Following a visit to to Israel and the Palestinian Authority in December 2007 with the Trade Union Friends of Israel Delegation to the region, the BFAWU (Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union) invited to speak at their Annual Conference in Bridlington, Hertzel Yaka, Chairman of the Food and Pharmaceutical Union of the Histadrut (Israeli TUC) and Ibrahim Thweib, General Secretary of the Food Workers Section of the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions.
Both delegates addressed the Conference and received a standing ovation. Both gave an overview of their own unions work and both stressed their wish for peace and quiet in the region, brotherhood and understanding, dialogue and activism amongst the unions in the region.
Hertzel Yaka made the following statement:
“We call upon the British Trade Unions to take part and be a partner in projects and to condemn any attempt of an organisation to ban Israeli unions. A ban of any sort is completely unacceptable and contradicts the norms of fellowship and solidarity, which are the base of every trade union in the world, and is in fact an attempt to undermine the effort to achieve true peace amongst the Israeli and Palestinian people. We believe that in order to achieve peace you need to negotiate and not to intimidate nor ban. The efforts for peace need to be made through operational deeds and fair mediation and not with loud statements and a one-sided approach.”
Special thanks were given to the BFAWU for bringing both Hertzel and Ibrahim to Britain. Instrumental in bringing them to the UK was Ronnie Draper President of BFAWU who visited the region in December 2007 as a member of the Trade Union Friends of Israel’s Delegation to Israel and the Palestinian Authority.