Wednesday, June 24, 2009

TULIP'S NEWSLETTER

Welcome to the first newsletter from TULIP - Trade Unions Linking Israel and Palestine.

This week was an interesting one, to say the least.

In the UK, the giant public sector union UNISON passed a motion at its National Delegate Conference calling for a boycott of Israel and for a review of relations between British unions and the Histadrut. This followed a very successful fringe meeting organized by Trade Union Friends of Israel at which TULIP was represented.

The leader of the German national trade union centre DGB, Michael Sommer, expressed his support for TULIP at a public meeting held with Histadrut leader Ofer Eini. German unions have a long history of cooperation with the Israeli trade union movement.

In Australia, the national trade union centre ACTU has returned to a moderate, balanced view of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In a unanimous vote, the ACTU decided to focus on all workers in the region, and not only on the Palestinians.

Reports issued by two global bodies -- the International Labour Office and the International Trade Union Confederation -- confirm the importance of cooperation between the Israeli and Palestinian national trade union centres.

TULIP's expose of the UK-based Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) for its hypocritical denunciation of a map showing Israel without the green line (when it uses the exact same map in its logo) got media attention and provoked a response from the PSC. Nineteen British trade unions are currently affiliated to the PSC.

To continue with our work, and to expand upon it, we need your help:
Please forward this message on to friends and colleagues - encourage them to join
TULIP

website to your bookmarks and visit the site - which is now updated every day - frequently
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Download and print out this poster and hang it up in your workplace
Thanks very much!
Eric Lee

DAILY FOREIGN MEDIA SURVEY