TUC President Sally Hunt on solidarity for Palestine

SALLY HUNT, TUC General Council international spokesperson, ITUC General Council member and General Secretary of the UK’s University and College Union (UCU)

At the UGTT International Trade Union Forum to support Palestinian people, Tunis, Tunisia, Saturday 20 January 2018

Brothers and sisters, I bring greetings from the British trade union and labour movement, and would like to thank and pay tribute to our hosts in the UGTT for organising this event and for their hospitality and friendship at this difficult time for Tunisia.

Comrades, at a trade union event like this one, we must start from our principle – international trade union solidarity with the Palestinian workers and their trade union representatives. I pay tribute also to our brother Shaher Sa’ed and express our continuing and deep support for him and the whole Palestinian trade union movement, united in the PGFTU.

Solidarity must be our over-riding goal.

We believe it is best delivered through justice for the Palestinian people, but also security for the people of Israel, and peace in the region. That is best delivered by an independent Palestinian state alongside an independent Israel, as envisaged by the UN.

It requires us to oppose attacks on Palestinian communities, political activists and trade unions, and children, young boys and girls like Ahed Tamimi. It requires us, globally and in our own countries, to oppose and challenge both Islamophobia and anti-semitism, both of which are on the rise in Europe and America.

And we believe it also requires us all to unite behind the call for a Palestinian state.

One hundred years after the Balfour Declaration, the British trade union movement calls for immediate recognition of Palestinian statehood, as demanded by our sisters and brothers in the PGFTU.

In that context, the TUC rejects the President of the USA’s unilateral (and provocative) recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel when its status should be negotiated and shared.

We welcome the United Nation’s decision to support that position, despite the absolutely appalling speech made at the UN by the US Ambassador which was threatening and bullying and utterly unconvincing.

And we need to go further than rejecting US unilateralism over Jerusalem.

Settlements in the West Bank must cease and illegal settlement goods must not be allowed into the EU or other jurisdictions. We have a special responsibility in Europe to campaign for that.

And in the longer term, decent work, especially freedom of association and collective bargaining, must be established in Palestine so that the PGFTU can do its job without constant harassment and pressure.

Sisters and brothers, these objectives and those set out in the draft statement are ambitious. But in truth we are not asking for much: a home, a job, a state, a future. A place in the world’s family.

We will not make progress without effort. There will be setbacks.

There will be those like Trump who seek to play games or use the people of the region as pawns in a wider struggle.

We need to be firm in our commitment to a two-state solution that meets the needs of workers regardless of race, religion and nationality.

Thank you once again for inviting us, and thank you for listening. Solidarity!