Large UK Union Boycotts Israeli Goods, Protesting "Nazi-like" Policies

July 8, 2007

The British Transport and General Workers Union (T&G) has decided to launch a consumer boycott on products made in Israel, protest Israel's policies and trigger sanctions against it. T&G is one of the United Kingdom's largest trade unions, representing some 800,000 workers.

The decision was made during a meeting held over the weekend in Brighton, about a month after another British trade union, UNISON, also decided to launch an economic boycott on Israel, and after the University and College Union's voted in favor of considering a boycott of Israeli academics and institutions.

According to the union, the decision was made "in protest of Israel's treatment of the Palestinian people." It declared its hope that Israel would be forced, like South Africa, to halt its policies following a widespread economic boycott. "We are working to free the Palestinian people from the Israeli war machine," the union said.

Union leader Eric McDonald was quoted by the British press as saying that Israeli behavior was often not different from that of the Nazis.

AJC Executive Director David A. Harris called McDonald's words a "despicable expression of anti-Semitism." Harris cited the "Working Definition of anti-Semitism" first adopted by the European Monitoring Center on Racism and Xenophobia, and now endorsed by various European bodies, including a UK parliamentary inquiry into anti-Semitism.

"Whereas traditional anti-Semitism stigmatized and isolated the individual Jew, these recent boycott votes are attempts to stigmatize and isolate the Jewish state," said Harris.

Israel's Histadrut labor federation responded with anger to the union's decision. Histadrut Chairman Ofer Eini is expected to pass a resolution on Monday calling on the labor federation to cut its ties with global trade unions and organizations which have launched boycotts that may harm Israeli workers. Histadrut members had tried to convince members of the British union to go back on their plan to launch the boycott, but their pleas fell on deaf ears.

Haaretz reported that Histadrut International activities director Avital Shapira said Sunday afternoon that the Histadrut labor federation views the TGWU's boycott call with severity. According to Shapira, the Histadrut has decided not to cooperate with these unions. "They expect us to help them with everything surrounding joint activities with Palestinian unions, but in light of their behavior toward us, we will hold these activities without them."

The British embassy in Israel issued a response Sunday saying "the British government opposes boycotts of any kind," adding that "The boycott declared by the Transport and General Workers' Union will not harm the growing commercial relations between the two countries."

In June, the Jerusalem Post reported, MK Otniel Schneller (Kadima) proposed a bill stating that any country that boycotted Israel or any Israeli products would have all of its imports to Israel tagged with stickers reading, 'This country is involved in an anti- Israel boycott."

The MK drafted the legislation a week after the British Union of Colleges and Universities decided to consider a boycott of all Israeli academic institutions.

'We must respond to this current trend in England. If the British think that they can pass judgment on us as a group and boycott us in this manner, than we must respond similarly to the British,' Schneller said.

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