REPORT OF THE TRADE UNION FRIENDS OF PALESTINE DELEGATION TO THE OCCUPIED WEST BANK AND EAST JERUSALEM March 11-19th 2017

TUFP Delegates meeting with the BDS Boycott National Committee spokesperson Omar Barghouti Left to right: Ali Long UNISON, Pat Bolger IMPACT & Dublin TUC, Daisy Mules INTO & Derry TUC, Dara McCaughey INTO, Eamon McMahon UNISON, Omar Barghouti, Paddy Mackel GMB & Belfast TUC, Roberta Magee UNISON, Áine Máire O’Neill INTO.

TRADE UNION FRIENDS OF PALESTINE

Campaigning in solidarity with the Palestinian people

PHOTO “...Israel has expanded by force of arms. After every stage in this expansion Israel has appealed to ‘reason’ and has suggested ‘negotiations’. This is the traditional route of the imperial power, because it wishes to consolidate with the least difficulty what it has already taken by violence. Every new conquest becomes the new basis of the proposed negotiation from strength, which ignores the injustice of the previous aggression. The aggression committed by Israel must be condemned, not only because no state has the right to annexe foreign territory, but because every expansion is an experiment to discover how much more aggression the world will tolerate.” Bertrand Russell’s last plea to humanity, two days before his death 31 January 1970 “What’s so horrifying about understanding that the entire Palestinian people is the enemy? ...In wars the enemy is usually an entire people, including its elderly and its women, its cities and its villages, its property and its infrastructure.” Call for genocide of Palestinians by Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, who also referred to Palestinian children as ‘little snakes’ 30 June 2014 “Show the world the truth about Palestine” 10 year old Janna Tamimi from Nabi Saleh 30 June 2014 “The biggest support you give us is BDS” Mohammad Blaidi, Chief Executive New Unions 16 March2017

INTRODUCTION Trade Union Friends of Palestine (TUFP) was formed in 2006 in response to the policy commitment of the Irish

Congress of Trade Unions to ‘campaign in solidarity with the Palestinian people’. In 2007 ICTU adopted a policy of full

support for Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel to help bring about an end to the occupation,

colonisation and repression of Palestine, and to help achieve full equality for Palestinian citizens of Israel and to

support the right of return of Palestinian refugees. See: http://www.ictu.ie/globalsolidarity/palestine/trade-union-

friends-of-pa.html

Since its formation TUFP has been extremely active in helping to educate and mobilise the broader trade union membership to take a stand against the human rights abuses endured by Palestinians under conditions of intensifying Israeli repression – a state of affairs, in breach of international law and UN conventions, that appears to warrant nothing other than the mildest rebuke from international governments and the EU – because of what is regarded as ‘Israeli exceptionalism’. The UN is toothless when it comes to Israeli breaches of its conventions and resolutions, and in order to protect this Israeli exceptionalism will even sanction its own commissioned enquiries, no matter how accurate or damning, in order to satisfy the powerful players in the West, particularly the USA and the EU. And meanwhile business – and highly profitable business at that – goes on ((while the Irish government, in clear opposition to majority public opinion, buys Israeli made drones. This distasteful relationship must cease). Palestinians continue to die, or to languish in Israeli cells, or see their homes destroyed, or their children dragged from their arms in the middle of the night. Whilst the world looks on international law is being devalued and dismantled. The map of Palestine has been re-set, and a new horrific order has taken its place in the world. TUFP, like so many others in the solidarity movement across the world, refuse to accept the normalisation of human rights abuses against Palestinians, and the de-valuing of international law that accompanies it. Since our formation in 2006 we have influenced the development of BDS policies in the Irish trade union movement, and have held conferences, organised fringe meetings, produced leaflets and bulletins and have led the broader civil society mobilisations against the genocidal attacks on Gaza. More recently we have helped to mobilise coordinated trade union action throughout Europe, playing a leading role in the formation of the European Trade Union Initiative for Justice in Palestine. See: https://www.ictu.ie/download/pdf/palestine_etu_en_finalcompressed.pdf For too long however we have avoided sending trade union representatives to Palestine – partly because we had a very significant ICTU fact-finding delegation in 2007, which included members of TUFP, and which produced a powerful report. There was a concern about the resources required, in terms of finance and time, and also partly because of a mistaken apprehension about ‘occupation tourism’. This began to be corrected when we invited Fagforbundet and Norwegian People’s Aid to address a seminar on the value of trade union ‘ambassadors’ to Palestine. This convinced us that sending delegations was worth the time and effort, and use of limited financial resources, as it proved to be one of the most effective ways to achieve meaningful trade union solidarity, to develop links with Palestinians, and to bring a broader understanding of the situation to the wider trade union membership. We were also very fortunate in early 2016 in making contact with ‘Workmates International’, the Trade Union Section of the Palestine Committee Norway. This led to our first TUFP delegation, piggybacking on a Norwegian trade union delegation, over the Mayday period in 2016 when we sent four representatives to the occupied territories. It also introduced us to the Palestinian Association for Cultural Exchange (PACE) an NGO that specialises in .....and to remarkable guides like Abu Hassan, Lama Adel Yahya and Jamal Juma. The report of this joint delegation is available at.....The important and indeed radical conclusions and recommendations of this 2016 report (we pulled no punches) are still very much the conclusions and recommendations of this delegation, but they do not need to be replicated again here. This delegation again was organised in association with Norwegian Workmates colleagues, though this time TUFP diverted substantially from the Workmates programme in order to hold a series of meetings that our own members had requested, and that best met TUFP’s developmental needs in terms of growing our own trade union Palestinian ambassadors. It is important to record that this was an official delegation, in that all those who participated were officially mandated by their union, trades council or branch to take part and to report back. As you can see with this report, when you look at outcomes, this model of official sponsorship, and the designation of ambassadors or Palestine leads, is proving to be an effective model in ensuring meaningful trade union engagement in defence of Palestinian human rights.

SUMMARY OF VISITS AND MEETINGS

Day 1 – Arrive at Ben Gurion airport Tel Aviv. Picked up at the airport and overnight in East Jerusalem. We were disappointed to learn that the leader of the Norwegian delegation, Petter Thoresen, and another member were denied entry at the airport.

Day 2 – Tour of East Jerusalem, walking through the Old City

Suffocating East Jerusalem – A tour with Abu Hassan East Jerusalem has historically been the Palestinian quarter in the city, and identified by Palestinians as being the future capital of any Palestinian state, also recognised as such by the international community. Its Palestinian residents are seen as a block to the Zionist project of making Jerusalem the capital of the Israeli state. From the beginning of the occupation in 1967 the Israeli governments have consistently pursued a discriminatory and apartheid policy of ethnic cleansing, house demolition, settlement construction, restricting population growth, restriction of permits, construction of the wall to isolate Palestinian communities and ensure the separation of East Jerusalem from the West Bank. EJ has been illegally annexed by Israel, which constitutes a war crime. It has been condemned as such by the UN. Abu Hassan, who lives in EJ, explained that he is considered by the Israeli state to be a resident, but not a citizen. Palestinian residents are not granted citizenship but only residency status –perceived as temporary - as part of the drive to ethnically cleanse and Judaise Jerusalem. There are such severe restrictions placed on accessibility to EJ, making it impossible for many Palestinians to maintain contact with their families. The Palestinian communities here are fragmented by security barriers, checkpoints, new roads and the Apartheid Wall - imprisoning Palestinians into their own localities. There are strict water restrictions placed on Palestinians, whose homes are recognisable by water tanks on the roofs – something not seen in Israeli homes, where water is significantly cheaper and freely available. Abu pointed out the population density and poverty of the Palestinian communities, including the large refugee camp at Shuafat. Daily life for Palestinians living under such suffocating control, with population growth but inability to build housing, avail of services, have adequate access to water, health or education, or even have the freedom to walk about, creates enormous social and emotional problems. This was in stark contrast to the adjacent Israeli communities with their attractive streets and housing, modern civic amenities, schools, playgrounds and urban space. Israel has extended the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem to incorporate settlements, again a breach of international law, and encourages settlers to live there through financial incentives. At the same time in order to change the demographics, Israel built the wall around 7 Palestinian towns that were part of Jerusalem, and these are now part of the West Bank.

We visited Qalandia, the main checkpoint used by the Israeli military to control Palestinian access, to East Jerusalem and Israel, through the use of permits. Unnecessary delays and hours of waiting are imposed as part of routine practice and harassment. This is the only point of access to the only road that connects the north and south West Bank. In the Sheikh Jarrah area of EJ, where most of the Palestinian residents are refugees from the Nakba, Palestinian homes have been seized by religious zealots from the Jewish Defence League, backed up by the Israeli courts. Palestinian families were forcibly evicted – one wheel-chair bound man later died. Those that remain are forced to pay rent to the occupying settlers, usually aggressive young men, heavily armed, who live in the house on a temporary basis and are replaced by others. We were told of a new Israeli law prohibiting Palestinian mosques

from broadcasting the call to prayer between 11.00 pm and 7.00 am – effectively banning the Muslim call to prayer at dawn, a highly provocative move. The following morning a man named Jabel Muk Abir, who had been answering the dawn call to prayer, was beaten up and killed by Israeli soldiers. Abu Hassan accepts that the Jewish people who live in Israel/Palestine have the right to remain, but he insists that Palestinians should have the same rights and that they are entitled to equality, human rights and justice. Whilst he blames the Israeli state and its apartheid policies he also spoke angrily about how fundamentally ‘the West is to blame’. In the afternoon the group had a walk through the vibrant Palestinian market area of the Old City of Jerusalem, viewing some of the historical religious sites of the Muslim, Christian and Jewish quarters.

Day 3 – Tour of Hebron, Meeting in Beit Sahour with the Defence of Children International – Palestine

The desolation of Hebron

Abu Hassan was our guide again for the journey to Hebron and the tour of this tormented city – the only Palestinian city with a colony occupying its very heart. We had to pass through multiple checkpoints, some of which had the appearance and the feel of an international border control - yet we were simply travelling from one part of supposed Palestinian Authority territory to another. The Oslo agreement had granted the Israeli state complete military and civilian control of 60% of the West Bank (Area C), with the Palestinian Authority having civil authority, but not military authority over 22% (Area B - largely the towns) and that it was only in the Palestinian cities (18%) that the PA had full authority (which does not prevent the Israeli military entering when it suits them).

Hebron is a city of over 200,000 residents, with approximately 500 settler-colonists who are protected by almost 4,000 IOF soldiers – a very visible heavy military presence, with checkpoints, security restrictions, barriers and constant disruption to the daily lives of Palestinians living around them. The settlers, often heavily armed, roam freely in the desolate centre of the city, prohibited to Palestinians, and officially designated by the occupying army as ‘sterile zones’ – ‘cleansed’ of Palestinians. We visited the Ibrahimi Mosque, passing through a heavily guarded military checkpoint where in 1994 a settler physician from Brooklyn New York massacred 29 Palestinians, some of them children and wounding 120 others. It is suspected that he was not the only gunmen, and as this was a heavily militarised area at the time and he was able to move freely that there was also military collusion.

Following the massacre, and to accommodate the colonists, the mosque remained closed by the Israelis for 6 months, along with local busy streets, causing irreparable damage to the life of locals, which is still felt to this day. When re-opened the Israelis had annexed about 20% of the mosque as a place for Jewish worship. But the shops remained closed, the market traders permanently expelled, the bus station removed. Al-Shuhada Street, which for decades had been the central commercial hub of Hebron, a thriving market area with hundreds of local shops, was now closed down and declared a sterile zone. The area is now empty, desolate, filled with foreboding and tension, a no-man’s land. In a thirty minute spell we were followed by the military, had jeeps and armed trucks track and follow our movement, special security operatives intrusively filming us individually from a distance of one metre in an empty street. We witnessed the restrictions and delays Palestinians endured going in and out of their own area, having to wait on the whim of an Israeli soldier to let them pass through or not. One old woman was clearly distraught, the victim of the casual inhumanity of the soldiers, as she had been trapped in the cage between barriers, and had been waiting for over an hour when we arrived because the soldiers refused to open the final gate. [Ali photo] Many of the settlers live in immediate proximity to Palestinians, but invariably occupy the houses above. There are grills above the open air stalls, protecting the Palestinians below from the stones and missiles and even body waste products being thrown down on them. We walked down a side street to be greeted with verbal abuse and rocks thrown by ‘settler’ children from rooftops, probably no more than 8 or 10 years old. We were informed that settlers here had kidnapped a baby from a Palestinian home and held it for days before the family were able to have the infant returned to them.

Meeting Defence of Children International - Palestine

In the late afternoon in Beit Sahour close to Bethlehem we met with Rifat Odeh Kassis, founder of the Defence of Children International – Palestine, and Ivan Karakashian of DCI-P. Ivan was already aware of the work of TUFP as he had been a guest speaker at our 10th anniversary conference in October 2016. Strategic and political overview Rifat Odeh Kassis, a prominent Christian spokesperson, and a human rights and community activist, opened the meeting. He explained his current role as the President of the International Executive Council of Defence for Children International (DCI). He has been the General Director in the past of its Palestine Section. He has also been one of the authors of the Kairos Palestine Statement. He informed us that Palestine was at one of its worst moments due to: - re-structuring in the region and Israel allying itself with the Gulf States to enforce polarisation between Sunni and Shia, and strengthen an alliance against Iran. Palestine is caught up in this, and ‘on the agenda of everyone...we gave our destiny to the region, instead of taking our destiny in our own hands’. - the huge threat to Palestinian refugees, and its 1.5 million Palestinian citizens, as Israel seeks to be recognised as a Jewish state. - that there has never been such an intensification of settlement building, including the obliteration of the Green Line (the ’67 ‘border’) by 7 big settlements that cross it – ‘so a two state solution is now impossible!’ This has already been made clear by Netanyahu and his ministers, and they are now starting to hear again about the ‘Jordanian Solution’ – that some Palestinian communities of the West Bank will be linked to Jordan. Netanyahu and his government speak openly now about ‘transfer’ and ethnic cleansing, but the idea of Israel expelling Palestinians from the West Bank into Jordan is now less likely, given the devastation in Syria and the fact that Jordan is already hosting 1.5 million Syrian refugees.

-the attempt to portray the situation as a religious conflict, Israel benefiting from Islamophobia, and the witnessing now of a lot of desecration in Palestine of Islamic and Christian sites. - the position of the Palestinian Authority. Rifat referred to the recent killing in Ramallah by the Israeli military of Basil al-Araj. This has inflamed the population who are also angry that the PA had beaten up people, including the victim’s father, who had protested about this execution and the PA response. He considered that the PA were increasingly attacking individual liberty. He hadn’t recognised it before but considers now that the Palestinian privileged class are really benefiting from the status quo. He pointed out that Palestinian investment in the Israeli economy is more than 5 times the Israeli investment in the Palestinian economy. - the weakness of the left wing parties and any political opposition to the PA. He considered that Hamas, the main opposition, don’t have a programme that will help achieve independence - that they seem to be content controlling Gaza.

Rifat was opposed to the position of those Palestinians who supported talking to the Israelis, and considered ‘normalisation’ to be one of the biggest threats to Palestinian resistance. Those who support ‘normalisation’ ignore the reality of the occupation, and try to frame the problem as due to extreme settlers, and extreme Islamists. He was very critical of the number of peace NGOs - ‘an industry’ – that were set up after Oslo. He emphasised that the Palestinian people should not accept any solution that was not rights based. It was important to recognise that Israel is a brutal military dictatorship, and an apartheid state, and that this has to be confronted. He believed that change will never come from Israel itself – for example in 1982 when Israel invaded Lebanon hundreds of thousands of Israelis opposed the war. When they invaded again in 2006 only about a dozen people protested! There are positive developments however. In the absence of a political opposition the popular movements and demonstrations are gaining support. A mass movement would never come about easily, and needs to be built up from such local resistance – that the steadfastness (sumud) of the people and the resistance on the ground needed to be supported as much as possible. Local leaderships play an important role in bridging the gap between the people on the ground and the international solidarity movement. He didn’t think the Palestinians themselves could defeat the Israelis, and that they needed the support of international bodies and the international solidarity movement. He was convinced of the power of BDS – ‘without the BDS we will never find a solution – it is one of the few tools, if not the last one, that could bring about a solution’. The plight of Palestinian children Ivan gave a presentation on how children are directly affected by the occupation: - that Israel violates almost every single one of the UN recognised rights of children - that children suffer massive intimidation and threat on a daily basis – especially from settlers and the Israeli army

- he referred to one school in Hebron (Qurduba) where the number of children has reduced from 800 to 200 because of settler intimidation - that numerous schools have either been destroyed, or taken over by the Israeli military - that many schools are in close proximity to military towers, checkpoints, settlements or the apartheid wall - that 36 children were killed in 2016 – many of them innocent bystanders, and many of them were falsely accused of carrying a knife - that there is video evidence for this - when the numbers are examined from 2000 until today we learned that that every four days a Palestinian child has been killed - that every four days a Palestinian child has been injured - that every single night two Palestinian children have been arrested. - that the collective punishment policy – which is a war crime – goes unnoticed, e.g. one settler child was injured by a stone thrower and in response the Israeli military demolished the home of his parents Arrest and traumatisation of Palestinian children Palestinian children are the only children in the world who are tried in military courts by a military judge. It is also the only country in the world where stone throwing is a felony. If a child is convicted of throwing a stone at a static object - in most cases it is the apartheid wall - they can face up to 10 years imprisonment. If a moving object, like an armoured jeep, they can face up to 20 years. We talked about the psychologically traumatising practice of night time raids where children as young as 12 years old are arrested in their homes. Israeli soldiers will burst into a sleeping household, break down doors as they invade, wake all family members and drag them from their beds. Armed soldiers line family members in a room, including the children, and will photograph, interrogate, humiliate, insult and intimidate them in their homes before the arrest of a child. When a child is arrested they can be blindfolded to disorientate them before taken to a military place far from their home. Legally the Israelis can interrogate Palestinian children as young as 12 years old without an adult or lawyer present. The interrogation need not be recorded and 95% of children will confess to crimes they may not have committed within the first two hours of interrogation due to fear. Children are asked to sign statements in Hebrew which they cannot understand. This is in stark comparison to the law relating to Israeli children of the same age. Israeli children will not be tried before the age of 16, and the age of criminal responsibility is 14 years, as opposed to 12 for a Palestinian child. Israeli children can only be prosecuted in civilian courts, and they do not face interrogation on their own unlike Palestinian children. The interview must be recorded, whereas this does not apply to Palestinian children. Ivan also emphasised that we have to consider the long-term traumatising impact on the children in the family who are not arrested, but witness their sibling being taken away in a state of terror, or killed or injured, or their parents beaten-up in the home – supposedly a place of security. These discrepancies in the treatment of children demonstrate the reality of the apartheid state of Israel. UNICEF tried to address the issues relating to night-time raids and wanted Israel to introduce a summons for children - Israeli officials felt that this was not an acceptable alternative because of spurious security concerns. In reality the night-time raids and arrests are part of a deliberate policy to undermine emotional attachment and resilience, to traumatise as many Palestinian children and families as possible, and to cause long-term mental health problems. We discussed issues relating to attachment and the mental well being of the whole Palestinian population as a result of disturbance of attachment, which can affect mental as well as physical health across the life-span. One of our delegation (Eamon McMahon), who is a trauma as well as a child and infant mental health specialist, expressed concern that Israeli neuro-developmental and mental health practitioners may have used their expertise unethically - to provide guidance to the Israeli military on how best to bring about long term psychological injury to the

Palestinian population. There is also considerable scientific evidence that this will cause long-term physical ill-health. We left the meeting shocked by these disclosures, and the extent to which the vulnerability of Palestinian children is being deliberately used as a weapon by the Israeli state as part of a longer-term strategy to undermine the Palestinian people. For more information about the targeting of Palestinian children see: http://www.dci-palestine.org/ We then left Beit Sahour to drive to our hotel in Ramallah. Evening meeting with our tour coordinator Lama Adel Yahya, Director of the Palestinian Association for Cultural Exchange (PACE). PACE is an organisation established to protect and promote Palestinian cultural heritage. Day 4 – Meetings with Fatah, Hamas, Omar Barghouti and UNWRA Trade Union The four meetings today were with TUFP delegates only. From this point on we were in the hands of PACE. Our tour guide for the day was Jamal Juma, an activist with the human rights body Stop the Wall, and the coordinator of the Land Defence Coalition. He is also on the Executive Committee of the New Unions. Jamal has addressed many international bodies including the UN and has in the past been imprisoned and held under ‘administrative detention’ (interned) because of his human rights activity.

Meeting HAMAS We met with Mohammad Totah , Abduljaber Fuqahaa and Ahmad Attoun all members of the Palestinian Legislative Council. All have spent many years in prison. Points made included the following: What they face is basically a civil rights struggle. In the last year alone over 50 racist laws were issued by the Knesset. Teachers in Jerusalem went on strike against the imposition of an Israeli curriculum on Palestinian schools and the closure of schools. There is a huge concern for the welfare of children who constantly suffer ill treatment and delays at checkpoints. Christian and Islamic places are being attacked, and the killing of Palestinians is almost routine. Fifty different race

laws are in place including prohibition on building. Israel is implementing a ban on the call to prayer from mosques including all of Jerusalem. Israeli policy is to squeeze out Palestinians as a continuation of ethnic cleansing. The siege of Gaza is an ongoing crime. All of these injustices are against international law. They appreciate what we are doing to promote BDS, and they follow with interest the development of BDS around the world. The new law which excludes supporters of BDS is indicative of the pressure being brought to bear by the campaign. Hamas won a majority in the 2006 PLC elections with 45 MPs in the West Bank. The Brussels conference (of the European Trade

Union Initiative for Justice in Palestine) was very important because the EU Israel free trade agreement needs to be challenged and links made with Palestinian unions. An election is required but can only be called by President Abbas. Consensus and reconciliation is needed and wanted. Hamas had agreed to a settlement based on the 1967 borders but still upholds the right of return of refugees.

Meeting FATAH We met with Dr. Mohammad Shtayyeh, of the Central Committee of Fatah. Dr. Shtayyeh was involved in peace talks from 1991 to 2013. His comments included the following: The Israeli government is not genuinely seeking any solution, as it wants to destroy the prospect of a viable Palestinian state. Thay are also determined to create a Jewish state which is exclusionist towards others. This is not acceptable. The Jordan valley comprises 28% of the West Bank - the vegetable basket of Palestine and the prime source of water in the region. Israel claims a security need to control the area, then populates it with settlements. There are 651,000 Israelis occupying illegal settlements in the West Bank – 24 per cent of the total population. There were none in 1967. In January 2015, the demographic breakdown in the area from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean was as follows: 6.2m Israelis (non Arab) 6.4m Palestinians 3m Palestinians live in the West Bank, 2m in Gaza and 1.4m in Israel FATAH believe the likely outcome will be cantonisation of the West Bank similar to South African bantustans. This will entail an apartheid regime. Israel already is a de jure apartheid state. The Nakba shows what can happen. The region is in chaos and Arab states are not focussed on justice for the Palestinians. 6 million Syrians are refugees, so in a worse-case scenario anything is possible. The 514 corporations that invest in illegal settlements and Europeans who live there should not be immune from sanctions. There are positive developments – the emergence of the peaceful ‘popular resistance’ movements and how ‘we started BDS’ as part of this movement. International support and sanctions helped to end the South African apartheid state. They are also working internationally at the International Criminal Court. His parting comment: ‘Diversity is welcome - let every flower flourish, but in our garden!’ Summary of the common positions expressed by the two main political parties The solidarity of our delegation was very welcome and they expressed gratitude at our visit. The BDS campaign is a vital platform in applying pressure on Israel. The continued expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank is eroding the possibility of a two- state solution. The Oslo agreement is being similarly eroded by failure to implement its full terms. The current situation is exceptionally difficult and it is impossible to predict development – but Israel’s relentless policy of undermining international law and the rights of Palestinians will undoubtedly continue unless the international community intervenes.

United Nations Relief and Works Agency – UNWRA School, and UNWRA Trade Union

Representative

We met in the UNRWA Al Amari school in Ramallah with the school principal and UNRWA union representatives led by Jamal Qassem, head of the Area Staff Union for the West Bank.

The union represents all grades of staff in the schools - about 5,000 employees. They are part of the broader body representing UNRWA staff working with Palestinians in refugee camps in Gaza, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. In total 32,000 employees, two thirds of whom are teachers working in over 700 schools. Their major challenge is to improve services and the very low wages of staff including teachers. The UN pays only the local and not the UN international rate. The conditions in the West Bank are also different from the other countries as there is no proper state to relate to. They are working under a harsh military occupation. Over 70% of their staff are under the poverty line so they have had to resort to strike action with at least 6 strikes in the last 10 years. 3 months ago they started ‘administrative disobedience’.

They fear that there is a political plan from the main donors, the USA and UK, to undermine UNRWA and reduce its services. They asked that as trade unionists we report to our executives / ruling bodies, requesting them to highlight with the UN and with international bodies like ETUC and ITUC the needs of UNRWA staff and the Palestinian refugees. The latter used to receive direct provision of flour from UNRWA. They now receive about 1 shekel a day, the equivalent of 22 pence or 25 cents! Support from international unions would be very significant. Members of the delegation suggested that this could be raised with the Public Service Committee of ICTU, with the Education Committee of NIC-ICTU, with UNISON’s International Committee and with INTO. For further information on the challenges faced by UNRWA see: http://www.aljazeera.com/amp/indepth/opinion/2017/06/saving-unrwa-means-saving-palestinian-refugees-170619101047716.html

Meeting Omar Barghouti Omar Barghouti is a founding member of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PCACBI) and a co-founder and leading spokesperson for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. We learnt at this meeting that Omar was to be a joint recipient of the 2017 Ghandi Peace Prize.

He informed us that since 2014 the Israeli government considers the BDS movement a strategic threat, and have allocated millions of shekels on a propaganda campaign to undermine it, including the use of espionage and ‘lawfare’ – attempting to criminalise the movement. They are particularly using the smear of anti-Semitism and seeking to extend the definition of anti-Semitism to include criticism of the Israel state. This has worked in France to some degree, and partly in the UK where he has never seen such a level of repression of trade unions and students – not even under Thatcher. He identifies this as a form of McCarthyism.

Several European governments however have upheld the right to BDS activity – including Sweden, Ireland and the Netherlands. 200 legal scholars have stated that BDS is a right under European conventions and charters of human rights. In the USA freedom of speech is absolutely protected – so in the USA promoting boycotts is seen as a matter of free speech. A ‘tarnishing unit’ has been established by the Ministry of Strategic Affairs to undermine BDS actors, and if they can’t find evidence they will fabricate it. The BDS campaign is now having a significant impact on the Israeli economy and on complicit corporations. Veolia has lost 23 billion worth of contracts causing it to withdraw from the operation of the illegal Jerusalem light railway. An editorial in the Financial Times stated that the BDS campaign has caused G4S serious reputational damage. Israel is trying to respond to these threats by outlawing the movement. We heard about BDS successes in Spain, where 10 city councils have declared themselves ‘apartheid-free’ zones. The BDS policies of ICTU and of other unions internationally are to be welcomed, but so far they have yet to deliver a serious and effective BDS campaign. Useful action could involve the targeting of Irish companies that trade with the Israeli military, or for the Irish government to call for an military embargo applicable to both sides – that Amnesty International has called on the UN to demand this. Omar concluded by thanking ICTU for bringing to the attention of the Irish government the threats against him because of his human rights work – including a travel ban and an Israeli government minister calling for civil assassination of BDS activists and implied death threats against Omar himself. Postscript: The tarnishing unit that Omar had referred to was to move very swiftly into action against Omar himself in the days following our meeting. Omar, together with his wife, was arrested and after a 12 day period of detention and interrogation Omar was charged with non-payment of taxes. Omar has robustly refuted these allegations as an attempt to smear him. Day 5 – Tour of Nablus region, Khirbet Tana, meeting the New Unions in Tulkarem TUFP joined up again with our Norwegian Workmates colleagues with Jamal Juma as our tour guide again. We were also joined by Fahid one of the founders of the New Unions. As we drove out of the city Jamal talked about the small and very wealthy Palestinian capitalist class, whose interests are represented by the PA which he described as ‘a coalition between the Palestinian capitalists and the Israeli security – maintaining a neo-liberal occupation’. He referred to the decimation of small scale industry since Oslo, the decline of the Palestinian middle classes and the emergence of a very wealthy elite class that benefited from the

occupation and neo-liberal transformations. Jamal referred to the failure of the left in this context by being unable to form a united leadership. There was also considerable repression now by the PA. Most of the villages we passed can be closed off by ‘security’ gates that the Israeli military close at a whim. Farmers have to pass through checkpoints to get to and from their land. We drove through Beit Freik (?) which has suffered a large number of deaths due to the occupation. 35 people from this village have been sentenced to life imprisonment, and a third of them have spent time in jail. The most fanatical settler-colonists live in this

region. They occupy the mountain tops, and any Palestinian who attempts to go up the mountain will be shot. A local farmer who attempted to pick his olives was attacked by settlers who smashed his head in with rocks.

Occupation’s legacy: The village of Khirbet Tana - Back to the future We drove along very rough roads to the village of Khirbet Tana. The road has been destroyed on numerous occasions, but the people continue to repair it to keep on the land and connected with one another. The Palestinian municipality lent the community a bulldozer to help repair the road, and the Israelis seized it. In this area it is common for the Israeli army to tell the villagers to vacate their homes during a military exercise – the people go to live in the caves until the exercise is over, but when they return they find their homes destroyed. We spent some time visiting the school, having fun with the schoolchildren, and meeting the villagers in their caves. The school staff, and the local people, were immensely hospitable. They allowed us to enter their homes in the caves, to see how they have tried to make them liveable – even to install modern equipment like TVs and a satellite dish, powered by solar panels. All the homes however had their solar panels smashed in by the Israeli military. One family had an outside portable toilet, and they described how they hid the toilet amongst rocks

so that the soldiers would not find it and destroy it. We left this amazing village shocked and yet immensely inspired by the resilience and the sumud (steadfastness) of the people who live here determined never to concede to intimidation, repression and constant fear of attack. They know that if they leave their lands or give up trying to farm them that the colonising Israeli state will expropriate it, citing laws that were designed to legitimise the gains of ethnic cleansing, (like the law

of... ). These impoverished people, living in their caves, were in a remarkable way demonstrating that one of the most powerful states in the world, backed up by one of the most powerful armies in the world, and sponsored by the world’s only superpower, could not undermine or break the spirit of resistance of people who had right and justice on their side. They epitomised that is the spirit of resistance inspired by the slogan that ‘to exist is to resist’.

The Palestinian Federation of New Trade Unions We drove to Tulkarem where we were welcomed to the headquarters of the New Unions by its Chief Executive Mohammad Blaidi and other members of the NU executive and the Women’s Department. He thanked us for our solidarity and pointed out that ‘the colour of our banners is red - the colour of our blood. It is something we have in

common, no matter where we are struggling’. He told us ‘the biggest support you give us is BDS’. He criticised the Israeli trade union federation the Histadrut, which also organises in the settlements, and which he sees as an organisation of occupation. The Israelis treat the New Unions and Palestinians who oppose the occupation as political terrorists – ‘they want us to be nice victims, and that is not going to happen!’ The unions hold the national struggle and the class struggle together – their problem is not with the Jews, but with the occupation. We learnt about the reasons for establishing the New Unions. Initially they were part of the PGFTU but were unhappy that there were political appointees to union officer posts and because of the relationship between the PGFTU

and Histadrut – with both organisations benefiting from the forced deduction of 1% of the wages of Palestinian workers in the settlements and Israel. There is a problem of the Palestinian middlemen who can take up to half of the salaries of the workers. On top of that if the worker is injured or killed – and Palestinians tend to do the most dangerous jobs in Israel – they can’t sue the Israeli company as the middleman is the legal employer. There are no Labour Courts or tribunals in Palestine, so the worker has nowhere to go. The New Unions also emerged out of an industrial dispute on health and safety issues at Geshori Industrial Zone in Tulkarem. Conditions were appalling, with 3 workers being burned alive in one chemical factory, and another 5 dying of a cancer seen as related to their occupation. They went on strike to improve these conditions, and for better pay. Support was not forthcoming from the established unions but the workers remained on strike for 6 months. Eventually they won implementation of Israeli labour law and the Israeli minimum wage. This victory encouraged the workers to establish their own union determined not just to struggle for workers’ rights, but to be part also of the national struggle for liberation from the occupation. The New Union movement was formally established in 2012, and it now has branches in most Palestinian cities, particularly in food processing, textiles and construction. They still depend on voluntary labour, as they can only ask for very small contributions from workers as they are so poorly paid. Nevertheless they are growing, with 10,000 members in 28 separate union organisations. Last year they were formally recognised by the Palestinian Authority as an official trade union federation.

The New Unions Women’s Department This was followed by a separate meeting with the Women’s Committee. We met with Hanan Salman who is the Organisation Manager of the New Unions for Women along with 3 of her colleagues. They try to help women who work in factories, in agriculture and in administration. They also seek to organise the women working in the settlements as they are particularly vulnerable. Women suffer deeply from the occupation, and women workers are most exploited. Women don't know their rights or get to see their terms of conditions. 85% of the women get less than the minimum wage, no matter what their profession. The Women's Department of the New Unions are determined to establish a fair wage for their members. They hold campaigns, and recently they celebrated International Woman's Day, going to a factory to hand out roses to the women, and holding a march and rally in a valley between 7 settlements. 100 women got together here from different Palestinian cities to find out what could be done to improve the lives of women while trying to bring awareness to them of their rights. They also provided entertainment for the women. This was a big success. Between the 22 – 24th March they also organised an exhibition of handicrafts and traditional dishes to celebrate the work of women. It is essential that they organise and recruit for this new union, but the biggest problem is that they are so widespread and they need money for transport to bring woman from far and wide to attend meetings. They are trying to hold as many meetings as they can but this is difficult due to lack of resources. Their main strategy is to provide education to the women to help them be aware of and to fight for their terms and conditions and their rights.

They also plan to run small projects to help women when their husbands are in prison or have died to help women feed their families, and to start small businesses to enable these women to be independent. Women who are the primary breadwinner is normal in Palestine as many men are in prison or have been killed. Conclusion: It was obvious that the New Union movement as a whole and their Women’s Department need a lot of support and solidarity to be able to continue to organise. Links between the Women’s Department and other trade union woman's committees around the world would help enormously. This was a very humbling but inspiring meeting, and the determination of these women to succeed was very evident.

Day 6 – Qalqilia, Palestinian Medical Relief Society, Seminar on Qalqilia, tour of area, seam zone and checkpoints In attendance: TUFP delegates, our guide Suhad Hashem from PMRS. Qalqilia is completely surrounded by the Apartheid Wall that cuts deep into Palestinian territory, far beyond the Green Line 1967 border. These Palestinian lands have now been effectively annexed into Israel. There are numerous settlements encircling the town.

Palestinian Medical Relief Society We met with Dr. Mohamad Aboushi and Suhad Hashem from the PMRS. Dr. Aboushi thanked us for our solidarity and for visiting Qalqilia. He believed that trade union support can help to strengthen the BDS movement which he saw as a powerful way to defend Palestinian human rights. The PMRS have been operating since 1979 and provides affordable healthcare in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. They established a college for community and village-based rehabilitation workers providing services complementary to medicine and nursing, using psycho-social support. There is a lot of poverty, as well as suffering related to the occupation, particularly mental health issues. The occupation impacts hugely on the health of the Palestinians with violations of human rights and lack of movement causing multiple problems, eg, gaining access to specialist care. They provide centre-based services and mobile clinics, and serve people on both sides of the wall – a number of Palestinian villages and communities in the Qalqilia district are divided by the wall, or locked into the ‘seam zone’ (on the other side of the wall, and therefore cut off, but still inside the Green Line and not therefore part of Israel). These communities in the seam zone are extremely isolated and vulnerable. They have 450 employees, including 15 in Qalqilia. Staff includes GPs and support staff, based on a non-hierarchal team-based approach offering complementary services. They encourage awareness of people’s emotional needs, and believe in a health approach not a medical approach – so it is very respectful. They value human dignity. They see themselves as a civil society organisation in the field of health, working alongside the trade unions. They have alliances with 160 other organisations. They worked with the trade unions during the teachers’ strike and the mobilisation against the Social Security Law. Dr. Aboushi is a member of the Board of the National Plan for 2017-2022 and the Action Plan to 2030 for Sustainable Development. They receive funding from many places – from Sweden, Germany, France and many other organisations. Palestinians contribute 30%. From patients they may ask for as little as 10 shekels. They are an independent medical body campaigning for issues, a not-for-profit organisation. Questions were asked about maternal care. If there are complications in pregnancy women have to go to Jerusalem. The checkpoints are a huge problem as they close at 10.00 pm preventing access to hospital. Maternity morbidity or infant mortality is a major issue.

There were questions about infant mental health services, and support for vulnerable women with mental health and bonding and attachment difficulties. Dr. Aboushi was very interested in the information provided by a delegation member about the primary care based Solihull Approach model for working in this area. He asked if they could be supported in accessing the two day training involved in this.

Seminar on the impact of the occupation

Prior to going on the fieldtrip our guide Suhad gave a seminar on the geography and human impact of the military blockade of Qalqilia and the Apartheid Wall. The key points were: The West Bank comprises 22% of Palestinian territory. It is under occupation, with the Israelis determined to hold on to what it controls. In the Jordan Valley for example they are exploiting all the resources of this most fertile region, all the water, and the benefits of tourism. There is a clear strategy in terms of the placing of the settlement colonies as they tend to expand in a linear direction to dissect

the West Bank. The so-called Ariel Finger is a massive colony that connects directly to Israel, and divides the West Bank in two. Suhad showed us a map illustrating how when the different settlements all link up there will be 8 rows of them dividing the West Bank into 9 separate non-contiguous areas. Qalqilia is the nearest Palestinian town to Tel Aviv (and indeed we were able to see Tel Aviv clearly when on the field trip). It is rich with water – the underground water aquifer here holds 52% of the water in the West Bank. The Wall around Qalqilia goes 12 kilometres inside Palestine to enable the Israelis to capture the water resources. It also has separated Palestinians from their land, their communities and their families. The Israelis also dig wells close to the Wall that are deeper than Palestinian wells, so they get greater access to the water which they then give to the colonies at a much cheaper price than Palestinians have to pay. There are limits on Palestinian consumption, but it is unlimited for Israelis – which is why their land is so green. In 1967 there was a military order that made it illegal for Palestinians to make their wells deeper without Israeli permission. Qalqilia is also prohibited from sending water east to other parts of the West Bank because the pipes would have to

pass through Area C. In 2002-3 at the time of the second intifada Qalqilia was under Israeli military curfew, and the people were locked inside the city. This caused a lot of poverty due to the drop in income and people being unable to work. They were helped with aid from the UN and UNRWA. Many people lost their lives during this period, including Suhad’s mother who died needlessly because she could not get access to medical care. The countless deaths like this are not recorded in the statistics of those who died. Around this period the Israelis started to construct the apartheid wall around Qalqilia. The Qalqilia area used to cover 27 sq. Kilometres, but due to the Nakba and the occupation it is now reduced to 4 sq. Kilometres. There are still areas in the middle of the city that are classified as area C, and the 300 metres from the wall that

stretches around Qalqilia is also classified as C. Indeed during our field trip, as we drove through the centre of the city, Suhad pointed out the one side of the road was area A, and the other side – driving in the other direction, was area C. The demographics have changed significantly around Qalqilia, and settler-colonists now number 52,000 which is more than 50% of the 100,000 total Palestinian and Israeli population in Qalqilia district.

6 communities around Qalqilia are classified by the Israelis as ‘Unrecognised Villages’. They are not recorded on any pre-1948 map as they came into being as a result of the Nakba when 750,000 Palestinians were ethnically cleansed from their lands. Israel wishes to destroy these villages but can’t do so because the Palestinians bought the land. Instead the Israelis don’t allow them to have any services, prevent development and restrict access to the city.

Field trip

We travelled with Suhad behind the wall to the seam zone through Jaljulia checkpoint. We were detained and searched by Israeli forces and all of our delegation were surprised how stringent the security measures were when travelling from Palestine to Palestine. The colonists have been using this segregation wall to capture as much land as possible. We saw the impoverished conditions of Palestinians in the Ramadeen Janubi community as they are not allowed to build permanent structures on their land or have any infrastructure despite having bought and paid for this land. Every aspect of their lives is under Israeli control right down to the amount of food that can be taken into the village. The school appears like a structure from ancient times, built from mud, hay and stones. This school affords the youngest children in the community the safety of not having to be bussed through the harassing checkpoints daily to avail of their education like their older family and neighbours. The reality for this community is that they are separated from their livelihood, friends and families in other communities, from their fields, jobs, schools and hospitals. They are completely isolated, in an open prison, and are particularly vulnerable at times of medical emergencies. After seeing the school we drove into the adjacent settlement colony. In stark contrast to the arid barren environment the Palestinians endure the settlers enjoy green lush areas with beautiful plants, parks and amenities. Suhad also pointed out to us the large Zufim colony, financed by the Israeli diamond billionaire Lev Leviev. This colony has been expanding over Qalqiliyya and Jayyous while taking over natural resources in the area. Back in Qalqiliya we visited a school extremely close to the apartheid wall, looming 8 m in height. It is topped off with electrical fences, automatic cameras and watch towers. We weren’t surprised to hear that the children suffered psychologically in this environment. It was reported that they suffer greatly from nightmares, bed wetting, depression and fear. One Palestinian home is so close to the wall that the residents are not permitted to go on the roof top terrace. We could see large trees on the Israeli side to detract from the ugliness of the wall as they go to and from their work freely. On the Palestinian side of the wall we saw sewage, dirt and rubbish. The Israeli occupiers prohibit the municipality from cleaning this area. We spent some time at an extremely fortified checkpoint which was the daily crossing point for farmers trying to access their lands and for schoolchildren attending the secondary schools in Qalqilia. There was already quite a build up when we arrived of farmers with their horses and carts, and school mini-buses, waiting until the Israeli military decided to open the crossing. The atmosphere was very tense. This was a palpable example of Palestinians cut off by the barrier from their lands, their schools, their families and their communities. They are also cut off from access to shops, and to health services. Day 7 – Meeting Janna, Palestine’s youngest reporter, and the Tamimi family in Nabi Saleh, the Women’s

Association in Sali Barouti, Rantis Oil Field and the Rantis Women’s Association

Heroic Nabi Saleh

The TUFP delegates drove with our guide Lama to Nabi Saleh to meet with Janna Jihad and the Tamimi family. On

the way on the outskirts of Ramallah we passed Ber Zeit University. Lama told us this was where the first intifada

started, primarily because of the severe restrictions on education imposed by the Israeli authorities. Teachers were

prosecuted if identified as teaching, e.g. carrying chalk. The university was closed for 3 years, so classes were held in

private homes – at a time when it was prohibited to have more than 5 people meeting under one roof. The first

intifada became a very broad-based resistance – a civil resistance where everyone was involved.

At Nabi Saleh we were welcomed into the homes of the Tamimi family where we also met Janna. At 10 years old she has the reputation of being the youngest Palestinian journalist! (https://www.facebook.com/Janna.Jihad/?fref=ts) Janna started talking publicly about Palestine at 7. She wants to ‘show the world the truth about Palestine’ and

wants to see ‘equality and justice for Palestine.’ She told us that the people want to live free so they keep ‘trying to make a world of peace, love, equality and justice without the occupation, without being scared and being arrested.’ Janna lives with her granny and mother, who is the Director of the Women’s Dept in the Ministry of Social Affairs. The Tamimi family are activists in the village using peaceful resistance against the Israeli occupation. Bassem Tamimi gave us a short history. The village has 600 people, living here for 400 years. Zionists built a large settlement on a hill, close to the village, on the villagers’ farmland, and built a

gate at Nabi Saleh. There are now 2,000 settlers living there. The gate is often closed so the villagers have to make a 90 minute journey to Ramallah by back roads, instead of the usual 20 minutes. The village used to have its own cultural exchange programme, to preserve Nabi Saleh’s history. The Israelis seized their equipment and hardware. Fortunately they had back-ups of all their documentation. The residents of the village decided in 2009 to hold a weekly protest to their water well, which has been taken over by the Israelis, to protest against the occupation. The Israeli soldiers often respond with tear gas and chemical ‘skunk’ water, which has a disgusting smell, to break up the peaceful protests, as well as occasionally with live rounds. Bassem’s sister was tortured and killed in 1993. His wife, Nairiman, their son Waed, and himself jailed, a friend killed by a gas canister in 2011, then his brother was killed by live ammunition in 2012, during a protest. They train the children how to defend themselves. Their homes have been raided by the Israelis hundreds of times, so they don’t scare them. Bassem spoke about the participation of children like Janna in the

protests, and the how researchers from an Italian university concluded that if the children face what’s happening and participate they are less likely to be traumatised and tend to be more resilient. Bassem said however that although they trust their parents and adults, but there can be a problem as they are more challenging of authority. Bilal Tamimi films and photographs everything that happens. He has been arrested and spent 7 years in prison, but feels his duty is to continue to record everything that happens. They showed us a video with detailed footage of the brutal attacks on protesters, and the firing of gas canisters into homes providing a refuge for the younger children. Israeli soldiers also used these opportunities to contaminate the water tanks of the villagers with ‘skunk water’ – nothing to

do with crowd control, but to make living conditions impossible. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Uy72YZeC9s

Since 2013 350 people have been injured, 40% of them are children. 50 people have major and minor disabilities. There have been 200 arrests, 50% of them children under 18. There have been 13 demolition orders, which make up 18% of all the village buildings. The Israelis are restricting the development of the village, which is a form of ethnic cleansing, as future generations will not be able to build. Bassem and Nairiman, Janna and her mother Nawal, Bilal and Manal took us through the village to the Shrine of Nabi Saleh, showing us

displays of empty tear gas canisters on the way. We met a large group of cyclists, who arrived that morning in Nabi Saleh, who cycle to different places each week from Ramallah. It’s a form of protest called the Right to Movement. They sometimes encounter problems with Israeli soldiers. Some of them are part of Visualising Palestine: http://visualizingpalestine.org

Visit to Women’s Cooperative in Deir Ghassaneh

We drove from Nabi Saleh to the ancient village of Deir Ghassaneh where we enjoyed a banquet lunch provided by the women’s cooperative. As Insaf Shoa’ Aibi explained the village has 2,000 residents. It has 2 primary and 2 post-primary schools. The residents were dependent on the selling of olive oil but this has decreased due to the Israelis destroying their olive groves. The Deir Ghassaneh Women’s Association was started with 15 women but now has 40. The men said it wouldn’t succeed but it has! The women make a small income but it helps families, especially those with no other income. It has been going for 10 years. They make snacks/meals for the children, crafts, jewellery and basket work. They have a kitchen but need finance to upgrade it. Recently they have started a new project for 5 women making clothes. They received 4 sewing machines from Europe and bought one themselves. More women want to work with them but there is not yet enough work for them. At the moment MECA (Middle East Children’s Alliance) is supporting them. The benefits are also talking and listening to each other. Most of the young women stay at home until married. Some men leave and that is a problem for the village.

Visit to Rantis Moayad Oudi, a teacher and mayor of Rantis, outlined the difficulties the village experiences. He took us on a short drive, then a walk through fields to show us the oil fields behind the separation wall. The village originally had 40,000 residents, but since the separation wall was built, land confiscated and settlements built, the village has now 12,000 residents. It was an agriculture village, for olives and wheat. Now it is no longer dependent on these because the agriculture lands were confiscated. Farmers are now working as labourers.

Oil and natural gas was discovered in 1995. Drilling started in 2002. The wall was moved to enclose the oil sites inside the wall. Rantis is now surrounded. More and more land has been confiscated. There are settlements on the eastern side, the road entering the settlement on the northern side, oil on western and southern sides. The village suffers from pollution, noise and constant hassle. Palestinians did try to get the oil out. They had a contract with a French company but the Israelis would not let them in. The PA cannot do anything. The British discovered the oil originally, tried to hide it and then signed agreements with the Israelis, giving them the right to it. Now there is multiple government involvement.

There is an American complex within view, on the other side of the Wall, 8 m underground and 6 m above ground. A week ago military jeeps were taken out from under the ground, which have never been seen before.

Rantis Women’s Association Kilam Amer explained how the women’s co-operative in Rantis worked. It is based in the middle of the village. There are 48 women employed, 7 in administration and on the board. It started 20 years ago to help enhance the living conditions of families, and also to raise the level of education. They give workshops both vocational and developing literacy. They produce hand made goods. The money goes back to the women. Villagers are getting poorer. The responsibility lies with women, as well as men, to support their families. The literacy rate is very high. There are a lot of graduates from university. Students who go to university have a hard time because of checkpoints. The checkpoints also stop people getting to their jobs. Kilam wanted us to tell our people that ‘we can live in peace.’ Day 8 - Knowledge and Socialist Thought Institute, Visiting PACE, Meeting PGFTU

A Labour College for Palestine – The Knowledge and Socialist Thought Institute

The morning meeting with some of the independent Palestinian trade unions and with the Knowledge and Socialist Thought Institute was a joint TUFP / Norwegian delegation. Dr Aqel Altaqaz from the Board of KSTI welcomed both delegations stating that they deeply appreciated our solidarity travelling so far to bear witness to the brutality of the occupation. He wished to state his deep appreciation, on behalf of the Palestinians present, for our support for the BDS campaign. The KSTI was established with funding support from UNISON. Its aim is to promote an alternative educational, social and cultural facility for the marginalised and oppressed working class in Palestinian society, particularly women and youth, and to improve workers’ well-being on the basis of equal rights and justice. They also aim to promote a progressive Labour movement that can contribute to the building of a free and democratic Palestine where economic and social rights are protected. The Norwegian delegation gave a briefing regarding Norway’s rejection of EU membership, but how the capitalist agenda was still achieved through the Norway-EU Economic Agreement, which introduced EU regulations to Norway. They referred to the 3 year long Norwegian Dock Workers’ dispute in defence of their rights that was ultimately defeated in court due to the new EU imposed neo-liberal laws. They informed us that In May 2017 that a motion will be put to the Norwegian LO that they end relations with Histradut. A summary was given of the mobilizing work of TUFP, and the context of the Irish labour movement and ICTU’s BDS policy. Eamon McMahon also welcomed the opportunity to meet again with some of the union leaders who had travelled to Brussels to address the conference, which TUFP had helped organise, establishing the European Trade Union Initiative for Justice in Palestine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqmqqdEx1UA Mahmoud Ziyadeh from the General Federation of Independent Unions (GFIU) summarized the oppressive conditions endured by Palestinian workers and their families. He referred to suppressed UN report from the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) which stated explicitly that Israel was an apartheid regime. Palestinian people don’t just endure a racist occupation but oppressive policies as well from their employers and the governing Palestinian Authority. He informed us of their work addressing the high level of unemployment, the impact of this on youth, and on gender equality – that working women in Palestine only form 19% of the workforce. Employees of NGOs frequently have very poor conditions and don’t receive entitlements. 36per cent of workers don’t receive the legal minimum wage, and have no pension rights or annual leave, etc. There are labour laws, but no labour court to apply the laws and offer protection.

Wajih Elayassa from KSTI spoke of how the unions are struggling to defend their members from discrimination and exploitation, but face huge opposition from the PA and the employers. TU workers have been jailed, one of them

the head of public employees trade union Bassam Zakarneh, and the Public Employees Union office has been closed down by the PA. The Teachers’ Union, who brought 30,000 protesting teachers on to the streets of Ramallah were forced back to work, and some were imprisoned by the PA. There has been a strong union mobilization particularly from the independent unions to change the Social Security Law. The KSTI sees the Palestinian labour struggle as part of a global movement against neo-liberalism, and they will continue to fight the Israelis and the PA for workers’ rights. Mohammad Blaidi from the Palestinian Federation of New Trade Unions made it clear that neither Palestinian nor Israeli employment law discriminates or allows for discrimination against workers or union activists, but both

the Israelis and the PA find ways around this and in reality discrimination clearly exists. There is no legal instrument to challenge this. Palestine will not be free until all Palestinians start to cooperate; until there is unity in the struggle, but that there will never be justice and equality for all until they end the occupation. Abed Alhakeem Alian from the GFIU emphasized the appreciation of their federation for our support for BDS, and the establishment of the European trade union initiative. The GFIU was established in the context of an increase in economic investment after Oslo, but there was no-one standing up for workers’ rights. Different unions emerged in Finance, Electricians, Industry, Universities and the Agricultural sector. The Federation was formed in 2007 and has elected officials to ensure there is no infiltration from political parties. The independent unions have participated in many struggles, including a major dispute over the Social Security Law which had been agreed between the PGFTU and the PA alone. 12000 workers demonstrated in Ramallah and after this the PA accepted 18 recommendations. Trade unions now have 5 of the 17 places on the Social Security Council. A key demand of the unions now is for a Labour Court and legal protection for trade union activists. Dr Abdullah Shararah from the GFIU spoke of his appreciation for our solidarity. It was important to make available to us information about the exploitation of Palestinian workers – for instance that the PGFTU and Histadrut each receive 1.5million NIS every month from the deductions of Palestinian workers in Israel and the settlements. These workers have to suffer additional obligatory deductions for Health Insurance, Social Security and Tax, but they do not receive any benefits from this – this money is stolen from them. The Oslo Accord allowed Israel to retain Palestinian workers’ money, and a minimum estimate is that up to 8.5 billion dollars are held by Israel - this is money for workers rights.

Meeting the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions

The TUFP delegation met Husain Al-Foqahaa , member of the General Secretariat of PGFTU and General Secretary of the Public Services Union section of PGFTU. Also present was Shaman... Head of the PGFTU Youth Committee. The PGFTU representatives thanked us for coming to Palestine, emphasising how vital it is for international delegations to see the situation on the ground and learn how the PGFTU has to cope with social policy and industrial relations under occupation. A major issue is the plight of Palestinians working in Israel. 10% of PGFTU members are women. In April 2016 the PGFTU had its 5th General Conference which was very successful and which was attended by 30 international trade union delegations, mainly Europeans. It is very difficult for Arab trade unions to enter the West Bank because of entry restrictions. There was detailed discussion on how the occupation seriously hampers even basic trade union functions. Economic and social development of any kind is profoundly affected by the occupation. - the longest military, as opposed to colonial, occupation in modern times. Every day 130,00 - 140,000 Palestinians travel to Israel to work. Roughly only 50% have permits. The others are illegally smuggled with a high risk of arrest or death. Even the legal group have to face awful conditions at checkpoints. These workers queue at checkpoints from 3 am to start work in Israel at 7 am. As observed by the delegation movement through the different barriers of the checkpoints is controlled by verbal instructions over loudspeakers. Daily exposure to X rays poses a serious health risk. Most of the work done in Israel is heavy manual labour. These workers are also subject to wage discrimination. Family relationships for legal and illegal workers are badly damaged by the exhausting work and travel circumstances.

Brokers usually control the arrangements even for those with permits. A 2 month permit might cost 6,000 shekels. Longer permits are proportionately more expensive. Often permits are fake. Palestinians working in Israel are supposed to be protected by employment law but this is flouted. Illegals are totally unprotected. They are smuggled by car or climb the security wall or fence. The workers on the Israeli side then have to travel to their employment, often crammed into cars to cut down expense. Illegal workers often sleep rough in Israel sometimes on work sites or under bridges. Recently a worker being chased by police fell into a quarry pit and died. In 2016 35 Palestinians died on construction sites and their families got no compensation. A further 35,000 Palestinians work in Israeli settlements where conditions can be very inhuman. A lot of the exploitation is due to the role of Palestinian ‘middlemen’ who arrange the employment and are often the direct

employer. Despite heavy use of chemicals no protective clothing is issued. Sexual harassment of women by employers and co-workers is a serious problem, but the women are afraid to report it for fear of losing their livelihoods. The PGFTU has a substantial report on conditions endured on both sides of the 1967 border. The union position is that such discrimination, and these conditions, is clearly rooted in an apartheid policy. He referred to the Apartheid Wall as an example of apartheid – built at a total cost of 9 billion USD. On the Palestinian side it is ugly, but on the Israeli side it is much more pleasant to look at. While the occupation provides the political/economic/military context the union

also has to face the same conditions as we do in the West, struggling in a context of a capitalist market setting. In 2013 after a long battle the union achieved a minimum wage law, but implementation is poor even in the public sector. Secretarial and child care staff are being paid one third of the minimum. The siege, occupation and general poverty provide excuses for failure to pay the legal rate of 1,450 NIS a month. The union has had a major struggle since 1998 trying to set up a social security system. Husain was chair of a joint Social Security Committee created in 2012. It took a massive campaign and protests at the PM’s office to secure movement, and they are now trying to secure implementation. He also spoke of the real concerns regarding the PA introducing unilateral restrictions on unions and undermining ILO conventions. The Gaza situation is very bad. Unemployment is at 40%, and 68% live below the poverty line. There are harsh restrictions on medical supplies, and electricity is available only 3 -4 hours a day. The fishing industry is under threat as Israelis shoot boats that go outside a 6km limit. Tunnels are problematic but they are an essential supply method – a lifeline. The West Bank is 65,000 sq. Kilometres, but they have no access to 40% of it. There are over 400 checkpoints. Of a total workforce of 1.2 million, 200,000 work for the PA. 28% of workers are unemployed. 40 – 45,000 enter the workforce each year, many of them graduates, but the public sector can only absorb 6,000 of these per annum. RELATIONS WITH HISTADRUT The delegation had a series of questions around the relationship between the PDFTU and Histadrut, and explored whether any challenges to the legitimacy of Histadrut could damage the PGFTU. All 70,000 Palestinians legally working in Israel are compulsorily enrolled in Histadrut and as a consequence join the PGFTU. The subscription of 0.8% of pay is shared on a 50/50 basis between the two federations. The PGFTU provide an office at the crossings to support the workers. The PGFTU is aware of the debate about international unions boycotting Histadrut but while agreeing in general with the BDS campaign he explained that boycotting Histadrut was a matter for external unions to decide for themselves. He acknowledged that it could have a financial impact for PGFTU, but that they would deal with it. He would not expect a direct effect on the PGFTU if such positions were taken. His view was that we should go ahead with the position we felt we should take. He also explained that even though arrangements were put in place under the Oslo Accord the PGFTU has difficulties in its relationship with Histadrut. He also confirmed that Histadrut represent Israeli workers in the settlements. His final point was to say that he completely agreed with the BDS campaign and popular mobilisations – that any mobilisation against the occupation is to be supported.

CONCLUSIONS

1] Deepening Repression, Apartheid, and Bantustans: We have already presented detailed conclusions in the report of the 2016 delegation. These continue to apply and do not need to be repeated again here in similar detail, except to say that this delegation concurs with the findings of our colleagues last year. In summary that the repression is deepening in all areas of Palestinian life, and that the combined colonising project of settlement building, checkpoints, settler-only by-pass roads, and military control including the Apartheid Wall, are driving the Palestinians more and more into isolated and disconnected urban centres of population. These are conditions of apartheid and ethnic cleansing. We have no doubt that this is part of a strategy of increasing Bantustanization of the West Bank. 2] The disappearing two-state solution: The West Bank has been colonised by Israeli settlers to such an extent, with the massive changes of infra-structure, ‘irreversible facts on the ground’, and the loss of Palestinian land and sovereign authority, that a viable contiguous Palestinian state based on the West Bank and East Jerusalem, with links to Gaza, seems increasingly remote. This view was frequently expressed to us. Area C is being ruthlessly colonised and ethnically cleansed by seeking to make life impossible for the villagers and farmers who try to cling on to their land. Area C, over which the PA has no authority at all, is now seen as effectively annexed. 3] Managing the occupation: We heard frequent criticism of the PA because of their role in enforcing neo-liberal reforms and inability to seriously challenge the occupation and colonisation of Palestine. The PA was seen as articulating the interests of the Palestinian business elite and those in positions of power, to the detriment of the vast majority of the people. 4] Israel is guilty of war crimes, with Western encouragement: It is important to repeat again for the record that Israel is guilty of numerous breaches of international law including the Fourth Geneva Convention, and UN Resolutions and Conventions. That the occupation and colonisation is secured under conditions of apartheid was very evident. We also know that a humanitarian disaster is facing Gaza due to the medieval type illegal siege imposed by Israel 10 years ago. The lack of any appropriate sanction by international governments and international bodies – the reason why the BDS movement started – creates a responsibility on all civil society actors, and most importantly the trade union movement, to first of all recognise this reality, to appreciate its implications for all peoples, and to dedicate ourselves to campaign to sanction Israel and achieve justice and human rights for all the Palestinian people. We note that this imperative to act has been highlighted also in the recently suppressed, but none-the-less valid, report of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia: https://electronicintifada.net/sites/default/files/2017-03/un_apartheid_report_15_march_english_final_.pdf 5] Oslo is dead: None of the parties we met expressed any support for the Oslo process. References were made to the concrete evidence of this in the statements of Netanyahu and his ministers. We agree with the proposal that the failure of Oslo should be recognised, that its function as political cover for expansive colonisation is now evident, and accordingly that the issue of Palestine and Israel should be brought back to the UN for resolution. 6] The enrichment of the few, and the poverty of many – neo-liberalism under occupation: Whilst considerable wealth is being accrued by a small section of the Palestinian business class and the political elite there is great poverty in general amongst the majority of the people. Only a small percentage of the workforce (10%) are organised, and that proportion is split into different federations. Women and youth are particularly vulnerable. Wages, terms and conditions and working conditions are very poor. Those workers who have to travel daily to work in Israel, or who work in the settlements, are most at risk of exploitation. It was very evident that the ease of exploitation of the Palestinian working class is in many ways due to the conditions of military and colonial occupation and evident apartheid. Trade unions therefore are fighting not just on the industrial front, but for national liberation. 7] Engaging with the trade union movement: It was very valuable to engage with the different sections of the movement - to meet with both the PGFTU and the New Unions federations in their offices, to meet with the New Unions Women’s department, and to meet also with the General Federation of Independent Unions at the round table discussion in the Knowledge and Socialist Thought Institute. We also learnt a lot from the meeting with UNRWA staff representatives. All of these bodies have a vital role to play. 8] PGFTU and the Histadrut: The PGFTU is clearly compromised in that it shares with Histadrut the money extracted, as the forced payment of union dues, from Palestinian workers who cross into Israel. Yet these workers receive no

union representation. This is a major point of contention for the independent trade union federations. These workers also have extracted from their wages taxes and social security deductions, from which they can receive no benefit. We were also informed, and have had confirmed, that Histadrut organises Israeli workers in the settlements, illegal under international law. A particular grievance is that rather than stand up for Palestinian human and civil rights the Histadrut support the actions of the Israeli state (its historic role was to bring the Israeli state into existence – Ben Gurion was its first leader), including the armed incursions and bombing of Gaza. 9] The inhumane treatment of children: The delegation were deeply shocked at the report from the Defence of Children International – Palestine on the deliberate and planned abuse of children by Israeli state forces, including early morning arrests, physical assault, enforced isolation and creating conditions of severe mental distress. This amounts to a planned traumatisation of these children and their families, a crime against humanity. 10] A people’s ordinary resistance: The capacity of the Palestinian people to withstand the subjugation and the relentless violence of the occupation was truly inspiring. We witnessed this in the determination of ordinary people just living their daily lives, coping with checkpoints, roadblocks, an aggressive occupying army, intense surveillance, and exposure to violence and trauma. These are a people who are not only suffering daily repression, poverty, and hardship, but whose history and culture is being denied them, whose religion is being suppressed, and whose very identity as Palestinians is being denied. In East Jerusalem, in an imposed Israeli curriculum, the attempt is being made to force their children to internalise the values of the occupier and colonisers. All of this is being resisted by the common people, by keeping going, by staying put, by continuing to work their land, and by organising their labour. It is demonstrated in the pride with which they welcome us, thanking us for our solidarity. And most of all it is exemplified in their slogan ‘To exist is to resist’ – the sumud, steadfastness, of ordinary living. 11] BDS and popular resistance - an emerging alternative leadership: This point was repeated and emphasised by every organisation and representative we met - the NGOs, the unions, the village leaders and both Fatah and Hamas. They all agree that the fragmentation of political leadership has undermined the Palestinian cause, and they all spoke of seeing the popular resistance movements as now leading the way in terms of opposition to Israeli domination. This resistance takes multiple forms, and is pervasive, as we saw in the popular resistance committees of the villages in Area C, as in Nabi Saleh, Khirbet Tana and the villages around Nablus and Qalqilia. The people here are organised and their village committees are challenging – at great personal risk - the encroaching settlements, the Wall, the destruction of their homes and the theft of their lands and water. We saw it too in the trade union movement, ensuring that despite military occupation workers can still be organised. We saw it in the independent unions, as in Tulkarem with the New Unions, reaching out to workers even in the most fragile and exploited of places, and making links too, through the Land Defence Coalition, with the people on the land. 12] BDS and international solidarity: In every meeting we held, including with Fatah and Hamas, the rights-based BDS movement, mobilising a non-violent resistance, was held out as offering hope and strategic direction. In the absence of any possibility of a peace deal, and with increasing Israeli aggression and colonisation, everyone welcomed it. The support of the international BDS movement was seen as critical. In every meeting sincere appreciation was expressed to us, as representatives of the Irish trade union movement, because of our BDS position.

RECOMMENDATIONS

1] The human rights violations and breaches of international law, and Irish and British government as well as EU complicity with this, should be continually on the agenda of the trade union movement at all levels. At the level of Congress this should be brought to the attention of the Irish government, with a demand for urgent intervention including at EU level. Congress should also insist that there is an appropriate response from the ETUC and the ITUC. This should not be seen as a one-off or infrequent intervention, as what is now required if the Irish trade union movement is genuine about seeking to bring about change is a dedicated on-going campaign. 2] One of the ways in which this can be assured is by each union/trades council nominating a committed activist as a delegate to TUFP, which the view that they may also become a Palestinian trade union ambassador. Solidarity and action can be built around the sending of delegations, and the lead officials that support this. Large unions should seek to nominate delegates from each division of the union. Unions should organise workplace discussions to facilitate presentations from the ambassadors to workers in local union branches.

3] TUFP delegations should seek to maintain the links already established with Norwegian trade unionists, as well as working within the European Trade Union network to share information and expertise on the planning and management of delegations. 4] There is a remarkable unity of opinion from within Palestinian civil and political society, including both Fatah and Hamas, and from the Palestinian trade union movement, that BDS action is essential to help end Israeli injustice. Meaningful and effective BDS activity should therefore be promoted throughout the movement, and actions taken to put ICTU BDS policy, adopted 10 years ago, into practice. The development of ambassadors and delegations will assist this activity. 5] A high level TUFP delegation, supported by Congress, should be organised as soon as feasible to ensure that the ambassador model is endorsed and will be supported by the movement, and that the leadership is informed in as much depth as possible as to conditions on the ground. 6] TUFP delegations should be representative of both northern and southern members, and should for the time being combine all sectors, and be gender balanced. Specific service or sector interests, e.g. a health delegation, or a teachers’ delegation, may be organised at a later date. 7] The trade union ambassadors, once the cohort is established, should operate as a TUFP sub-group and advisory committee to TUFP. They should seek to meet 3-4 times yearly, and report back to TUFP and their respective unions/trades councils. 8] The delegations should be committed to establishing and maintaining relationships with all the functioning Palestinian federations, to help increase our understanding of the complexities of the trade union movement there. Consideration should be given to including a more prolonged period in one union or workplace, to enable more in-depth discussion and exploration of the work of the union. 9] We should also prioritise offering concrete support to those sections of the trade union movement, and projects, that appear to have the most potential, e.g. as in the New Unions Women’s Department where they are seeking to organise and to educate the most needy and the most vulnerable. Sending delegations to Palestine will help identify those projects and communities that are most in need of support, and to sustain an on-going relationship of support and evaluation. 10] The reality is that the newer and more independent unions, who have achieved so much already in organising and mobilising the most vulnerable, are in need of support to establish and maintain links with international unions – they already find it difficult to fund their own officers (who often work voluntarily), and cannot easily access translation between Arabic and English. This also applies to other more established unions like the UNRWA union as well. A priority for TUFP therefore, in establishing concrete assistance and twinning programmes, is to identify and support key partners on the ground in Palestine to facilitate Ireland-Palestine trade union solidarity links. This model appears to work very well for European unions like Fagforbundet. 11] Following on from delegation visits and contacts made TUFP and our trade union ambassadors should also facilitate community development projects and local authority twinning.

12] Given the immense injustice of Israel’s war on Palestinian children TUFP should take the lead in organising a high level conference involving Congress, especially those unions relating to children, the Defence of Children International – Palestine, TDs, children’s rights groups, Palestinian and Israeli HR groups and other relevant HR bodies and NGOs, to agree an appropriate response from the Irish trade union movement and broader civil society.

Acknowledgement: TUFP wish to acknowledge the support and sponsorship of the delegation by all the unions and trades councils represented. We greatly appreciate the guidance and support of Lama Yahya and all at PACE, and to Jamal Juma, Abu Hassan and our Norwegian Workmates colleagues Kjersti Nordby and Petter Thoresen. We extend our deep appreciation to all the Palestinian individuals and organisations who met with us and to our superb drivers Ahmad and Diab. Report authors: All delegation members contributed to this report, edited by Eamon McMahon. Photos: Ali Long, Daisy Mules and Paddy Mackel. Contact: TUFP secretary: eamonmcmahon@hotmail.co.uk Twitter: TUFP@TUFPalestine Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1434904630117100/