http://palestinianeforum.blogspot.com/2008/09/pgftu-leadership-betraying-boycott.html
See also: Palestinians say no to Israel boycott (The Jewish Chronicle)
The Palestinian Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU) does not support a general boycott on trade and investment with Israel, but rather a much more limited boycott of companies that are building settlements in the West Bank and the separation fence.
This position emerged at the annual TUC Congress in Brighton this week on the fringe of which a heated debate took place over the question of whether the Palestinian workers themselves were in favour of the boycott.
At a fringe event at the TUC Congress on Tuesday organized by the Trade Union Friends of Israel (TUFI), with the attendance of Ambassador Ron Prosor, Avital Shapira-Shaviro, head of international relations at Histadrut, the Israeli TUC, claimed that the Palestinian trade unions “are against the boycott of Israel as it harms first of all Palestinian workers.”
Pro-Palestinian activists who attended the event claimed the opposite. Sue Blackwell of Birmingham University, a leading supporter of the Israel boycott at the UCU academic union, insisted: “It is our Palestinian colleagues who have called for the boycott and the PGFTU have signed the petitions.”
No representative of the PGFTU was present at the TUFI event, but the main speaker at the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign (PSC) fringe meeting which took place later the same day, Fathi Nasser, legal adviser of the PGFTU, later told the JC that his organisation was not in favour of a general boycott on trade and investment with Israel.
“We did consider the option, if it could pressure the Israeli government to obey United Nations resolutions and respect human rights”, said Mr Nasser “but we do not see it as effective. Instead we think there should be boycotts only of companies directly involved in building settlements and the apartheid wall.”
In a year when economic woes and an uncertain political future for Labour dominated the TUC Congress agenda, Israel-Palestine and the question of the boycott receded to the sidelines.
Members of TUFI said that the reception they had received this year from delegates at the congress was, overall, positive. “Three years ago they stripped our stand of all the leaflets,” said volunteer Ian Sternberg, “this year the stand is opposite that of the PSC and things are quite friendly.”
Roger Lyons, the chairman of TUFI said: “The agreement the Histadrut and PGFTU have just signed seems to have to cut the legs off most of the attacks and calls for boycott.”
Mr Lyons was referring to the agreement signed by Israel’s TUC, the Histadrut and the Palestinians in which 50 per cent of the union membership fees of Palestinians working for Israeli firms will be transferred to the PGFTU.
Last month, the RMT transport workers union voted against a boycott motion and currently, the only union actively supporting the boycott is UCU, which is currently “promoting a discussion on boycott.”