Palestinian trade unions have asked workers and unions around the world to disrupt trade to Israel and put pressure on governments to halt military support.
Image: Abbas Fakih / AFP
Palestinian trade unions have called on international workers and unions around the world to unite and take action against Israel’s actions in Gaza.
This is after the trade unions called on workers to escalate the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement to end all state, corporate and institutional complicity in 'Israel’s illegal occupation, apartheid and genocide'.
This call was part of May Day (International Workers’ Day).
This call is to ensure that 'workers, whether in ports, on ships, in business, or in government offices, are not involved in actions that involve complicity in Israel’s war crimes'.
The BDS recently called for an intensification of boycotts against companies allegedly involved in Israel's prison complex and military operations.
The campaign urges governments to impose lawful sanctions and full arms embargoes, citing recent moves by countries such as Spain as a precedent.
In South Africa, the movement submitted a legal dossier to the Minister of the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition, Parks Tau, calling for an immediate halt to South African coal exports to Israel.
The dossier also called on Tau to use Section 6 of the International Trade and Administration Act to impose export restrictions.
Asked if Tau has responded to the call, Ministerial spokesperson, Kaamil Alli, said the Minister is expected to meet the movement this week.
The unions stated Israel’s ongoing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza has hastened the onslaught of a “might makes right” era that threatens humanity at large.
This, according to the trade unions, has manifested itself in the collapse of the respect for international law, human rights and workers’ rights.
“Today, the Palestinian struggle for justice is at the heart of the battle against a world order of ‘might makes right' that is being imposed by the US-Israel genocidal axis and enabled by European colonial powers. As Israel’s wars of aggression against the peoples of the region expand from Lebanon to Syria and from Yemen to Iran, and as the US threatens the peoples of Cuba, Greenland, Venezuela, among others, it is clear that hardly anyone is safe from this might-makes-right descent to the abyss.
"Simultaneously, Israel is accelerating its brutal ethnic cleansing, annexation, settler violence, and violence against our prisoners in the West Bank. This affects us all and should therefore unite us,” read the statement.
The unions said the 2024 decisions of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), that Israel is plausibly committing genocide, that its' occupation is illegal, and its policies amount to apartheid, make ending all complicity in Israel’s crimes not only a moral but also a legal obligation.
The court also ordered Israel to take all measures within its power to prevent the commission of acts under Article II of the Genocide Convention, prevent and punish incitement, and ensure the provision of basic services and humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza.
The unions added that states, institutions (including unions) and corporations must impose targeted, lawful sanctions on Israel.
The unions also called on the workers to escalate their support for their liberation struggle by adopting ethical procurement policies (EPP) and, where applicable, ethical investment policies (EIP) that exclude corporations implicated in grave human rights violations anywhere, including in Palestine, and pressuring corporations and institutions they work in to end any complicity through ending contracts that directly or indirectly support Israel’s atrocity crimes, and adopting EPP and EIP.
The General Industries Workers Union of South Africa (GIWUSA), a strong supporter of Palestine and participant in the BDS movement, said it supports the call, adding that South Africa must stop its coal export to Israel.
“We are calling on our unions across the country and the world to do their share because it is only on the basis of the struggles of the Palestinian people on the grounds and on the international working class solidarity that we will see a free Palestine in our lifetime.
"May Day this year was also dedicated to resuscitating solidarity. It is due to our campaign to say that the question of the struggle of the Palestinian people remains a primary concern, and on every occasion that we have, we continue to highlight that,” said GIWUSA president Mametlwe Sebei.
BDS spokesperson in South Africa, Roshan Naidoo, confirmed that Tau will meet the movement on Monday.
Naidoo said South African coal is 'not neutral trade when it feeds an integrated electricity system that services the Israeli state, Israel Defence Forces (IDF) infrastructure, illegal settlements, surveillance capacity, detention infrastructure and broader systems used in the oppression of Palestinians'.
"As South African coal powers the Israeli electricity grid, Israel uses this same grid as a means of control over the Palestinian people. While it powers illegal settlements, it cuts off electricity to Palestinian villages and the 2,2 million Palestinians trapped in Gaza,” said Naidoo.
manyane.manyane@inl.co.za