UNITE has declared its support for the pro-Palestine Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against the Israeli regime, condemning the new legislation barring institutions from boycotting products made in occupied territories.
Unite, which represents 1.2 million British workers, passed three motions at its Policy Conference 2023 in Brighton last Friday, supporting BDS and opposing the Economic Activity of Public Bodies (Overseas Matters) bill.
This was the legislation which Michael Gove and the Tories brought in last month, banning public bodies from boycotting the Israeli regime and the occupied territories.
Gove’s bill ‘seeks to limit the ability of public bodies to make ethical choices about spending and investment that reflect widespread public support for human rights, climate goals and international law,’ the relevant motion said.
The motion further pointed to Unite’s support for BDS campaigns against companies with ties to Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.
The British government’s move to ban local public bodies from joining the popular boycott campaign against the Israeli regime threatens to erode democratic values, restrict freedom of expression and undermine campaigns for social justice, Unite warned.
At the conference, the union also pledged to promote the Right to Boycott campaign among its membership, urging workers to sign a petition against the government bill.
‘At a moment when the government’s anti-boycott bill seeks to delegitimise the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment and sanctions, the unanimous support of Unite’s members … for motions affirming support for BDS is crucial,’ Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) Director Ben Jamal declared.
‘Unite has made clear that it will continue to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Palestinian people and reject all efforts to delegitimise their struggle for liberation,’ he added.
Another motion passed during the conference confirmed the union’s recognition of the Israeli regime as practising apartheid, and demanded from the British government to abandon its free-trade agreement with the occupying entity.
The last motion passed in the conference concerned the Israeli military’s labelling of six Palestinian civil society and human rights organisations as ‘terrorist’ bodies.
This is a ‘direct assault in an effort to isolate and restrict human rights defenders’, the conference emphasised, clarifying that the targeted organisations ‘provide services and support to women, children, farmers and prisoners, and collectively support thousands of Palestinians’.
