Why it’s important for trade unions to stand up for Palestine

What is currently happening to Gaza is devastating. Israel has killed more than 3000 Palestinians, including 1000 children, in a week’s bombing of the Gaza Strip, using sophisticated, western-supplied weaponry. Gaza has been placed under total siege, with no water, electricity, fuel or food having entered for days, meaning people are now dehydrating to death. At the time of writing at least 500 people have been killed from just one Israeli airstrike at a Christian hospital, demonstrating that nowhere is safe in the concentration camp that Gaza has become. 

These massacres happen in the context of a brutal 75-year occupation, where Palestinians have been systematically ethnically-cleansed, driven from their homeland with no right of return and, in the case of Gaza, suffering under a brutal blockade. For Palestinians still living in Israel, they are legally treated as second-class citizens in what can accurately be defined an apartheid state and in the West Bank their land has been divided into Bantustans.

This situation was started by Britain in 1948 and continues to be supported by the current UK Government and opposition. This is why it is so important that trade unions - in particular PCS as a civil servants’ union - stands in support of Palestine to put pressure on the government and mobilise our workers to demand they stop enabling Israel. 

This genocide happens under the insulting cover of “self-defence”, but no country has a right to commit war crimes, to occupy another people and deprive them of their land and rights. I urge trade unions everywhere to send a clear message to the government: stop supporting the killing of innocent civilians and help to create a peaceful, truly democratic Palestine. For trade unionists - petition your unions and representatives, attend rallies and spread awareness. We live in comparative privilege in the UK and need to use our influence to help those suffering so dearly.

The PCS national executive committee has published a statement on Israel and Gaza.