Union Bosses Urged To Cancel 'Biased' Trip To Gaza

James Martin - Thursday 13th September 2012


Union Leaders have been criticised for sending members on a trip to the Gaza Strip as guests of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC).

The visit was approved this week during the Trades Union Congress in Brighton and means a delegation will now go to Gaza with the PSC "to determine how the TUC may most effectively contribute to the end of the blockade".

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The motion, tabled by the Communication Workers' Union, adds: "The blockade of Gaza by the government of Israel is now in its sixth year. On 14 June, 50 international charities and UN Agencies called for an immediate end to the blockade. They noted that violation of international law, affecting 1.6million people, over half of whom are children."

The Fair Play Campaign group - a joint Board of Deputies and Jewish Leadership Council initiative - said: "PSC trips are necessarily biased and one-sided, meeting only those parts of Palestinian society that support its views. In particular, PSC trips to Gaza usually include meetings with terrorist leaders from Hamas. We believe that the trip should not go ahead as envisaged in the motion.

"However, if it does, we call upon the TUC to have a more balanced visit to the wider region, organised by neutral and fair organisations, and to guarantee that they will not meet with the terrorist leaders of Hamas."

They added: "The TUC's decision to singularly focus on Gaza again is bizarre. There is no motion on Syria, at a time when hundreds are dying every week, or on anywhere else in the Middle East, which is still reeling from the aftershocks of the Arab Spring."

A TUC spokesperson said: "We have strong links with trade unionists in both Palestine and Israel. No decisions have been made on who we will seek to meet, but we will consult widely on who to talk to."

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