UK Zionists of all shades are about to throw a massive tantrum.

[Peter Presland]

Thanks to Richard Seymour at 'Lenin's Tomb'

Unions vote for Israel boycott. posted by lenin

I am ready to stand corrected, but I think this is historic. The motion approved is particularly notable because a proffered soft-Zionist amendment attempting to introduce some spurious 'balance' and 'moderation' into the motion was defeated. The motion condemns the attack on Gaza, calls for TUC support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign, and is harshly critical of the racist Israeli trade union federation Histradut for having backed the Gaza aggression. Given that previous efforts to raise the boycott issue within national trade unions have often been followed by retreat under sustained counterattacks and legal threats by Israel's apologists, it is significant that the support for a boycott among trade unionists would appear to have increased. This is undoubtedly a result of the criminal attack on Gaza earlier this year. If this is actually implemented, it means the BDS campaign has real social weight behind it. It also means that Zionists of all shades are about to throw a massive tantrum.

With little MSM publicity or other discernible public fanfare, the campaign to boycott Israel does appear to acquiring momentum with similar initiatives being taken in various European countries.

[Damien Lloyd]

About bloody time already the public sector union PCS, the UCU and the Fire Brigades Union have all passed strong motions calling for a general boycott of Israeli goods, and government sanctions against the state.

Unison the largest trade union of public workers with over 1.3 million members debated and carried a motion calling for a boycott back in 2007.

the NUJ (National Union of Journalists) also began their boycott in 2007, which received (obviously) a LOT of media attention. Followed by a lot of negative publicity (strange watching journalists bashing the union they should be supporting but at least we had equal coverage for a change).

You're correct Peter, this campaign has been gathering pace for some time. What held unions back for so long (IMO) was firstly they felt they could work with Histradutto put pressure on the Israeli government and secondly the unwillingness to introduce a policy that would cost people their jobs.

You'll notice the motion that has been passed by the TUC calls for a targetted boycott, not the full boycott that other unions already have in place. I just finished watching the full coverage on the tv, and was a little suprised by that. I understand why they have introduced a targeted boycott instead of a total boycott, but trust me when the vast majority of Israeli's are out of work and their children hungry they'll soon be forcing their government to introduce the two state solution sooner rather than later. I mean everyone on Earth knows that two states will one day exist, the only question is how many more have to die?

[Peter Presland]

I mean everyone on Earth knows that two states will one day exist

Don't agree on that I'm afraid. The time for the much vaunted 'two state solution' is long past in my opinion, and that inspite of Obama's apparent support for it.

The West Bank is so riddled with Zionist settlements, 'Security fences' and Zionist-only roads that the map now resembles a ripe Swiss cheese with all the choicest land, and access to water in the hands of the settlers. It is a racing certainty that the Israeli State will not be forcibly removing that infrastructure anytime soon no matter what the 'for public consumption' utterances of the Obama administration. IOW any 'two state solution' that does not remove them will be no solution at all. Such a Palestinian State would have next to zero control over many of the things that define a State - which, in so far as the Israeli State is serious about such a 'solution' is precisely their intention.

IMO the Palestinians would be better advised to let time and demographics produce an overall arab majority, all the while maintaining their resistance and insisting on full democratic rights inside a unitary state. It is THAT that the Zionists are really scared of because the Palestinians would be demanding no more than adherence to a fundamental principle of Western Democracy and the apartheid nature of the Zionist State would become absolutely undeniable to any rational person, no matter how blinkered their current view.

The Palestinians have my heartfelt support and sympathy, for what that's worth; but far be it from me to proffering advice. I do know that their historical suffering remains a festering wound in the body politic of the US, Germany, the UK and Israel itself - in approximately that ascending order of continuing culpability.