The CWU (Communications Workers Union) overwhelmingly passed a motion at its Annual Conference on 7th June condemning the Israeli Government's attacks on Gaza and calling on the British Government to do the same.
The motion calls for an end to British arms supplies to Israel, for disinvestment from companies complicit in the occupation and takes up the issue of the Veolia Company building the Jerusalem Light Railway.
See below the full text of the motion:
Conference notes:
- That Israel's blockade of Gaza has now continued for over eighteen months
preventing vital supplies including food and medicine from reaching the
people of Gaza.
- That over 1,440 Palestinians were killed during the first seventeen days of
Israel's military offensive in Gaza of whom more than 400 were children
(UN OCHA Report 12/01/2009).
- That the Israeli Government acted in contravention of the IV Geneva
Convention imposing collective punishment on the people of Gaza.
- The sale of more than £18.8 million worth of British arms to Israel in 2008,
up from £7.5 million in 2007.
Conference therefore instructs the NEC:
to call for an end to Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories.
to demand that the British government unequivocally condemns the Israeli military
aggression against Gaza.
to demand the British government ends British arms sales to Israel.
to call for the immediate suspension of the EU-Israel Agreement providing
preferential trade facilities to Israel.
to investigate whether any of the CWU’s holdings are in companies engaged in
building The Wall declared illegal by the International Court of Justice, and to divest
from them.
with CWU member Trustees of pension funds, to investigate whether any of their
holdings are in such companies and to campaign for their divestment.
to publicize principled trade union solidarity actions in support of the Palestinians
by, e.g., the South African dockworkers in Durban, the Irish tramway drivers in
Dublin, and the Norwegian rail workers for their two-minute strike in protest at the
Israeli bombardment of Gaza.
to congratulate the organizers of the Viva Palestina Convoy of medical and
humanitarian aid to Gaza.
to assist CWU members with information regarding local authority contracts with
Veolia, the French company involved in building the light railway from Jerusalem to
the illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, thus
encouraging campaigns to terminate such contracts.
to condemn the statement by Histadrut (Israel’s TUC) backing the invasion of Gaza.
to contact the appropriate Palestinian communication workers’ section of the
Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions to express the CWU’s support for
their members in occupied Palestinian territories.
to encourage branches to affiliate to the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
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