Seminary, San Francisco State University, the city councils of Richmond (California), Liege (Belgium), Oslo (Norway), and Belem (Brazil), among others.
2. End Arms Trade with Genocide: Refuse to build, handle, or transport any military and dual-use items for genocidal Israel. Stop Israel-bound ships and military cargo, including providing “flags of convenience,” through protests, pickets, lobbying governments, legal action, “bureaucratic” measures, and media campaigns. 
3. No Tech for Genocide or Apartheid! Tech workers and labor unions: organize from within the tech sector to build power to end the complicity of companies, such as Amazon, Google, Microsoft, HP, Intel, Palantir, and Cisco that are enabling Israel’s genocide and/or automating its apartheid.  
4. Pressure Governments to End Complicity and Impose Military Embargo & Sanctions! Keep following Palestinian civil society’s policy guidance and demands here. 
5. No Ties to Apartheid Union: Cut ties with Israel’s Histadrut, a pillar of colonialism and apartheid.

Signed:

• Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU) – Gaza 
• General Union of Palestinian Workers (GUPW)
• Palestinian Union of Postal, IT & Telecommunications Workers
• Federation of Independent Trade Unions
• General Union of Palestinian Teachers (GUPT)
• General Union of Palestinian Women
• The Palestinian New Federation of Trade Unions 
• Palestinian Bar Association
• Palestinian Dental Association – Jerusalem Center 
• Palestinian Pharmacists Association – Jerusalem Center 
• Medical Association – Jerusalem Center
• Engineers Association – Jerusalem Center 
• Agricultural Engineers Association – Jerusalem Center 
• Veterinarians Syndicate – Jerusalem Center 
• Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate (PJS)
• Union of Workers in Local Bodies – Hebron
• Southern Electricity Company Employees Union
• Association of the Financial Sector Employees
• Health Services Employees’ Association
• Palestine Electricians Trade Union 
• Jawwal Employee Association 
• The National Trade Union for Banking and Insurance