The Israeli embassy says the Ictu forum features a long list of 'one-sided critics of Israel', writes MARY FITZGERALDForeign Affairs Correspondent
WHEN IT comes to meetings between Israeli officials and their Irish counterparts, there is one issue that is never far from the agenda – that of Ictu’s support for calls from Palestinian civil society groups urging a boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against Israel.
The campaign, known by the acronym BDS, has its genesis in a 2005 decision by more than 170 Palestinian civil society actors, taking inspiration from similar approaches to apartheid-era South Africa, to call for an international push to boycott, divest from and sanction Israel until it complies with international law.
In 2007, an Irish trade union delegation visited Israel and the Palestinian territories following the passing of two motions on the subject at that year’s biennial delegate conference. Two years later, delegates at the conference voted in favour of a motion which, in addition to condemning the Israeli military offensive in Gaza that January, also expressed support for Palestinian calls for the BDS campaign.
“The assault on Gaza confirmed that Israel’s oppression of the Palestinian people can be likened to the oppression of the black majority in South Africa under apartheid,” the motion reads, before admonishing European governments and the EU itself for failing to take “effective action” to sanction Israel.
“In the absence of UN or Governmental intervention, the most effective action which is open to us to take in support of the Palestinian people is to assist in the mobilisation of civil society behind the campaign for boycott and divestment,” it says.
That strategy will be the focus of an Ictu conference to be held at Dublin Castle tomorrow. Ictu says the gathering, which will bring together Israeli and Palestinian civil society activists as well as union leaders, aims to build support for its policy and learn from union movements elsewhere which have undertaken similar campaigns.
Omar Barghouti, a founding member of the BDS campaign, is among the speakers. Trócaire director Justin Kilcullen and Labour MEP Proinsias De Rossa, who chairs the European Parliament’s delegation for relations with the Palestinian Legislative Council, are scheduled to participate in one of several panel discussions.
Conference organisers, who expect about 150 people to attend, hope the event will help to strengthen Ictu’s relationship with the labour movement in the Middle East and encourage debate about “how international trade union solidarity can contribute to a peaceful solution that respects both the UN resolutions and human and trade union rights”.
Israel has made no secret of its displeasure over Ictu’s stance. Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin, who will address Friday’s conference, says the matter is often raised when he meets Israeli officials.
“The Government is somehow blamed or there is a view that the Government should influence Ictu,” he told The Irish Times last month.
A number of meetings have taken place between Israeli diplomats and Ictu officials, including one between Israeli ambassador Zion Evrony and Ictu general secretary David Begg.
In a statement, the Israeli embassy argued that this week’s conference features “a long list of the most one-sided critics of Israel, who will be ‘balanced’ by a lone representative of Histadrut” – the Israeli labour federation.
The embassy also criticised Ictu’s involvement with the BDS initiative, calling it a “discredited and extremist campaign which cares nothing for the interests of Irish or Palestinian workers and offers nothing for peace”.
In response, an Ictu representative said: “In terms of policy and specifically in relation to the organisation of this conference, congress is answerable only to its 850,000 members on the island of Ireland as it is they, through their representative structures, who formulate and decide on that policy.”