Posted on October 20, 2023
 

In this Labor Fightback Network (LFN) DOSSIER:
 

• Urgent Appeal from the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU)

• San Francisco Rally Speech by Monadel Herzallah (October 14) – 

• Palestinian Trade Unions Call for an End to Arming Israel

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Urgent Appeal from the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU)

Brothers and Sisters of trade and workers’ unions in the United States of Americas,

From the midst of the rubble and at the center of the ethnic cleansing war committed by the apartheid regime of Israel against our people in the Gaza Strip, we send you this urgent appeal to bring you closer to the image of the massacres and the full-fledged war crimes against more than 2 million citizens in Gaza, including over 70% who are unemployed and live below the poverty line, enduring extremely difficult conditions. 

Israeli aggression has exacerbated the suffering of the Palestinians in Gaza, and even demolished homes on their heads, depriving them for the tenth day in a row of electricity, water, fuel, medicine, and necessary medical supplies. As of the current date, the number of martyrs killed by Israel has exceeded 2,800, including unarmed, unemployed, working-class, and refugee civilians. Additionally, over 10,000 are injured, and approximately 1,000 citizens are trapped under the rubble. The number of killed children exceeds 500, along with 400 women. 

The apartheid regime of Israel is not satisfied with these heinous atrocities; it is also targeting journalists, medical teams, ambulances, and firefighters, leading to the complete destruction of Gaza’s infrastructure. And Israel has escalated its crimes by targeting institutions and trade union offices, reducing them to ruins.

Dear Brothers and Sisters, with deep sincerity and appreciation for the leadership role of unions and your constant support of our rights, we will never forget the previous vicious attacks in 2014 and 2021, when you made your voices loud and clear and when your heroic port workers blocked the boat (the Israeli-owned ZIM cargo ships). Now the aggressive, vicious attacks are continuing on a much larger scale, so we urge you to stand with us, again, and rise to the level of the war being waged against us all! 

We ask your support for the following:

First, to exert pressure on the U.S. administration, and the international community as a whole, to immediately halt the apartheid regime of Israel’s aggression against defenseless civilians in Gaza and condemn the collective punishment that has been imposed on us for more than 15 years.

Second, to end the siege that has been imposed on Gaza and pressure Israel to recognize our legitimate rights preserved by international law. Israel is the main cause of instability in the region.

Third, to contribute to providing urgent medical and humanitarian aid to support our people in these tragic times as quickly as possible. We trust in your ability to take urgent action to apply pressure and offer assistance, believing in the justice of our cause and our legitimate rights.

In struggle for a better world – a world of peace and justice. As there can be no peace without justice. 

Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions

Signatory:

Basher Al-Sisi,

Member of the General Secretariat of the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions

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Monadel Herzallah Speaks Out (October 14)

(Brother Herzallah delivered this speech to the October 14 rally in San Francisco in solidarity with the people of Palestine. He is a leader of the US Palestinian Community Network and of the Arab-American Trade Union Council)

For the last week, there have been countless condemnations of violence, sympathy for lost lives, and outrage about acts of terror against civilians. But that is exactly what Palestinians have been doing, begging for the world’s attention, for the last 75 years. 

Let us make one thing very clear: This rally, and every rally before this, is happening because the Palestinian people demand an end to ALL violence and an end to these systemic problems that kill countless civilians every single year. 

Our oppressor (the Apartheid regime of Israel), the media, and the European and US governments would have you believe that we want this to happen, but the only thing we want is an end to the occupation, an end to the ethnic cleansing, an end on the siege against Gaza, and honest reporting that tells the truth and stops the spread of propaganda and lies. 

The year is 2023, but if you look at the headlines, it feels like it’s 2001. All over again, newspapers, websites, and even heads of state publish uncorroborated lies, angering millions of people against us, and then walk them back as an apology but only after the damage has been done. This dehumanization and racist rhetoric is the only way the institutions in charge can get away with mass genocide because they make you believe that we aren’t humans.

They do this because the only way you can accept the deaths of two million people under occupation is to paint each and every single one of them as the villain, and the worst part about all of this is that it is working. 

My niece Riham lives with her children (Yaser 12, Darenn 10 and Basel 8) in Rimal which is supposed to be a safe area in the city of Gaza, having survived the vicious attack on Gaza in 2008,2012,2014 and 2021. She just now sent me the following message that I promised her I would read to you.

#رسالة 

نحن بغزة…

ربما ساعات قليلة وننقطع عن العالم بسبب انقطاع تام للكهرباء وستفقد البطاريات شحنها،فينقطع الإنترنت وشركة الكهرباء ومولدات الشوارع لا يوجد لديها مخزون من السولار، سنموت في صمت بعيدا عن عيون العالم والأصدقاء ،سامحونا على كل حال

‘Perhaps in a few hours, we will be cut off from the world due to a complete power outage, and the batteries will lose their charge. The Internet will be cut off, and the electricity company and street generators will not have a stock of diesel. We will die in silence, away from the eyes of the world and our friends. Forgive us in any case.”

We ask you all to continue raise your voice against this on going  injustice . we ask you to make Riham’s voice heard . اتظن انك قد احرقني ورقصت كالشيطان فوق رفاتي …عبثاً تحاول لا فناء لثائر انا كالقيامة ذات يوم آت انا كالقيامة ذات يوم آت

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Palestinian Trade Unions Call for an End to Arming Israel

10.16.2023

On Monday October 16, 2023, Palestinian trade unions released an urgent call for international trade unions to take action to halt the arms trade to Israel. The call comes amid a ruthless bombing campaign of Gaza, following Hamas’ October 7 offensive into Israel, and as Israel prepares for a ground invasion into the territory.

In the week following October 7, the full force of the Israeli military-industrial apparatus was put on display. Over just six days, Israel dropped more than 6,000 bombs onto Gaza. Human Rights Watch verified videos documenting Israel’s use of the lethal chemical white phosphorous in Gaza and Southern Lebanon.

Meanwhile, Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir announced the ministry was purchasing 10,000 rifles, body armor and helmets to distribute to settler militias for use in the West Bank.

As Israeli politicians called for retaliation, using genocidal language that likened Gazans to “human animals,” leaders in Britain and the United States in the week following October 7, dispensed with even the fig leaf of “restraint” that usually accompanies Israeli bombing campaigns of Gaza.[1] 

The United States, in addition to dispatching two aircraft carriers laden with F-18 fighter jets to the region has instructed US defense companies to expedite munitions to Israel, causing an immediate $30 billion surge in US defense stocks.

During the May 2021 Unity Intifada, a collective of Palestinian trade unions called for international solidarity from international unions, urging them to divest their pensions from companies implicated in the occupation and release statements of solidarity. The latest call—which is reprinted in full below—focuses on the weapons industry and infrastructure of the blockade and occupation.

‘An Urgent Call from Palestinian Trade Unions—End all Complicity, Stop Arming Israel’

Israel has demanded that 1.1 million Palestinians evacuate the northern half of Gaza, whilst subjecting them to constant bombardment. This ruthless move is part of Israel’s plan, backed by unwavering support and active participation from the US and majority of European states, to carry out unprecedented and heinous massacres against 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza and to ethnically cleanse it altogether.

Since Saturday Israel has indiscriminately and intensively bombarded Gaza, and cut off fuel, electricity, water, food, and medical supplies. Israel has killed more than 2,600 Palestinians—including 724 children—leveling whole neighbourhoods, wiping out entire families and injuring more than 10,000 people. Some international law experts have begun warning of Israel’s genocidal acts.

Elsewhere, Israel’s far-right government has distributed more than 10,000 rifles to extremist settlers in ‘48 Palestine and the occupied West Bank to facilitate their escalating attacks and pogroms against Palestinians. Israel’s actions, massacres, and rhetoric point to its intention to implement its long promised second Nakba, expelling as many Palestinians as possible and creating a ‘New Middle East’ in which Palestinians live in perpetual subjugation.

The response by Western states has been one of complete and total support for the State of Israel, without even a cursory nod towards international law. This has amplified Israel impunity, giving it carte blanche to carry out its genocidal war without limit. Beyond diplomatic support, Western states are supplying Israel with armament, sanctioning the operation of Israeli weapons companies within their borders.

As Israel escalates its military campaign, Palestinian trade unions call on our counterparts internationally and all people of conscience to end all forms of complicity with Israel’s crimes—most urgently halting the arms trade with Israel, as well as all funding and military research. The time for action is now—Palestinian lives hang in the balance.

This urgent, genocidal situation can only be prevented by a mass increase of global solidarity with the people of Palestine and that can restrain the Israeli war machine. We need you to take immediate action—wherever you are in the world—to prevent the arming of the Israeli state and the companies involved in the infrastructure of the blockade. We take inspiration from previous mobilisations by trade unions in Italy, South Africa and the United States, and similar international mobilisations against the Italian invasion of Ethiopia in the 1930s, the fascist dictatorship in Chile in the 1970s and elsewhere where global solidarity limited the extent of colonial brutality.

We are calling on trade unions in relevant industries:

1. To refuse to build weapons destined for Israel.
2. To refuse to transport weapons to Israel.
3. To pass motions in their trade union to this effect.
4. To take action against complicit companies involved in implementing Israel’s brutal and illegal siege, especially if they have contracts with your institution.
5. Pressure governments to stop all military trade with Israel, and in the case of the US, funding to it.

We make this call as we see attempts to ban and silence all forms of solidarity with the Palestinian people. We ask you to speak out and take action in the face of injustice as trade unions have done historically. We make this call in the belief that the struggle for Palestinian justice and liberation is not only a regionally and globally determined struggle. It is a lever for the liberation of all dispossessed and exploited people of the world.

Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions, Gaza.
General Union of Public Service and Trade Workers
General Union of Municipal Workers
General Union of Kindergarten Workers
General Union of Petrochemicals Workers
General Union of Agricultural Workers
Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees Generation
Union of Media and Print Workers
Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU)
General Union of Palestinian Teachers
General Union of Palestinian Women
General Union of Palestinian Engineers
Palestinian Accountants’ Association
Professional Associations Federation including:
Palestinian Dental Association—Jerusalem center
Palestinian Pharmacists Association—Jerusalem Center
Medical Association—Jerusalem Center
Engineers Association—Jerusalem Center
Agricultural Engineers Association—Jerusalem Center
Veterinarians Syndicate—Jerusalem Branch.
Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate
Palestinian Bar Association
Palestinian Nursing and Midwifery Association
Union of Kindergartens Workers
Palestinian Postal Services Workers Union
Federation of Unions of Palestinian Universities Professors & Employees
The General Federation of Independent Trade Unions, Palestine
The Palestine New Federation of Trade Unions
Palestinian General Union of Writers
Palestinian Contractors Union
Federation of Health Professionals Syndicates
Palestinian Union of Psychologists and Social Workers

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