Motions and Reports
     

Trades Unions Motions and Reports

Reports

  • Israel and Palestine – ICTU Delegation Visit - Report available here (PDF 3.8Mb)
  • Programme and briefing paper of the ICTU International Conference on the Middle East, April 2010. The Report may be downloaded here (PDF 412Kb)

Motions

The following motions have been passed by Irish Trade Unions:

IMPACT

2009 Conference of Local Government, Education and Local Services Division

Motion 43 - Dublin City Branch (passed overwhelmingly):
That this Union demands an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestine and an end to the oppression of the Palestinian people and calls for the exclusion of Israel from the international community through a boycott of all trade, political and cultural links with Israel until these objectives have been achieved.

2009 Conference of Local Government and Health Services Division

IMPACT, ICTU and Palestine
Given the motion adopted by a great majority of delegates at the 2007 ICTU Biennial Conference in support of the rights of the Palestinian people and seeking Irish Government action in vindicating those rights, and given the fact finding visit to Palestine by a high level delegation of ICTU which followed, this Conference:

  • expresses its concern at Israel’s suppression of the Palestinian people and strangulation of Palestinian economic development and
  • calls on the Irish Government:
    • to take a stand on Palestine independent of EU Foreign Policy;
    • to demand the suspension of the preferential trading status that Israel enjoys under the Euro-Med Agreement as long as Israel continues its economic blockade of occupied Palestinian areas;
    • to openly seek a change in the EU position;
    • to demand the restoration of full EU funding for the Palestinian Authority.

ICTU

Biennial Conference 2009

Palestine, Motion 70
This BDC welcomes and endorses the report of the visit of the ICTU delegation to Israel and Palestine in November 2007.
BDC commends the solidarity work of TUFP, North and South. BDC condemns Israel's criminal attack on the citizens and infra-structure of Gaza between 27th December 2008 and 18th January 2009, when the entire population of Gaza, already imprisoned by the illegal Israeli-imposed siege, was forced to endure intensive bombing of densely-populated civilian areas as well as the bombing of ambulances, hospitals, schools and UN compounds being used for refuge. We note that many civilians suffered devastating injuries from white phosphorus bombs and new types of weapons such as Dense Inert Metal Explosives (DIME). Over 1400 Palestinians, a large majority of them civilians, including more than 400 children, died as a result of this merciless military assault.
The assault on Gaza confirmed that Israel's oppression of the Palestinian people can be likened to the oppression of the black majority in South Africa under Apartheid. The parallel with Apartheid has been noted by Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, ex- President Jimmy Carter, a number of UN Special Rapporteurs and many others of high standing in the world. We note the call of the current President of the UN General Assembly, Fr. Miguel d'Escoto Brockman, for a global response to the oppression of Palestinians along the lines of the non-violent campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions which helped bring Apartheid to an end.
BDC registers its concern that, despite mass popular opposition to the brutality of the Israeli occupation across the European Community, the Governments of the EU and the EU Commission have failed to take effective action to sanction Israel.

This BDC therefore:

  1. Calls for the establishment of a War Crimes Tribunal to investigate Israel for crimes against humanity and breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention and International Humanitarian Law during the assault on Gaza
  2. Recognises that, in the absence of UN or Governmental intervention, the most effective action which it is open to us to take in support of the Palestinian people is to assist in the mobilisation of civil society behind the campaign for boycott and divestment. We note the statement, 'We are all Gazans', issued by the PGFTU in the midst of the Gaza massacre, calling for 'support and encouragement for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel'. We note that this call was directed to all sister labour unions world-wide, and particularly to unions and union federations in Europe and the USA. Accordingly, this BDC calls for adequate officer time to be allocated to the implementation of the current strategy
  3. Calls for the recommendations of the delegation report published last year to be implemented in full

Biennial Conference July 2007

Motions adopted in support of solidarity with Palestine, Motion 70
This ICTU BDC is outraged at the continued human rights abuses being suffered by the Palestinian people. In response to the destructive impact of the Israeli Governments actions on the daily life of Palestinians, and in pursuance of the existing ICTU policy to campaign in solidarity with the Palestinian people, this BDC calls on the ICTU to:

a)      Make direct representations to the European Council of Ministers to: 

  • Challenge the withholding of EU funding for the Palestinian Authority.
  • Raise the EU’s failure to meet its obligations under international law to oppose the illegal actions of the Israeli Government.
  • Call for the ending of the preferential trading status afforded to Israel under the Euro-Mediterranean Agreement.

b)   Seek meetings with the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Irish EU Commissioner to raise our concerns around the issues raised in point A) above and to ask for their support.

c)   Make representations to the European TUC to organise a campaign around the issues raised in point a.

d)   To support and promote a boycott campaign of Israeli goods and services similar to the boycott of South African goods during the Apartheid regime. ICTU should work with affiliates, human rights and humanitarian relief organizations to promote such a campaign through a programme of educational activities and media campaigns.

e)   To support and promote a policy of divestment from Israeli companies as a means of encouraging the Israeli Government to comply with international law and to end the human rights violations of the Palestinians people. As part of this ICTU should encourage affiliates to apply and to campaign for a policy of ethical investment against Israeli companies and other companies who directly support the Israeli Government’s occupation and destruction of Palestinian land and infrastructure.

f)    To strengthen solidarity links between the Irish, Palestinian and Israeli labour movements through exchange visits. ICTU should initially facilitate a trade union delegation to the Palestinian territories to encourage greater awareness of the situation.

The BDC welcomes the establishment of the Trade Union Friends of Palestine in Northern Ireland and calls on ICTU to encourage the formation of a similar group in the Republic of Ireland. To facilitate this, the BDC also calls on ICTU to host a seminar to further develop trade union solidarity action. Proposed by: Belfast and District Trades Union Council

 Implementing ICTU Policy on Palestine, Motion 71

This ICTU Biennial Conference is outraged at the continued human rights abuses being suffered by the Palestinian people. We particularly note the following:

  • the continued occupation and destruction of Palestinian lands and Palestinian homes in breach of the Geneva Convention and numerous United Nations resolutions;
  • the continuation of mass arrests of torture and of extra-judicial killings;
  • the horrific assaults on the population of Gaza – the frequent killings of civilians including on a mass scale as at Beit Hanun, or the family of Houda Galia wiped out as they sat on the beach, the enclosure of the people of Gaza with razor wire and electrified fences, where they are subjected to frequent invasion and constant surveillance – including the sinister unmanned drones targeting for bombing raids, or the over-flights of ear-shattering jet fighters;
  • the deliberate and illegal destruction of civilian infrastructure including electricity and water supplies;
  • the imposition of collective punishment, banned under international law, including the bulldozing of houses, the uprooting of ancient olive groves and destruction of industrial units;
  • the policy of ethnic cleansing designed to make life unbearable for all Palestinians under both Israeli and Palestinian authority – the ongoing in-depth surveillance and control of the population including the forced division of families, and restrictions on free movement to deny them access to work, to education and to health-care, even in emergency situations such as childbirth;
  • the enforced bankruptcy of the Palestinian Authority and the impoverishment of the Palestinian People by the withholding of tax revenues, the impositions on the free movement of finance; the blocking of Palestinian exports and the blocking of international support and grant aid;
  • the continued building of the Apartheid Wall in defiance of the ruling of the International Court of Justice in the Hague, creating a series of ‘bantustans’ in the West Bank, fracturing families and communities, depriving Palestinians of their most productive land and water supplies and effectively annexing East Jerusalem into Israeli territory;
  • the continued building of illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, with the associated oppressive policing of the local population, the demolishing of Palestinian homes, the theft of land and water and the disruption of Palestinian infra-structure.

Conference also notes that the British and Irish Governments and the European Union have failed in their obligations under International Law – in terms of the Geneva Convention, the UN and the International Court – to challenge the activities of the Israeli Government. A reasonable response would be the imposition of political and economic sanctions.

Instead it is the Palestinians who have been punished by the withholding of grant aid, whilst the criminal actions of the Israeli State are further appeased by continuing to grant them preferential trading rights under Article 2 of the Euro-Mediterranean Association Agreement. Conference notes that the European Union is formally obligated under the human rights clause in Article 2 to suspend the trading privileges enjoyed by Israel as it is in breach of human rights. The litany of human rights abuses, atrocities and war crimes should long ago have led to the ending of the agreement – indeed the European Parliament has already on two separate occasions called on the Council of Ministers to take this action.

In pursuance of ICTU policy to campaign in solidarity with the Palestinian people, and in recognition of the depths of oppression being suffered by them, Conference authorizes the Executive of ICTU to undertake the following:

a)   that the ICTU make direct representations to the European Council of Ministers to challenge the withholding of EU funding, and addressing the fact that the EU has failed in its obligations under international law to oppose the actions of Israel. ICTU also demands the ending of the preferential trading status enjoyed by Israel under the Euro-Med Agreement;

b)   that the ICTU could seek a meeting with the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Irish EU Commissioner to express our grave concerns about these issues, specifically to address the illegality of the Israeli actions, and to call for an appropriate and effective response;

c)   that the representatives of ICTU raise these issues at the European TUC, and call upon concerted EU-wide trade union solidarity action to protest at the indifference of EU Governments, at the failure of the strategy of ‘constructive engagement’ with the State of Israel, and at what is effectively the appeasement of the Israeli aggression and territorial expansionism;

d)   to actively and vigorously promote a policy of divestment from Israeli companies recognising that it is one of the most effective ways to ensure that the Israeli Government is made aware of the extent of opposition to its crime against humanity. ICTU will encourage affiliates to apply a policy of ethical investment in terms of pension fund holdings, and seek to ensure that investments are therefore withdrawn from Israeli companies as well as companies such as Caterpillar and Irish Cement Holdings that directly support the Israeli occupation and destruction of Palestinian land. Affiliates will also be encouraged to use whatever influence they can bring to bear on employers in both the private and state sector to apply such a policy of ethical investment.;

e)   to actively and vigorously promote a boycott of Israeli goods and services similar to the boycott of south African goods during the era of apartheid. ICTU will proactively support such a boycott policy by working with affiliates on a programme of educational activities, by a media campaign and by working alongside human rights and humanitarian relief organisations.;

f)    that the solidarity links between the Irish, Palestinian and Israeli labour movements be strengthened by a delegation of senior trade union leaders to the occupied areas. ICTU will also invite Palestinian trade union representatives to visit Ireland to encourage greater awareness of the situation in Palestine today, and to support the call for divestment, boycott and sanctions.

g)   that the implementation of ICTU policy be further strengthened by the formation of Trade Union Friends of Palestine groups in the Republic of Ireland to work alongside TUFP in Northern Ireland. That ICTU hosts a TUFP Conference, with invited international speakers, to further develop trade union solidarity action. Proposed by Derry Trades Council