BrBritain’s largest trade union, the Trades Union Congress (TUC), has passed a mmotion identifying Israel as a state practicing apartheid and called for the cocontinued support of the Palestinian people.
T TUC, which has nearly six million members, voted on Tuesday, in favour of a mmotion put forward by Unite the Union which opposes the current Israeli Is  government’s plans to annex up to 30 per cent of the West Bank. The motion ididentifies annexation as “another significant step in the creation of a system of apapartheid” and has been welcomed by representatives of Palestinian civil sosociety.
ThThe motion came a week after a statement was released by over 20 charities, tratrade unions, religious groups, and civil society organisations urgently calling on pupublic bodies to “uphold their ethical and legal responsibilities to ensure human rigrights and international law are respected” as a direct response to Israel’s illegal anannexation plans.
“C"Congress stands united in its full opposition to the Israeli government’s dedeclared intention to annex great swathes of the West Bank,” said the TUC mmotion describing the move as “illegal under international law” which “makes clclear there is no intent on the part of the Israeli government to end the ococcupation and recognise the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination.”
Susuch a move, said the TUC, “will be another significant step in the creation of a sysystem of apartheid”.

“FFor too long the international community has stood idly by as the Israeli state hahas been allowed to carry out its crimes and this cannot be tolerated or acaccepted any longer,” the motion went on to say. “Decisive action is now ururgently needed in relation to Israel’s illegal actions against the Palestinians.”
TUTUC congress urged to “fully support and play an active role in the Palestine Sosolidarity Campaign’s actions to build a broad coalition against the proposed Isr.Israeli annexation and to urge all affiliates to do likewise.”
A A letter will be sent to the British prime minister “demanding that the UK take firfirm and decisive measures, including sanctions, to ensure that Israel stops or rereverses the illegal annexation, ends the occupation of the West Bank and blblockade of Gaza, and respects the right of Palestinian refugees to return.”
TUTUC also pledged to undertake initiatives in order to “communicate its position to of all other national trade union centres in the International and European Trade U union Confederations and urge them to join the international campaign to stop a anannexation and end apartheid.”
F Following the adoption of the motion, Director of the Palestine SoSolidarity Campaign, Ben Jamal, said: “We welcome this motion which reaffirms ththe strong support across the UK trade union movement for the rights of PaPalestinians. By rightfully identifying that Israel is practicing a system of apapartheid, the consequences become clear: There can be no normalised rerelations with any state practicing apartheid unless one is to become a rereinforcing part of the system. We applaud the TUC for calling clearly for sasanctions.”

ThThe BDS National Committee (BNC), said: “The BNC – the largest coalition in PaPalestinian society, including all major trade unions – salutes the TUC in the UK fofor condemning Israel’s plans for formal annexation as yet another major mmanifestation of its apartheid regime against the Palestinian people. With this, TUTUC joins a growing consensus among progressives worldwide that Israel’s reregime constitutes apartheid, military occupation and settler-colonialism. We ururge UK trade unions to take the next logical step and intensify effective and ststrategic BDS campaigns to end UK complicity in Israel’s oppression of PaPalestinians.”

Source: Middle East Monitor