In reaction to reports alleging that a Palestinian trade union official has stated his reservations about the Palestinian civil society campaign of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), the full spectrum of the Palestinian trade union movement has expressed solid support for the BDS National Committee (BNC)* and for the global BDS campaign against Israel as an effective form of resisting its military occupation, war crimes and apartheid policies.

On November 12, the Jewish Chronicle, a staunchly Zionist paper published in
the United Kingdom, reported that the Secretary General of the Palestinian
General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU), Shaher Sa’ad, had told a small
delegation of British trade unionists that PGFTU “had so little interest in
the subject [of boycotting Israel] it had never discussed boycotts,
divestment and sanctions (BDS).” The head of the delegation, Steve Scott,
who is the director of Trade Union Friends of Israel (TUFI), a well-oiled
lobbying front for Israel in the trade union movement, is quoted in the same
article as saying, “the only area where the PGFTU did have a boycott policy
was with regard to produce from West Bank settlements. Even then, there
was concern about whether that boycott could do more harm than good for the
30,000 Palestinians employed there.”

On November 14, Shaher Sa’ad categorically denied the above report in an
interview with Aljazeera TV, reiterating his support for the boycott
against Israel. The following day, in an official speech [1] before
thousands of Palestinian workers at a political rally in Nablus, he called
again for “boycotting [all] Israeli goods” and “supporting local
[Palestinian] products” as an effective “form of resistance against the
Israeli occupation.”

Whether Mr. Sa’ad made the statement attributed to him by the Zionist media
outlets in the UK or not, the fact remains that PGFTU has officially
endorsed the Palestinian civil society campaign of Boycott, Divestment and
Sanctions (BDS) against Israel, since it was launched on 9 July 2005, and
has been a member in the BDS National Committee (BNC), the coalition of
Palestinian unions, political parties, NGOs and networks that leads the
global BDS campaign, ever since its inception.

If the Jewish Chronicle’s report is accurate, something that cannot be taken
for granted, given the paper’s notorious record, Mr. Sa’ad will have
isolated himself completely from the absolute majority of the Palestinian
trade union movement, including a solid majority within PGFTU itself. Since
the above report, the BNC has officially asked PGFTU for clarifications and
for a public, written position confirming its support for the boycott and
calling on international trade unions to support BDS. Within hours of our
letter, PGFTU-Gaza (which forms a sizeable part of the whole Federation)
issued an official statement confirming its support for BDS and condemning
any alleged violation of it by Sa’ad. Six trade union factions within PGFTU
immediately followed suit, endorsing the BNC position and confirming their
unambiguous support for BDS. Union leaders affiliated to all political
parties represented in the PGFTU have insisted on the need to combat any
attempts to undermine the BDS movement.

Furthermore, the largest, most representative Palestinian trade union
federation, the General Union of Palestinian Workers (one of the
constituent mass organizations of the PLO), reiterated its steady support of
BDS and denounced Sa’ad’s reported statements as falling completely outside
the Palestinian trade union consensus behind the boycott of Israel. The
Palestinian Federation of Independent Trade Unions also issued a similar
position. It is worth noting that all three federations are part of the
BNC.

The Israel lobby groups in the UK and elsewhere have felt quite desperate
lately in their abortive attempts to stop the spectacular growth of the BDS
movement, particularly among major international trade unions. In South
Africa, Great Britain, Ireland, Brazil, Canada and France trade union
federations representing tens of millions of workers have endorsed -
partially or fully - the BDS campaign against Israel. Many trade unions in
Europe, Latin America and Canada have also announced their support for the
Israel boycott, underlining the dramatic shift in international public
opinion against Israel, especially in the aftermath of its war crimes
against the Palestinian people in the occupied Gaza Strip, which were
squarely condemned by the UN Fact Finding Mission led by South African
Judge, Richard Goldstone.

The BNC, including all three federations representing the Palestinian trade
union movement, warmly salute all international trade unions who have
endorsed BDS, confirming that this is the most effective and needed form of
solidarity with the Palestinian people and the strongest challenge to
Israel’s criminal impunity and exceptionalism. As in the struggle against
South African apartheid, Israel’s occupation, colonialism and apartheid will
only come to an end when international civil society shoulders the moral
responsibility by holding Israel to account before international law and
universal principles of human rights, and by treating it as a pariah state,
as apartheid South Africa was, deserving comprehensive and sustained BDS
campaigns.

Any isolated and dissonant statements attributed to any Palestinian trade
union official can never be regarded as remotely representing the
Palestinian trade union movement, as it would be in direct conflict with the
consensus in this movement behind BDS. We urge all international trade
unions to heed the call of Palestinian civil society, including the trade
union movement, by endorsing BDS. We further urge all trade unions and
trade union federations to sever their links with the Histadrut, a Zionist
organization that has always played a key role in perpetuating Israel’s
occupation, colonization and system of racial discrimination, and that has
justified and applauded Israel’s war crimes in Gaza in December 2008 and
January 2009.
The Histadrut and Israel apologists within the international trade union
movement have continuously tried to use partial comments and innuendo by
this or that Palestinian trade union official to create a deceptive
impression of an imagined “split” in the Palestinian trade union movement
on BDS. Today, we reconfirm to the TU movement worldwide that the
Palestinian trade union movement stands united in support of BDS and calls
on every TU to endorse BDS. This is our best hope to end Israel’s grave
violations of international law and to attain our inalienable, UN-sanctioned
rights, especially our right to self determination.

The Palestinian Civil Society BDS National Committee (BNC)

[1] http://www.maannews.net/arb/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=240140

For more information, please email: info@BDSmovement.net, or by call
+972599837796