TUFI MARCH 2007 UPDATE: TUFI Delegation to Israel and the Palestinian Territories
UK Trade Unionists meet fellow workers to learn about the industrial and political situation in the region.
Trade Union Friends of Israel (TUFI) took a delegation of 10 senior trade unionists from the GMB, Community, USDAW, and the Prison Officers’ trade unions to Israel in early March. During their time in the region they met with the British Ambassador in Tel Aviv, Ministers from the Israeli Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem, toured the region and met with colleagues from sister unions.
They spent a day in Nablus, where they met the Governor and the Mayor and were hosted by the General Secretary of the Palestinian Trade Union Movement, They finished their visit to the region by meeting the president of Na`amat and the Chairman of the Histadrut, Ofer Eini.
Roger Lyons, Chair of TUFI said “The delegation, from a variety of UK trade unions, were really able to engage with their fellow trade unionists who were members’ of the Histadrut and also the PGFTU”.
“From the feedback we have already received, everyone gained a better insight into the industrial and political issues affecting trade unionists in the region and our hosts, the Histadrut, did a great job providing us with a busy and mixed itinerary”.
Israeli Local Authority Workers Dispute
The long running local authority dispute in Israel, which TUFI has reported in past Updates, has taken another turn.
On 28th February, a general public sector strike (incidentally when the TUFI Delegation was in Israel) was cancelled after the Prime Minister personally stepped in and said he would discuss the non payment of workers’ wages in the next cabinet meeting.
Olmert said that it was “the genuine plight of the workers”, some of whom haven’t been paid for over a year, which had spurred him to take action.
However, the Histadrut Labour Federation announced its dissatisfaction at the results of the meeting between Histadrut Chairman Ofer Eini, Finance Minister Avraham Hirchson and Interior Minister Roni Bar-On on Sunday 12th March.
Consequently, the Histadrut has threatened to call a general public strike in 10 days if the issue of the withheld salaries in the local authorities is not resolved.
Other News
Palestinian Affairs
Abbas and Haniyeh locked in talks on unity government
Since signing the Mecca Agreement on 8 February, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh have failed to make progress on finally forming a unity government. At the centre of the dispute are the Interior Ministry, responsible for the security forces, and the position of Foreign Minister.
However they have agreed that the Palestinian unity government will not include any senior officials from Hamas, or anyone who served in the Fatah government under Yasser Arafat. Hamas has said that all its candidates for ministerial positions, with the exception of Haniyeh, are not and have never been ministers or members of parliament.
Quartet demand unity government to recognise Israel
Following the initial agreement in Mecca on 8 February, the Hamas government resigned on 15 February in order to enable a new national unity government to be established in the Palestinian Authority. According to the terms of the new unity government, Hamas has agreed to “respect” previous agreements, but they are not required to recognise Israel’s right to exist or to renounce violence.
The Quartet met in Berlin on Wednesday (21 February) and reaffirmed its view that any Palestinian government has to recognise Israel, renounce violence and respect previous agreements. European leaders also met with Condoleezza Rice in Berlin to discuss the Mecca agreement and the recent Jerusalem summit.
On Monday 5 March, Hamas and Fatah militants engaged in a gun-battle in Gaza in the worst violent outbreak since the signing of the Mecca deal. One Fatah man was injured in the fighting which was caused by a dispute over who had control of a nearby military training compound. Hamas have accused Fatah gunmen in the Gaza Strip of carrying out a series of attacks against Hamas activists in violation of the Mecca agreement while Fatah leaders have accused Hamas of stalling progress on the formation of a unity government.
Blair and Abbas meet in London to discuss unity government
Following his meeting with Prime Minister Olmert and Secretary Rice, President Abbas travelled to London to meet with Tony Blair on Wednesday 21 February to discuss the terms of the national unity government and the prospects for lifting the international embargo on the PA in place since the election of Hamas in March 2006. At a joint press conference after the meeting, Blair said;
“I support the idea of a national unity government, the question is what is the basis of that government and if it is to be a government that takes forward a solution to the Middle East, then it has to be based on the two-state solution, and it is hard to see how you can have this unless people accept the right of each state to exist.” (21/02/07)
Prime Minister Olmert, President Abbas and Condoleezza Rice met in Jerusalem on Monday 20 February in an attempt to restart negotiations and the Middle East Peace Process. The meeting ended with no new agreements but the three leaders did agree to meet again in the near future.
Iranian President denounces Israel
In a statement made on 1 March to Sudanese academics in Khartoum, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad denounced Israel as the “true incarnation of Satan” and said that “the Zionist regime is the symbol of hedonism and the incarnation of the soul of the oppressive powers.” Ahmadinejad arrived in Sudan on Wednesday 28 February in a visit aimed at showing solidarity with Sudan amid increasing international criticism over the crisis in Darfur.
International pressure to halt its nuclear programme is growing on Iran following its failure to meet the UN’s 21st February deadline for halting uranium enrichment. Senior officials from Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States met in London on Monday 26 February to discuss options for harsher sanctions on Iran, which may include the suspension of export credits and tighter travel restrictions on members of the government.
Director of the IAEA, Mohamed ElBaradei, spoke at the opening of a gathering of the IAEA’s 35-nation board meeting today (5 March) saying that the IAEA remains “unable to provide the required assurance about the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program.” The IAEA board is expected to approve last month’s decision by ElBaradei to suspend nearly half the technical aid the IAEA provides to Iran.
In a statement on Tuesday 27 February, Prime Minister Tony Blair expressed grave concern over Iran’s decision to contravene UN demands saying that he thought “Iran is making a big miscalculation” in refusing to suspend enrichment.
He said:
“I think the comments from Iran are very worrying ... because yet again they’re indicating they want to defy the international community…We are perfectly happy to talk to them…the question is what is the conversation about, given that they are saying they are not going to suspend enrichment, they are still supporting extremism in Iraq, in Lebanon, in Palestine, and they are not showing any signs they are prepared to stop doing that.” (27/02/07)
On Tuesday 27 February, during a visit to a diplomatic training college in Pakistan British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said Iran had been offered “almost everything any country that wanted modern civil nuclear power could ask for” but had nevertheless remained defiant.
President Ahmadinejad of Iran and King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia met on Saturday 3 March to discuss joint measures on curbing sectarianism in the Middle East. The meeting was the first since Ahmadinejad’s election in July 2005 but no agreement was reached.