[A-List] Fwd: Palestinian Trade Union Movement Calls for Blocking Israeli Ship Loading/Offloading

Tue Jun 8 06:02:02 MDT 2010

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Sid Shniad <shniad at gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Jun 7, 2010 at 6:09 PM
Subject: Palestinian Trade Union Movement Calls for Blocking Israeli Ship
Loading/Offloading
To:

 http://www.bdsmovement.net/?q=node/712
 <http://bdsmovement.net/>
<http://bdsmovement.net/>

    Palestinian Trade Union Movement Unanimously  Calls on International
Dockworkers Unions to  Block Loading/Offloading Israeli Ships
*Until Israel Complies Fully with International Law and Ends its Illegal
Siege of Gaza*

June 7, 2010- The Palestinian trade union movement, as a key constituent
member of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC)
calls on dockworkers' unions worldwide to block Israeli maritime trade in
response to Israel’s massacre of humanitarian relief workers and activists
aboard the Freedom Flotilla, until Israel complies with international law
and ends its illegal blockade of Gaza. Drunk with power and impunity, Israel
has ignored recent appeals by the UN Secretary General as well as a near
consensus among world governments to end its siege, putting the onus on
international civil society to shoulder the moral responsibility of holding
Israel accountable to international law and ending its criminal impunity.
Dockworkers around the world have historically contributed to the struggle
against injustice, most notably against the apartheid regime in South
Africa, when port workers unions refused to load/offload cargo on/from South
African ships as a most effective way of protesting the apartheid regime.

Today, we ask you to join the South African Transport and Allied Workers
Union (SATAWU), who resolved [1] not to offload Israeli ships in Durban in
February 2009 in protest of Israel’s war of aggression on Gaza, and the
Swedish Dockworkers Union [2] who resolved to blockade all Israeli ships and
cargo to and from Israel in protest of Israel's attack against the Freedom
Flotilla and the ongoing deadly Israeli siege of the occupied Gaza Strip.

Israel’s ongoing blockade of essential food, health, educational and
construction supplies is not only immoral; it is a severe form of collective
punishment, a war crime that is strictly prohibited under Article 33 of the
Fourth Geneva Convention, that is inducing mass poverty, water
contamination, environmental collapse, chronic diseases, economic
devastation and hundreds of deaths. This three-year old medieval siege
against 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza, has been squarely condemned by
leading legal experts, including UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights,
Prof. Richard Falk, who described it as constituting "slow genocide."

Israel's deplorable attacks on the unarmed ships are a violation of both
international maritime law and the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea,
which states that "the high seas should be reserved for peaceful purposes."
Under article 3 of the Rome Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts
against the Safety of Maritime Navigation of 1988, it is an international
crime for any person to seize or exercise control over a ship by force, and
also a crime to injure or kill any person in the process. As prominent
international law scholars have recently confirmed, there is absolutely no
legal justification for Israel's act of aggression against international
civilian ships carrying humanitarian and developmental aid to civilians
suffering under occupation and a patently illegal blockade, which has
created a man-made and deliberately sustained humanitarian catastrophe. Our
response must be commensurate with this crisis.

Gaza today has become the test of our universal morality and our common
humanity. During the South African anti-apartheid struggle, the world was
inspired by the brave and principled actions of dockworkers unions who
refused to handle South African cargo, contributing significantly to the
ultimate fall of apartheid. Today, we call on you, dockworkers unions of the
world, to do the same against Israel's occupation and apartheid. This is the
most effective form of solidarity to end injustice and uphold universal
human rights.

*Signed:*

- Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU)

- General Union of Palestinian Workers (GUPW)

- Federation of Independent Trade Unions (IFU)

- Palestinian Professionals Association ****

- Youth Workers Movement (Fatah)

- Central Office for the Workers Movement (Fatah)

- Progressive Workers Block

- Workers Unity Block

- Workers Struggle Block

- Palestinian Federation of Unions of University Professors and Employees
(PFUUPE) –part of IFU

- Workers Liberation Front

- Labor Front Block

- Workers Solidarity Organization

- Workers Struggle Organization

**** Includes the national syndicates of engineers, agricultural engineers,
doctors, dentists, pharmacists, lawyers and veterinarians.

----------------

[1] http://groups.google.com/group/cosatu-press/msg/a2ff0baff48201c4?pli=1
[2]
http://ibnkafkasobiterdicta.wordpress.com/2010/06/03/the-swedish-dockers...<http://ibnkafkasobiterdicta.wordpress.com/2010/06/03/the-swedish-dockers-union-decides-on-a-blockade-against-israeli-ships-and-goods/>
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