A Congress of Britain’s largest trade unions, representing 6.5 million workers, have voted overwhelmingly to commit to build a mass boycott movement for disinvestment and sanctions on "Israel", until the "Israeli" government agrees to a negotiated settlement based on justice for Palestinians.

The motion was passed at the 2009 TUC (Trade Union Conference) Annual Congress in Liverpool, on Thursday the 17th of September, and is a culmination of a wave of motions passed at the local level by various trade unions this year.

The unions say that the boycott action comes after widespread outrage among British workers at 'Israel’s' brutal invasion of Gaza in December and January.  One of the campaign organizers says that this will lead to a mass campaign to boycott "Israeli" goods, especially agricultural products that have been produced in illegal "Israeli" settlements in the Palestinian West Bank.

The motion additionally called for the TUC General Council to put pressure on the British government to end all arms trading with "Israel" and support moves to suspend the EU-'Israel' trade agreement. Unions are also encouraged to disinvest from companies which profit from 'Israel’s' illegal 42-year occupation of Gaza and the West Bank.

Not all unions voted to participate in the boycott - the Fire Brigades Union, for example, tabled the motion.  But the biggest unions in the UK, including Unite, the public sector union, and UNISON, which represents health service workers, voted in favor of the motion.

The motion also condemned the "Israeli" trade union Histadrut’s statement supporting 'Israel’s' war on Gaza, which killed 1,450 Palestinians in three weeks, and called for a review of the TUC’s relationship with Histadrut.

Britain’s trade unions join those of South Africa and Ireland in voting to use a mass boycott campaign as a tool to bring "Israel" into line with international law, and pressure it to comply with UN resolutions that encourage justice and equality for the Palestinian people.

Source: IMEMC