The national executive of the Construction Forestry Mining Energy Union (CFMEU) decided at its May 12 meeting to join the global campaign to isolate apartheid Israel.
The union assessed the approach of trade unions around the world and consulted Izzat Abdulhadi, head of the Palestinian delegation to Australia.
The union executive said it was influenced by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s sanctioning of new occupation settlements during the visit of US Vice President Joe Biden. It also took into account Israeli operatives' use of false passports (including forged Australian documents) in the Dubai killing of a Hamas official.
CFMEU officials Mal Tulloch and David Forde, who took part in an Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA-organised tour of the occupied territories, also helped inform the decision.
The CFMEU said it supported last September’s decision by the British Trade Union Congress to join the call for a selective boycott of goods produced by Israeli settlers in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The congress decided to also join the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
“The CFMEU believes that a boycott of products made in the illegal settlements is justified and is the kind of solidarity action that can send a loud and clear message to the Netanyahu government”, the resolution said.
The CFMEU will attempt to convince other unions, and the Australian Council of Trade Unions and the Labor Party, to sign on to the global campaign.
[For more information about Australian unions supporting Palestine, visit auspalestine.org.]