the report, which described the human rights revolutions across the Middle East and North Africa as “inspirational”, has condemned Israel’s conduct in multiple areas including the justice system, the Gaza blockade, human rights accountability, housing demolitions and settlement activity, torture and excessive use of force, freedom of movement and freedom of speech.
Those of us who lived through and struggled against apartheid South Africa consider the actions of the Israeli state to surpass even the barbarism of apartheid South Africa. Isreal is already considered a pariah state in the eyes of most of humanity. It should be treated as such. We therefore support the BDS campaign wholeheartedly.
This demonstration at the Australian Defence Department below has received no Australian mainstream media coverage as far as I am aware.
A demonstration has been held outside of the offices of the Australian Defense Department to protest the Australian government’s arms trade with Israel.
A large part of Australia’s trade with Israel is made up of contracts to buy or sell military equipment, and the two countries also share military technologies, the Press TV correspondent in Sydney reported during the on Friday.
“On the subject of boycotting the arms trade with Israel, Minister for Defense Jason Clare recoiled in horror and said, ‘That will cost jobs.’ But they are prepared to lose a thousand jobs from their own defense department, civilian jobs, to support the arms trade,” Denis Doherty of the Australian Anti-Bases Campaign told the protesters.
In 2010, then Prime Minister Kevin Michael Rudd’s government signed a $300 million purchase with the Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit. These purchases were for BMS, or Battle Management Systems, complex electronics that permit integration of modern warfare technology.
Elbit claims that it provides similar technology to 20 countries worldwide.
Elbit subsidiary companies provide security systems for illegal West Bank settlements and Israel’s illegal apartheid wall. They are also the provider of the Israeli drones that are used by Britain, Canada, Australia, and many other NATO countries.
“Australia should not be trading arms with Israel, in either direction, because the two countries have fundamentally different attitudes towards the protection of civilians in warfare,” said Professor Jake Lynch from the University of Sydney.
“The reports about Israel’s attack on Gaza in 2008 and 2009 found there were multiple instances in which Israel failed to observe the principles of discrimination and proportionality, i.e., you adequately protect civilians’ bystanders. And that is linked with Israel’s refusal to adopt the principle which Australia and 80% of the international community have roughly accepted in the additional protocols to the Geneva Conventions,” he added.
Protesters argue that the Australian government should not buy from or sell military equipment to countries that implement apartheid policies toward populations under their control, occupy or wage war with neighboring nations, maintain illegally acquired and undeclared nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction, and carry out summary executions and collective punishment.
The protesters are demanding that the Australian government implement an arms embargo on Israel until it complies with international law and human rights conventions.
“For Australia to continue an arms trade with Israel or to cultivate it, it will be one of many things Australia does, unfortunately. It is based on an overly-narrow conception of Australian interests,” Professor Lynch stated.
Australian Defense Department and Elbit Australia have refused to comment on the issue.
How to tell boycotts, divestments and sanctions (BDS) against apartheid Israel are working? Rightwing zionists in Australia are making a stringent attack on politicians and trade unionists who support human rights and justice for Palestinians and have the temerity to back BDS and oppose Israeli apartheid.
Opposition senator Eric Abetz successfully moved a motion raising concerns about the Greens, Labor and union support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel after Marrickville council’s brief adoption of the policy. “The Senate condemned those in the Labor Party, the Greens and unions who are supporting the BDS campaign against Israel,” Senator Abetz said.
…
NSW Jewish Board of Deputies chief executive Vic Alhadeff slammed Ms Rhiannon’s involvement with the [Coalition for Justice and Peace in Palestine] forum, which he described as “an activist conference lacking any hint of balance or academic integrity on a divisive and complex issue”.
Rightwing zionists and supporters have already shown their colours by organising against Marrickville Council’s resolution on BDS, marshalling Christian zionists and rightwing Jewish zionists to combine forces in the Inner West Jewish Community and Friends Peace Alliance, which ran a phone push poll and other PR endeavours prior to the NSW State Election in Marrickville.
On March 3 a request from the group was accidentally published on the Jewish news website J-Wire and a blog, requesting $12,000 in public donations for activities ”to research what local people really think … carefully targeted media coverage and advertising in relation to the election … Please also pass this information on quietly to like-minded friends”. It was quickly deleted.
Eleven days later Marrickville Council said it was investigating four complaints from residents about a survey ”asking residents to comment on the GBDS against Israel”. At least one resident complained the interviewer had claimed to be from the council.
…
Vic Alhadeff, chief executive of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, said his organisation had no knowledge of the poster campaign, or the phone survey, until afterwards.
However, Alhadeff’s comment was disingenuous – the cached blog post of the Inner West Jewish Community and Friends Peace Alliance says:
Also, we have among our own numbers people who are deeply involved in the Jewish community, and we are in frequent communication with Vic Alhadeff and Yair Miller from the Jewish Board of Deputies as well as Peter Wertheim from the Executive Council of Australian Jewry.
A few days ago, an unprincipled slur against Senator-elect Lee Rhiannon of the Greens was proliferated by The Australian, which has unswervingly offered slanted opinion on BDS, Israel and Palestine, notably failing to publish any stories by Palestinian advocates prior to the NSW State Election and Marrickville Council vote on BDS.
In view of the call by the Palestinian Trade Union Coalition for BDS (PTUC-BDS) for solidarity from trade unions around the world, the motion by Senator Abetz to apply political pressure to the ACTU is way out of order. Since when has the Liberal party’s ambit been Australian trade unions and workers? – as ever, Israel is a special case for these sycophantic supporters of the rogue zionist entity. As Australian citizens, we should be extremely concerned that the zionist lobby buys off our politicians’ and Australia’s stance for justice and rights for oppressed people.
Please contact Senator Abetz and Julie Bishop below and tell them Israel, in contravention of more than two score UN Security Council resolutions, should butt out of Australian politics, that they should clarify any lurks and perks provided by zionists to their political campaigns, and remind them that boycotts, divestments and sanctions are the legitimate non-violent tactic called for by oppressed Palestinian civil society for long overdue justice and rights.
Senator Eric Abetz
GPO Box 1675. HOBART TAS 7001
Email:
Web: http://abetz.com.au/contact
Electorate Office Numbers:
Telephone: (03) 6224 3707
Facsimile: (03) 6224 3709
Toll Free: 1300 132 493
The Hon Julie Bishop, MP
414 Rokeby Road
Subiaco, WA 6008
PO Box 2010
Subiaco, WA 6904
Email:
Phone: (08) 9388 0288
Fax: (08) 9388 0299
Web & Blog: http://www.juliebishop.com.au/
For information on how to address an Australian politician, see here.
Palestinian Trade Union Coalition for BDS (PTUC-BDS) formed at historic conference
In commemoration of the International Workers’ Day, the Palestinian trade union movement holds its first BDS conference and announces the formation of the:
Palestinian Trade Union Coalition for BDS (PTUC-BDS)
Statement of Principles & Call for International Trade Union Support for BDS
Occupied Palestine, 4 May 2011 – In commemoration of the first of May – a day of workers struggle and international solidarity – the first Palestinian trade union conference for boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel (BDS) was held in Ramallah on 30 April 2011, organized by almost the entirety of the Palestinian trade union movement, including federations, professional unions, and trade union blocks representing the entire spectrum of Palestinian political parties. The conference marked a historic event: the formation of the Palestinian Trade Union Coalition for BDS (PTUC-BDS) as the largest coalition of the Palestinian trade union movement. PTUC-BDS will provide the most representative Palestinian reference for international trade unions, promoting their support for and endorsement of the BDS Call, launched by Palestinian civil society in 2005, guided by the guidelines and principles adopted by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC), of which PTUC-BDS has become a key component.
The global trade union movement has always played a key and inspiring role in its courageous commitment to human rights and adoption of concrete, ground-breaking, labor-led sanctions against oppressive regimes in a show of solidarity with oppressed peoples around the world. The trade union boycott of apartheid South Africa stands out as a bright example of this tradition of effective solidarity. Trade unions today are taking the lead in defending the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination, justice, freedom, equality and the right of return of our refugees as stipulated in United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194. Many of them have heeded the call from Palestinian civil society, and its labor movement in particular, to adopt BDS as the most effective form of solidarity with the Palestinians in our struggle to end Israeli occupation and apartheid.
Ending Israel’s multi-tiered system of oppression against the Palestinian people — comprising occupation, colonialism and apartheid — has become a test for humanity. For decades, Israel has enjoyed impunity while continuing its gradual ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, particularly in occupied East Jerusalem, the Jordan Valley and the Naqab (Negev) desert; its 44-year-old occupation; its theft of land and natural resources; its colonization and construction of illegal colonial settlements and walls, its siege of Gaza; its relentless denial of refugee rights; its endless wars of aggressions and incarceration of political prisoners; and its wanton killings of civilians and demolition of infrastructure. Israel’s systematic destruction of the Palestinian economy, expropriation of the most fertile agricultural land, as well as humiliation of and racist discrimination against Palestinian workers have all become part of its apartheid reality that should never be tolerated by the world today.
Given the complete failure and unwillingness of hegemonic powers to hold Israel accountable to international law, it is up to people of conscience and international civil society, especially the trade union movement, to take concrete action to end international collusion with decades of violations of international law and human rights by Israel, its institutions and international corporations.
The support of the entirety of the Palestinian trade union movement for a full boycott of Israel,[1] as the most effective form of solidarity with the Palestinian people, was the overarching message of this historic gathering.
The Conference was honored to welcome Joâo Felicio, International Relations Secretary of CUT, the Brazilian trade union representing more than 20 million workers, who expressed solidarity with the Palestinian people and their legitimate rights, and reiterated CUT’s endorsement of BDS. The conference received numerous messages of solidarity from a large number of trade union federations, including the International Federation of Arab Trade Unions, COSATU (South Africa), ICTU (Ireland), and a large number of individual trade unions in Canada, Scotland, Italy, France, Spain, Turkey, Australia, USA and other countries. All major Palestinian political parties also enthusiastically supported the conference and the formation of PTUC-BDS.
The Conference decisively condemned the Histadrut and called on international trade unions to sever all links with it due to its historic and current complicity in Israel’s violations of international law and Palestinian rights. The Histadrut has always played a key role in perpetuating Israel’s occupation, colonization and system of racial discrimination by:
Publicly supporting Israel’s violations of the Fourth Geneva Convention and other tenets of international law
Maintaining active commercial interests in Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise[2]
Allowing Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank to join the organization[3]
Supporting Israel’s war of aggression on besieged Gaza in 2008/9;[4] it has later justified Israel’s massacre of humanitarian relief workers and activists aboard the Freedom Flotilla on 31 May 2010[5]
Illegally withholding over NIS 8.3 billion (approximately $2.43bn) over decades of occupation from wages earned by Palestinian workers from the Occupied Palestinian Territory,[6] deducted for ‘social and other trade union benefits’ that Palestinian laborers from the OPT have never received.
Recalling the trade union maxim “an injury to one is an injury to all”, and given the global trade union movement’s historic role in effective international solidarity with oppressed peoples around the world, PTUC-BDS:
Cordially salutes all global trade unions for their solidarity with the Palestinian people, especially those that have endorsed BDS against Israel,
Calls on trade unions around the world to actively show solidarity with the Palestinian people by implementing creative and context-sensitive BDS campaigns as the most effective way to end Israeli impunity. For example by:
boycotting Israeli and international companies (such as Elbit, Agrexco, Veolia, Alstom, Caterpillar, Northrop Grumman, etc.) and institutions that are complicit with Israel’s occupation and violations of international law,
reviewing pension fund investments with the purpose of divesting from Israel Bonds and all Israeli and international companies and institutions complicit in Israel’s occupation, colonization and apartheid,
pressuring governments to suspend Free Trade Agreements, end arms trade and military relations with Israel with the intention of eventually cutting all diplomatic ties with it,
Calls on port workers around the world to boycott loading/offloading Israeli ships, similar to the heroic step taken by port workers around the world in suspending maritime trade with South Africa in protest against the apartheid regime, and
Calls on trade unions around the world to review and sever all ties with the Histadrut.
Such non-violent measures of accountability must continue until Israel fulfils its obligations under international law in acknowledging the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self-determination, and fully complies with international law by:
Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands occupied since 1967 (including East Jerusalem), as well as dismantling of the illegal wall and colonies,
Recognizing the fundamental right of the Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equity, as well as ending the system of racial discrimination against them, and
Respecting, protecting and supporting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UNGA Resolution 194.
The Palestinian Trade Union Coalition for BDS (PTUC-BDS) is the broadest and most representative body of the Palestinian trade union movement and includes the following organisations: General Union of Palestinian Workers, Federation of Independent Trade Unions (IFU), General Union of Palestinian Women, Union of Palestinian Professional Associations (comprising the professional syndicates of Engineers, Physicians, Pharmacists, Agricultural Engineers, Lawyers, Dentists and Veterinarians), General Union of Palestinian Teachers, General Union of Palestinian Peasants and Co-ops, General Union of Palestinian Writers, Union of Palestinian Farmers, Palestinian Federation of Unions of University Professors and Employees (PFUUPE), Union of Public Employees in Palestine-Civil Sector; and all of the trade union blocks that make up the Palestine General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU): Central Office for the Workers Movement, Progressive Labor Union Front, Workers Unity block, Progressive Workers Block, Workers solidarity organization, Workers Struggle Block, workers resistance block, Workers Liberation Front, Union of Palestinian Workers Struggle Committees, National Initiative (al-Mubadara) Block.
– Palestinian Trade Union Coalition for BDS (PTUC-BDS)
