LABOURSTART WARNING
OPEN
LETTER: Against Labour Start's veto of Palestinian Worker News
A group of concerned labour and social movement
activists from different countries have initiated this petition, against the
shutdown of Palestinian worker news on the major labour news website, Labour
Start. (www.labourstart.org)
An Open Letter to LabourStart
The international trade union news website LabourStart
systematically under-reports Palestinian labour news. Until very recently, the
website unbelievably carried a link to the "Israeli Defense
Forces" - the military wing of the State of Israel. This was only removed
after a group of activists initiated a complaint.
LabourStart is a site that has marketed itself to
trade unions all over the world, whose media officers and activists spend time
gathering news from their countries to upload to LabourStart.
They do this on the basis that LabourStart is the
place "where trade unionists start their days on the web" - on the
basis that LabourStart is supposed to be the main
international source of labour news, and an important tool for international
worker solidarity.
The open letter below calls on trade unionists to ask LabourStart
to clarify, and in the absence of a credible explanation, to review their
relationship with LabourStart.
The current news from
So although the Palestinian workers have been exposed to higher levels of
exploitation than other workers in the world this month, they are only worthy
of ONE story out of 41. Israeli workers get 22 stories this month.
This has been a consistent pattern at Labour Start. In September, they carried
THREE articles about Palestinian workers and 148 about Israeli worker issues.
Furthermore, Labour Start refuses to publish articles sent to them about abuses
of Palestinian workers by Israelis. For example, they rejected an article about
Israeli soldiers forcing Palestinian workers to drink urine at a checkpoint.
Labour Start will only publish Palestinian worker news along the following
lines:
· A letter from the ICFTU to UN Secretary
General Kofi Annan
complaining of low wages and poor working conditions amongst UNRWA staff
· A letter from the IFJ (International
Federation of Journalists) headlined by LabourStart
as "IFJ Calls on Palestinians and Arafat to Act over Kidnapping Terror of
Journalists" (though the letter itself called on all sides in the
Palestinian conflict, and made clear that the CNN journalist had been kidnapped
by unknown assailants).
· An article exposing the Mayor of
Jericho's failure to abide by a Palestinian Authority decision supporting the
rights of municipal employees to organise in the union of their choice.
However valid each of these items may be, they omit the central fact
confronting Palestinian workers in
When it comes to
The imbalance between Palestinian and Israeli labour coverage - and the
systematic omission of material on the Occupation (as it affects workers) -
amounts to bias against Palestinian labour.
Some recent Palestinian labour stories, none of which appeared on LabourStart, are reproduced in the Background to this
letter.
Except for occasional, and valuable, material from the Workers Advice Centre, LabourStart readers rarely hear from Palestinians. But they
do hear from Editor Eric Lee. His autobiographical notes page http://www.labourstart.org/ericlee/
included a link to the IDF
website until about two weeks ago, when it was removed after the Wits
University Palestine Solidarity Committee sent him a letter of complaint.
Why should a trade union news site carry a link to an army, let alone an army
rampaging through territory occupied in defiance of the UN?
Indeed, trade unionists might be a lot more interested in material from Refusniks like Haggai Matar, who
told a military court last December "We say a truth that most of the
public does not know, and that many choose not to know, and that's why we are
being punished. They do war crimes and they expect us to keep silent. But we
will not be silent. We will speak out against the occupation, even when we pay
a price."
Those old enough to remember the 1980s should recall how another generation of
trade unionists responded to another apartheid society - by sanctions against
the regime and direct solidarity with workers under its heel.
We ask you to
1) write to LabourStart asking them to clarify their
criteria for including or excluding Palestinian labour news. Write to
ericlee@labourstart.org
2) ask them to explain why a link to the IDF website is appropriate.
3) let us know what they say
4) Depending on the replies, you may wish to reconsider your organisation's
relationship with LabourStart.
Signed so far:
· Roland Rance - Chair, Amicus -- Central
London (0692); Secretary, Waltham Forest Trades Council
· PatchA, Korean
Progressive Network 'Jinbonet'
· Tony Greenstein, Secretary, Brighton
& Hove TUC Unemployed Workers Centre, UK
· Sue Blackwell, Association of University
Teachers, UK
· Moshe' Machover,
Israeli Socialist
· Els Hendricks,
X Minus Y Solidarity Fund, Netherlands
· Frances Kelly, UNISON steward (personal
capacity); anti-apartheid activist 1971-94
· Dr Costa Gazi,
NEC Member, Pan Africanist Congress of Azania
· Dr Patrick Bond, Director, Centre for
Civil Society, South Africa
· Dorothy Naor,
New Profile anti-militarism group, Israel
· Farid Taamallah, Palestinian Activist
· Anti-Privatisation Forum, South Africa
· Dave Parks, Exeter Socialists, England
· Riaz Tayob, South African activist
· Walton Pantland,
South African union activist
· Na'eem Jeenah - President, Muslim Youth Movement of South Africa
and spokesperson, Palestine Solidarity Committee - South Africa
· Wits University Palestine Solidarity
Committee, South Africa
· Anna Weekes,
South African labour and social movement activist
· Greg Dropkin,
UK activist
· Jim Gladwin, New Zealand labour activist
· Dr Jeff Rudin,
Researcher at South African Municipal Workers Union
· Woody Aroun,
South African Trade Unionist from NUMSA
· Kim Jurgensen,
South African activist
· Dr Dale T McKinley, South African labour
and social movement activist
· Anne Candlin,
One World Centre,annecandlin@hotmail.com
· Khwezi Gule, South African activist
Background to Open Letter to LabourStart
A) Missing news items
B) An apartheid society
C) Trade unionists and apartheid
A) Recent examples of Palestinian labour news not reported on LabourStart
1) Three Days Ultimatum for Palestinian Olive Growers to finish
George Rishmawi-IMEMC & Agencies, October 12,
2004
Israeli Authorities warned Palestinian olive growers in the Nablus
area in the West Bank to finish picking the olives in three days, claiming that
the olive picking season threatened lives of Israeli settlers.
This step comes one day after settlers from Yetzhar
settlement assaulted some farmers in Asseirah Al-Qibliyyeh resulted in critically injuring one of the
farmers in the neck.
An eyewitness reported that the farmer was shot by a soldier.
Justifying the three days ultimatum, the army claims that they can not provide
protection for the farmers for more than three days. Some farmers spend a month
picking their olives.
Over 30 villages will be affected by this decision. The new military
regulations will prevent the farmers to enter their olive groves after the
three days end.
Walid Jaber from Yanoun village southeast of
2) Palestinian olive grower shot, critically wounded
Jonathan Lis
Haaretz
October 11, 2004
A Palestinian farmer was shot and critically wounded in his olive orchard near Nablus in the West Bank on Monday. Palestinians blamed
Israel Defense Forces, while the IDF said that a
Jewish settler fired the shots.
Hani Shadeh, 26, was shot
in the neck by a soldier after the troops arrived at the orchard to break up a
fist fight between Jewish settlers and the Palestinians picking olives, said Munir Darwish, a Palestinian who
was picking with Shadeh.
The soldier knelt on his knees and took aim at Shadeh
from about 300 meters away as the troops arrived on the scene, Darwish said. Three settlers who had scuffled with the
Palestinians were later detained by soldiers, he said.
IDF officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, denied that troops were in
the area at the time of the shooting, saying settlers had apparently fired the
shot.
Shadeh was evacuated in critical condition to a local
hospital.
The skirmish occurred near the
As a result, in recent years during the harvest, farmers near sensitive areas
such as Yitzhar have been accompanied by activists
from international organizations as well as ?the olive
harvest coalition,? which unites a number of left-wing
Israeli organizations.
2) Inhuman Treatment of Checkpoints; soldiers force a Palestinian worker to
drink their urine
Saed Bannoura-IMEMC &
Agencies, September 17, 2004
http://www.imemc.org/headlines/2004/September/week3/091704/soldiers-morality.htm
The Israeli Newspaper Maariv, revealed on Wednesday that soldiers forced a
Palestinian worker to choose between drinking their urine or breaking his leg
or hand. The newspaper said that Sameeh, 24 years old, was held by soldiers on Abu Dis checkpoint, near
Sameeh spoke about the inhuman treatment he was
subjected to along with another worker and said that soldiers picked his
identity card and the card of another worker then released the rest of the
apprehended workers after barring them from entering
Sameeh added that soldiers forced him and the other
worker to do a poll, conducted by the soldiers "as a sort of
entertainment!", the soldiers wrote on three pieces of paper the
"punishment", first paper was to break a leg, second paper to break
an arm, then the third to drink urine prepared by the soldiers previously in a
bottle, which shows previous intentions to conduct this inhuman act.
The soldiers tried to force the second worker and Sameeh
to choose a paper and do what it says, but when Sameeh
refused, one of the soldiers hit him on his hand and brought a bottle filled
with urine and poured it on his head after splashing the urine at his face.
Whenever Sameeh tried to defend himself or even ask
the soldiers why they are doing this to him, he was clubbed again, and again,
and told them that he will not do what they want even if they kill him, yet the
soldiers attacked him again and tried to force him to drink the urine.
Sameeh, in an act of self defense
pushed the soldier away, and then six other soldiers attacked him and pointed
their M16 automatic rifle at his head, clubbed him and forced him to drink
urine from the bottle until he passed out.
Sameeh was transferred to a clinic in Abu Dis, and received first aid and medication to clean his
stomach, then he was transferred to Beit Jala Governmental Hospital were he received treatment until
he was released on Monday September 13th, 2004, some days after the incident.
The medical report revealed that Sameeh was in a
hysterical condition when he arrived to the hospital, and couldn't control any
part of his body. Meanwhile, Sameeh said that the
other worker was severely clubbed and that he does not know what happened to
him.
Sameeh said that he is thinking of pressing charges
against the soldiers but at the same time he is scared of revenge acts or being
charged with false accusations as soldiers in the field always do. Several
cases of assaults and inhuman treatment were reported on checkpoints, soldiers
on checkpoints, as it seems, have their own rules and regulations, and
apparently morals. The mood of soldiers on checkpoints could easily decide who
lives or dies which ambulances is to pass and which is not allowed. Repeatedly,
soldiers assaulted and abused the residents on checkpoints, in many cases
forced them to strip under claims of searches and "security
procedures".
Men, women and children have to cross the hundreds of checkpoints spread all
over the Palestinian territories blocking them from each other; those people
have to go through the daily humiliations in their way to their schools or
works and even on their way to hospitals and medical centers.
--------
3) Beit - Hanoun Under
Siege and Fire
Report by Dr. Mona El - Farra, Union of Health Work
Committees - Gaza
Published: 13/07/04
www.labournet.net/world/0407/beithan1.html
On the 30th of June, Israeli occupying forces launched an ongoing incursion
into Beit - Hanoun village,
on the pretext of creating a security zone and to prohibit the launch of
attacks against Israeli settlements. Beit - Hanoun is a village of 35, 000 people in the northern
Strip, on the borders with historic
Friends, Help us to spread the word and show your practical support for
Palestinians under occupation. As a result of the first 24 hour incursion which
demolished roads, drinking water pumps were destroyed and drinking water was
mixed with sewage from broken pipes. This led to an outbreak of gastroenteritis
in hundreds of children.
1) The four entrances to the village are completely closed, not one person is
allowed in or out of the village except with time consuming and difficult
permission from the Israeli occupation forces.
2) 4 homes are completely occupied with their residents trapped in one room,
forced to ask soldiers for permission if they even need to go to the bathroom.
3) Only some renal dialysis and cancer patients managed to get exit permission
to receive their treatment at another local hospital and through complicated
and time consuming procedures.
4) The Ministry of Health measles vaccination program was largely disrupted,
and the teams were not allowed to continue the vaccination scheme. With the
help of UNICEF this problem was eventually solved after three days wait. But we
do not know if all children in the village were vaccinated, as people are
afraid to leave their homes.
5) 35, 000 people are under fire. On the 9th of June three women were seriously
injured while trying to reach the village health center,
they were trying to cross the road carrying a white flag as a sign of peace and
to indicate that they are civilians and in need of help. The
soldiers opened fire without any warning, a mother and her 2 daughters were
seriously injured.
Furthermore:
1. No food or medicine and medical supplies are allowed into Beit - Hanoun, food is now in great
shortage, as only one truck was allowed to enter in 13 days.
2. People are afraid to move freely inside the village, resulting in decreasing
numbers of patients who seek treatment in our medical center
inside Beit - Hanoun people
seek emergency medical help only.
3. Pregnant women who need to attend hospital for delivery are unable to reach
Al Awda Hospital, only 5 minutes away from the village, we can expect the impact of that on high risk
pregnancies.
4.
5. The village is under complete control from outside and there are daily
incursions into the village.
The Union of Heath Work Committees appeals to you to spread the word, the whole
Gaza Strip is in great shock. What is happening in Beit
- Hanoun is a humanitarian catastrophe, its
implications on the entire population will show themselves now and for years to
come, and it is also a collective punishment, banned under international law.
Yours in solidarity,
Dr. Mona El - Farra Union of Health Work Committees -
Gaza
5) Palestinians rally at the walls of Jerusalem on Labour Day
Johannes Wahlstrom, May 1, 2004 16:34
As unemployment among Palestinians skyrockets with the construction of the West
Bank wall, workers rally for demonstration at Abu Dis. An old saying fitting
today's rally has it that the one thing worse than being exploited, is not
being exploited. As unemployment soars over 50 % on the
A handful of Israeli communists and peace activists also joined the rally,
which together with a demonstration in
what will happen in a few months when the wall around
We, Palestinian and Israeli workers should unite against our common capitalist
enemy, said Ahmed, a young man from Abu Dis. Together we should tear down the
wall and build a better place, because none of us have anything to win on this
conflict he proceeded.
To fill the gap in the labour force, when Palestinians are no longer allowed in
http://www.imemc.org/headlines/2004/May/week1/050104/labor-day.htm
B) An apartheid society
It is no coincidence that
Apartheid Wall
Here, for example, are the basic facts on Qalqilya
from PENGON:
Qalqiliya is the first of Palestinian towns to be
hermetically sealed by
. There are approximately 41, 600 residents in Qalqiliya.
. City Area: 3, 500 dunums (875 acres) of residential
and 6, 500 (1, 625 acres) dunums of agricultural
lands.
. The Wall has confiscated and isolated 3, 750 (937. 5 acres) dunums of land while destroying another 2, 200 (550 acres)
for its footprint.
. Qalqiliya has been completely encircled by the Wall
with one military checkpoint being the sole entrance/exit for the city.
. Almost half of the
. Prior to the Intifada', Qalqiliya
was the market center for over 85, 000 Palestinians
from the West Bank and
. Closure has caused 6, 000 residents from the city and 13, 000 residents from
the district to lose employment in
The Wall is not the only apartheid feature of Israeli society.
Lupolianski wants Arab Wadi
Joz re-zoned for Jews
By Nadav Shragai, Haaretz Correspondent 24/09/2004
http://www. haaretzdaily. com/hasen/spages/481362.
html
Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski wants to re-zone a neighborhood of Wadi Joz, in the eastern section of the capital, for the purpose
of settling Jews in the area. The neighborhood in
question was zoned and planned a number of years ago by the Housing Ministry
for Arab residents.
In a letter sent recently to the Housing Ministry, Lupolianski
wrote that "zoning the neighborhood for a Jewish
population is likely to contribute significantly to the unification of the
city."
Commenting on Lupolianski's request, the chairman of
the Yahad branch in
Legal Framework
Discrimination is built into the legal framework of Israel as a "Jewish
State", most notably through the Law of Return, adopted in 1950, which
begins "Every Jew has the right to come to this country as an oleh" (a Jew immigrating to Israel). Palestinians
displaced by the ethnic
cleansing of 1948 have no such right. The Citizenship law of 1952 spells out
that Israeli citizenship may be acquired by one of four ways: birth, return,
residence or naturalisation. All Jews, wherever they are born, acquire
citizenship through return. Non-Jews born in
are Israeli citizens automatically become citizens by and at birth; others must
apply for it and meet various criteria. On their birth certificates, their
citizenship status is left blank. Palestinians resident in the areas which
became part of the state of
for citizenship by residence provided that they had been at all times since 15
May 1948 in areas under the control of Israeli forces. Since
Breaking Ranks
Just as key information about the South African Defence Force came from the End
Conscription Campaign - whites who refused to fight for apartheid - the inside
story of the IDF is being told today by the "refusniks":
Israelis who refuse to serve in the Occupied Territories or even to choose
imprisonment in preference to any form of military service.
Here, for example, are excerpts (forwarded by the Israeli Peace Bloc Gush Shalom)
from statements in military court by young refusniks
as they were sentenced last December:
"We are being punished for saying the word o-c-c-u-p-a-t-i-o-n. So here I say it again: occupation, occupation,
occupation" said Matan Kaminer.
"The most easy thing for an 18-year old in this
country is to get an exemption from the army through all kind of backhand
tricks. Anybody can do it, and many do. We chose to go the hard way. We say
that the occupation is a moral abomination which moral people can not tolerate
and that this is the reason that we refuse to enlist. If our sincerity means
that we will sit many years in prison then we will sit many years in prison.
"
"We say a truth that most of the public does not know, and that many
choose not to know, and that's why we are being punished" said Haggai Matar. "They do war crimes
and they expect us to keep silent. But we will not be silent. We will speak out
against the occupation, even when we pay a price. "
"The worse the occupation becomes, the more people will refuse. " These words of Adam Maor
were to go into the evening TV news of Channel-I. "A country which
oppresses three and half million people and denies them the most basic human
rights is a country which is bound also to oppress its own citizens. No wonder
that this country is sending us to prison.
No wonder that it is trampling the poor and the disadvantaged, as it does.
"
Shimri Tzameret was next:
"I am not deterred by this verdict. This court is part of the army, and
the army is doing terrible and immoral things such as sending my friends to
risk their life for Netzarim settlement [an isolated
Jewish settlement inside the Gaza Strip] and for [the
Jewish settlers inside]
C) Trade Unionists and Apartheid
Remember 1979, when Margaret Thatcher became
The Soweto uprising and the murder of Black Consciousness leader Steve Biko in 1976 had already made apartheid a focus of
international condemnation, which strengthened as black South African workers
appealed for solidarity. By 1980 the
movement for sanctions - from mass consumer boycotts to disinvestment campaigns
to industrial action. grew rapidly.
Meanwhile, workers in
The fight against apartheid and for working class internationalism came
together as the independent trade union movement emerged in
operating within the very same transnationals.
Now imagine a publication, "LabourNews",
which might have been launched in 1979. Dedicated to informing trade unionists
on issues of globalisation, LabourNews reproduced
press reports faxed from correspondents in the
African Defence Force journal.
How would you have reacted?
[ends]
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