- Conference
- 2012 National Delegate Conference
- Date
- 1 January 2012
- Decision
- Carried
Conference notes and reaffirms UNISON’s existing policy and the leading role taken by UNISON and its predecessor unions on Palestine over more than two decades. Central to this policy is the right to self-determination and justice for the Palestinian people culminating in a viable, sovereign and contiguous independent Palestinian state alongside a secure Israel.
Conference therefore endorses the call from the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions for the international trade union movement to support the bid, launched by the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian Liberation Organisation, for the immediate recognition of an independent Palestinian state by the United Nations. Conference welcomes the recognition of a Palestinian state by UNESCO and calls on the United Kingdom to support Palestinian statehood both in the UN Security Council and the General Assembly.
Conference further notes, however, that Israel has continued its policy of settlement expansion and the destruction of Palestinian houses and communities in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem thereby directly undermining the foundations of a viable Palestinian state. Conference supports the stance of the Palestinian Authority in its refusal to enter into any further negotiations with Israel whilst settlement construction continues. Conference notes and condemns the continuing siege of Gaza.
Conference welcomes the fact that there is growing support for justice for the Palestinians in the trade union movement both in the United Kingdom and internationally. Conference endorses and welcomes the success of the TUC policy of campaigning for a boycott of goods from illegal Israeli settlements and divestment from companies who profit from the illegal Israeli occupation.
Conference reaffirms its decision in 2010 to suspend bilateral relations with the public services federations of the Histadrut given that organisation’s policy on the Occupation and support for military actions by the Israeli government. Conference notes the development of new trade unions and labour movement NGOs in Israel who do oppose the Occupation and who seek to organise Palestinian and migrant workers in Israel.
The Russell Tribunal on Palestine held its third international session in South Africa in November 2011 to deal with the question: “Are Israeli practices against the Palestinian People in breach of the prohibition on apartheid under International Law?”
The Tribunal found that Israel subjects the Palestinian People to an institutionalised regime of domination amounting to apartheid as defined under international law.
All the findings of the Russell Tribunal to date, in its sessions in London, Barcelona and Cape Town, require concerted international action. A further session is due to be held in New York in 2012 to consider the complicity and omissions of the UN and the USA, and a closing session will be held in 2013.
The recommendations of the third international session of the Russell Tribunal are:
“the state of Israel to immediately dismantle its system of apartheid over the Palestinian people, to rescind all discriminatory laws and practices, not to pass any further discriminatory legislation, and to cease forthwith acts of persecution against Palestinians;
all states to cooperate to bring to an end the illegal situation arising from Israel’s practices of apartheid and persecution. In light of the obligation not to render aid or assistance, all states must consider appropriate measures to exert sufficient pressure on Israel, including the imposition of sanctions, the severing of diplomatic relations collectively through international organisations or, in the absence of consensus, individually by breaking off bilateral relations with Israel;
the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to accept jurisdiction as requested by the Palestinian authorities in January 2009, and to initiate an investigation ‘as expeditiously as possible’, as called for by the ‘Goldstone Report’, into international crimes committed in Palestinian territory since 1 July 2002, including crimes of apartheid and persecution;
Palestine to accede to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court;
global civil society (including all groups and individuals working diligently inside Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory to oppose the system of racial domination that exists therein) to replicate the spirit of solidarity that contributed to the end of apartheid in South Africa, including by making national parliaments aware of the finding of this Tribunal and supporting the campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS);
the UN General Assembly to reconstitute the UN Special Committee against Apartheid, and to convene a special session to consider the question of apartheid against the Palestinian people. In this connection the Committee should compile a list of individuals, organisations, banks, companies, corporations, charities, and any other private or public bodies which assist Israel’s apartheid regime with a view to taking appropriate measures;
the UN General Assembly to request an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice, as called for by the current and former UN Special Rapporteurs on human rights to the Occupied Palestinian Territory, as well as by the Human Sciences Research Council of South Africa, to examine the nature of Israel’s prolonged occupation and apartheid;
the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination to address the issue of apartheid in its forthcoming review of Israel in February 2012;
the Government of South Africa, as the host country for the third session of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine, to ensure that no reprisals of any sort are taken by the State of Israel against the witnesses that testified before the Tribunal.”
This motion concentrates in particular on the Cape Town findings on apartheid and the consequent need for a strong international response on Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions.
It requires a response from the trade union movement and others equivalent to the scale and intensity of our response on apartheid in South Africa.
Consequently, this motion urges UNISON to use its influence in trade union congresses and trade union bodies, domestic and international, to which we are affiliated, to:
1) raise the findings of the Russell Tribunal; and
2) call for support for its recommendations.
Conference instructs the National Executive Council to:
a) continue to defend and implement existing UNISON policy on Palestine and to continue to support the Palestine Solidarity Campaign;
b) campaign for the immediate recognition of an independent Palestinian state by the United Nations;
c) continue working with and supporting the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions;
d) maintain our policy of suspended relations with the public services federations of the Histadrut and to actively explain this policy to other TUC affiliates and sister trade unions internationally;
e) strengthen co-operation with the new trade unions and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Israel who oppose the Occupation and seek to organise Palestinian and migrant workers.
In addition, Conference calls on the National Executive Council to ensure that UNISON, as a sovereign union, continues to give effect to our own obligations in respect of the recommendation on global civil society.