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PSC welcomes the UNISON vote in support of Palestinian rights and in support for a campaign of boycott

PSC Press Release - UNISON Motion on Palestine

Wednesday 20 June 2007

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The Palestine Solidarity Campaign Welcomes UNISON’s motion 53 on Palestine passed this afternoon Wednesday the 21st June at their conference in Brighton. UNISON represents 1.3 million National Health Service and other public service workers in the UK.

UNISON, one of the many National Trade Unions affiliates of the PSC, is thus leading the way for a just and peaceful solution to the Israeli occupation of Palestine now in its 40th year.

The PSC welcomes UNISON’s condemnation “of the economic sanctions imposed upon the Occupied Palestinian Territories following Palestinian Parliamentary Elections of 25 January 2006, which make worse the appalling economic circumstances of the occupation”. However, given the events of this week, PSC is deeply concerned that the sanctions are now being lifted to support one Palestinian faction against another, only to serve Israel’s and the West’s interests. This will have the result of further undermining Palestinian democracy and increasing poverty and hardship in Gaza.

The UNISON resolution acknowledges that a campaign of boycott is necessary, which was called for by members of the Palestinian Civil Society until it complies with International Law and Universal Principles of Human Rights. "We, representative of Palestinian Civil Society, call upon international civil society organisations and people of conscience all over the world to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel similar to those applied in South Africa in the apartheid era. We appeal to you to pressure your representative states to impose embargoes and sanctions against Israel. We also invite conscientious Israelis to support this Call, for the sake of justice and genuine peace." (for a full list of organisations visit http://www.stopthewall.org/downloads/pdf/BDS English.pdf )

Finally, we welcome the call for UNISON’s “branches and regions to affiliate to the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), help build PSC branches”. PSC campaigns for justice for the Palestinians, and is successfully building a mass solidarity movement with the aim of effecting changes in consciousness, policies and actions at a national and international level.

To find out more about PSC and how to affiliate visit www.palestinecampaign.org, contact info@palestinecampaign.org or telephone 0207 700 6192.

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UNISON National Delegate Conference 2007
Motion : AgendaID 053 - Palestine

Conference continues to consider that a just solution to the Palestine-Israel conflict must be based upon international law and Israel should:
1) withdraw to its 1949-67 borders;
2) allow the refugees of 1948 to return home
3) remove all its settlements from the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Occupied Syrian Al-Joulan;
4) take down the Apartheid Wall; and
5) respect the Palestinian people’s right to national self-determination and to establish a state in the West bank and the Gaza Strip with its capital in Jerusalem.

Conference notes that the Israeli occupation has now continued for 40 years. It welcomes the formation of the "Enough!" coalition to focus protest on this anniversary.

But Conference believes that ending the occupation demands concerted and sustained pressure upon Israel including an economic, cultural, academic and sporting boycott.

Conference condemns the economic sanctions imposed upon the Occupied Palestinian Territories following Palestinian Parliamentary Elections of 25 January 2006, which make worse the appalling economic circumstances of the occupation. It is a unique example of economic sanctions imposed, not upon an occupier, but upon a population struggling against illegal military occupation.

Conference instructs the National Executive Council to:

a) continue to campaign with the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and others as appropriate;

b) continue to develop capacity building projects with the Palestine General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU);

c) call upon the United Kingdom government to end the arms trade with Israel;

d) produce UNISON’s own material on Palestine to build knowledge among members;

e) consider inviting a PGFTU delegation to tour regions;

f) seek ways to work with the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and other trade unions on the basis of the TUC 2006 Congress resolution;

g) raise the issue of Palestine with UNISON’s overseas partners and with international trade union federations with the aims of:

i) suspending the European Union/Israel Association Agreement; and

ii) a mandatory United Nations Arms Embargo on Israel of the kind the Security Council imposed on South Africa in 1977; and

h) encourage branches and regions to affiliate to the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), help build PSC branches and consider twinning with PGFTU organised public sector workers in Palestine.

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Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Box BM PSA
London
WC1N 3XX

Email: info@palestinecampaign.org

Tel: 020 7700 6192
Fax: 020 7609 7779
Web: www.palestinecampaign.org