UK Unions single out Israel boycott

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/140515.html


Britain's trade unionists will vote on a resolution next month at their annual conference, condemning Israel for stepping up its atrocities in the occupied Palestinian territories.

The resolution to be adopted by Britain's six-and-a-half million trade union members at thier conference in Manchester, northwest England, condemns Israeli-imposed siege on the Gaza Strip where the living conditions are increasingly being deteriorated for more than 1.5 million impoverished people living in the impoverished territory.

It states that Israel is undermining the viability of the occupied West Bank and the East Al-Quds areas and their potentials for establishing an independent Palestinian state through the deliberate strategy of annexing massive swathes of land, destroying Palestinians' homes and erecting walls and checkpoints in defiance of international laws and UN resolutions.

The resolution also strongly condemns Israeli army's assault on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla last year which was seeking to take humanitarian aid to the besieged Gaza Strip, calling on world leaders to hold Israel accountable for massacring international activists in international waters.

The UK's Trade Union Congress (TUC) Global Solidarity will also urge the British government and the EU leaders to take "much stronger political steps" to ensure Israel abides by UN resolutions.

Delegates are also urged to back instructions for the TUC General Council to "organize and support a boycott of Israeli goods, especially agricultural products that have been produced in illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank."

Affiliates and employers are also being encouraged to cease investment in Israel, with amendments to extend the boycott to companies that profit from Israel's illegal occupation, reads a copy of the final agenda obtained by the British media.

At the annual conference last year, the TUC took the historic step of voting for a boycott of Israeli goods in the first resolution of its kind since the campaign to end anti-apartheid in South Africa.

In April, trade unionists stepped up the boycott campaign with the publication of a new leaflet entitled 'Would You Buy Stolen Goods' that called on consumers not to buy any goods from illegal Israeli settlements.

The TUC conference, which kicks off on September 13, traditionally opens a new political year in Britain and is followed by a season of annual party conferences.