MISSILES are raining down on the people of Gaza, as the Israelis step up their war to prevent the establishment of the state of Palestine, with Jerusalem as its capital.
Over 100 Palestinians have been killed in airstrikes over the last week including at least 23 children. The Israelis are meanwhile gearing up for a ground war, massing tanks and artillery on the Gaza border.
So-called ‘Arab-Israeli’ towns have erupted, with gangs of Zionist thugs smashing up Arab-owned shops, marking the doors of Arab residents, dragging Arabs from cars and beating them unconscious in scenes reminiscent of ‘Kristallnacht’, the Night of Broken Glass, when a pogrom against Jews took place, carried out by SA paramilitary forces and civilians throughout Nazi Germany on 9-10 November 1938.
Today’s war against the Palestinian people was sparked by the forced eviction of Palestinian families from the Sheik Jarah neighbourhood, with Zionist settlers forcing Palestinians out of their homes and taking over their houses.
Then there was the storming of the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, where over 1,000 Israeli armed military police attacked worshippers during their Ramadan prayers.
The trade unions in the UK must act, and act now! There must be a national demonstration and political strikes immediately in the UK to support the Palestinian people, called by the TUC and all the trades unions to defend the Palestinians, demand the establishment of the Palestinian state, and to send the Netanyahu Israeli leadership to the International Criminal Court at The Hague for war crimes.
There is not a moment to lose, and the UK has a major responsibility to take action.
This was made clear once again when Palestinian ambassador Husam Zomlot said in an interview on Wednesday: ‘It all started here 100 years ago. It is important to remind the international community. The United Kingdom, with their moral arrogance, promised our land for another people without even consulting us. And since then we have been in an ongoing agony.’
On November 2nd 1917, during the first great imperialist war, the UK ruling class committed one of the greatest crimes of the 20th century when it ‘gave’ Palestine to the Zionist Federation, sentencing millions of Palestinians to hunger, exile and death. British Foreign Secretary Lord Balfour wrote to the Zionist Federation gifting them the land of Palestine.
The British trade unions must now stand up and fight for the Palestinians. There is a historic responsibility for UK unions to help put right the massive wrong that the UK ruling class did to the Palestinian people.
The Trade Union Congress (TUC) passed a resolution at its conference on November 29, 2020 which stated: ‘The TUC calls for an ethical policy on all UK trade with Israel which must include:
‘
- suspension of the UK-Israel Trade and Partnership Agreement, which replicates the EU-Israel Association Agreement, until Palestinian rights are respected.
‘
- a ban on trade with the illegal settlements, and requiring mandatory labelling of food produced in illegal settlements in line with the European Court of Justice ruling in 2019.
‘
- an end to the arms trade with Israel and to military collaboration.
‘We also encourage affiliates, employers and pension funds to disinvest from, and boycott the goods of companies who profit from illegal settlements, the occupation and construction of the wall.’
This resolution must now be acted on without delay!
Earlier this week, after Israeli warplanes targeted and destroyed a media tower block in Gaza, the National Union of Journalists in the UK and Ireland and the International Federation of Journalists said: ‘We stand in solidarity with the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate and all Palestinian and foreign media workers targeted and demand immediate international action to hold Israel accountable for its deliberate targeting of journalists and the media.’
The University College Union (UCU) branch at the College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London (CONEL) has just passed a resolution which includes: ‘The UCU branch calls on the UCU and the TUC to organise an immediate emergency national demonstration against the Israeli violence and to impose a total trade boycott of all goods and services, especially military and financial, to stop the Israeli state and settler violence and pogroms against Palestinians until a fully independent Palestinian state is established with East Jerusalem as its capital.’
The trade unions must act now as the Israeli army is poised to launch a ground attack on Gaza. The TUC resolutions must now be carried out into action.
It must organise the complete boycott of Israeli goods now, must call a national march now and must take strike action now! There is not a moment to lose!
