IT'S EASY WHEN YOU HAVE A 1000 YEAR OLD HISTORY OF ANTI-SEMITISM

British Unions Call to Boycott Jewish Goods from Judea/Samaria

Hillel Fendel - Sep 17, 2009
IsraelNN.com


The British Trades Union (BTU), representing nearly seven million British workers, has issued a call for a boycott of goods made by Israel in Judea and Samaria. The organization that states, “We campaign for a fair deal at work and for social justice at home and abroad,” convened for its annual policy-making Congress in Liverpool this week, and roundly condemned Israel, with nary a word against Palestinian Authority anti-Israeli incitement, agreement violations, and corruption.

The Trade Union Congress (TUC) issued a statement on the Middle East conflict, condemning Hamas terrorism in one sentence, and Israel in the remainder. In terms of calls for action, Israel is the butt of four, and the Palestinians – zero.

The TUC condemned Israeli using specific, graphic and emphatic terminology, while using only the most anemic, general and succinct language for its censure of rockets: “The TUC reiterates its condemnation of the Government of Israel`s offensive in Gaza which resulted in 1,450 Palestinian deaths and 5,000 injured, as well as the massive, systematic destruction of infrastructure. We also reiterate our condemnation of the rocket attacks from inside Gaza against Israeli civilians. We welcome the findings of the UN investigation which highlighted possible war crimes on both sides of the conflict.

"The TUC remains concerned about the situation in Gaza and reiterates its opposition to the Israeli blockade, which is in contravention of international law and prevents vital supplies from reaching the people of Gaza. We welcome the contributions unions made earlier this year to the TUC Aid appeal for Gaza.”
In fact, Israel launched its anti-terrorism offensive into Gaza 3.5 years after it withdrew unilaterally from Gaza in a peace gesture. The offensive was a response to an eight-year barrage of 12,000 Hamas rockets fired from Gaza at Israeli civilian towns.

The rocket war against Israel picked up steam in the year before the offensive, shortly after Hamas executed a violent and bloody coup d`état against Fatah in the Gaza Strip. In 2008, nearly 3,000 rockets and mortar shells were fired at Israeli homes, schools, kindergartens, shops, clinics, factories and other civilian infrastructure. Israeli civilians were compelled to race to bomb shelters several times a day and lived in constant fear of where the next rockets would hit.

Despite this, the TUC resolved, as a result of Israel’s counter-terrorist offensive, to call on the British government to:

• condemn the Israeli military aggression and the continuing blockade of Gaza;
• end arms sales to Israel, which reached a value of £18.8 million in 2008, up from £7.7 million in 2007;
• seek EU agreement to impose a ban on the importing of goods produced in the illegal settlements; and
• support moves to suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement which provides preferential trade facilities to Israel.

No calls against the PA were issued.

Ben-Ari Calls for Boycott of British Goods

MK Michael Ben-Ari (National Union) responded: “I should like to remind the British that the Mandate ended in 1948, and ever since then, the State of Israel is an independent country that does not succumb to dictates of imperialist countries.”

Ben-Ari called upon the Israeli public to “stand tall with Jewish pride, and to respond by boycotting the boycotters: Do not buy British-made goods.”

The TUC also declared its condemnation of the stance of Israel’s Labor Union, the Histadrut, for backing Israel’s offensive and “show[ing] insufficient concern for the level of civilian casualties.” It praised the Histadrut for later calling on the Israeli government “to make concessions and take courageous and concrete steps towards attaining peace.”

However, the TUC declared, “We will continue to press Histadrut to take a firmer line on these issues.”

No Objectivity Here


Finally, the TUC drops any pretensions of objectivity when it states it will support a boycott “of those goods and agricultural products that originate in illegal settlements,” and will “campaign for disinvestment by companies associated with the occupation as well as engaged in building the separation wall.”

Specifically, the TUC states: “To increase the pressure for an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian Territories, and the removal of the separation wall and the illegal settlements, we will support a boycott (where trade union members should not put their own jobs at risk by refusing to deal with such products) of those goods and agricultural products that originate in illegal settlements - through developing an effective, targeted consumer-led boycott campaign working closely with the Palestine Solidarity Campaign - and campaign for disinvestment by companies associated with the occupation as well as engaged in building the separation wall.