TUFI’s monthly update looks at important trade union issues in Israel and the Palestinian territories, the Middle East Peace Process, regional developments, domestic Israeli and Palestinian affairs and primary issues affecting British trade union policy on Israel

TUFI TUC Congress Fringe Event 2011

TUFI’s TUC fringe event will take place at the Bloomsbury Tavern in London this year on Monday 12 September 2011. Everyone is welcome to attend. The event will be from 5:30pm to 7:00pm. A flyer confirming these details and revealing the guest speakers will be sent out in the coming weeks.

Israeli doctors and medical trainees go on strike

Israeli doctors and medical students began a strike on 13 July to protest against a deal being drafted between the Finance Ministry and the Israel Medical Association (IMA).

The dispute began over plans to add more shifts for physicians in order to reduce the hours worked by residents. The strike forced hospitals to close outpatient clinics and operate under Sabbath conditions, only performing emergency surgeries.

Meanwhile, on 11 July, doctors in the West Bank also went on strike with Palestinian hospital staff walking out after not being paid their wages for over three months and demanding that their union negotiate a mechanism to assure that they are paid on a monthly basis.

300 workers barricade Agrexco office in Tel Aviv

About 300 Agrexco employees barricaded themselves inside the company's Tel Aviv office on 19 July while others protested outside. The workers were protesting against the government, the Finance Ministry, and the company's court-appointed trustee manager, Shlomo Nass, who has said 200 workers had to go on unpaid leave or be fired.

If the workers lose their jobs they will not receive the severance compensation they are owed under their current collective bargaining agreement due to the company’s currently weak financial situation. The Israeli Finance Ministry and the Histadrut (Israeli TUC) have met on a number of occasions, but they are yet to come to an agreement concerning severance compensation.

Proposal to raise women's retirement age to 67

Government representatives on the Israeli public committee have recommend raising women's retirement age to 67, equalising it with men. However, this proposal is being disputed and a recent committee meeting broke up when representatives of the Histadrut (Israeli TUC) walked out in protest.

The Israeli Ministry of Finance has said that by law, women's retirement age is 62, and that it is expected to rise to 64. It is unclear, therefore, if the public committee has the authority to raise women's retirement age beyond 64. Most members of the Knesset (Israeli Parliament) Finance Committee oppose raising women's retirement age to 64, let alone beyond that.

Salit West Bank quarry strike continues

Palestinian workers at the Salit quarry have now entered their second month of strikes. The strike was extended after workers were given cheques that could only be paid into personal accounts, rather than exchanged directly into cash. Many of the workers do not own personal accounts and the cheques were considered a move to provoke rather than aid negotiations.

The strike began after workers called for a collective agreement, with the intention of ending “exploitation and humiliation” at the quarry. The quarry’s management accepted such an agreement, but then pulled out at the last moment.

The strike began in June but negotiations had been taking place for over a year. This is the fist industrial action of its kind in the West Bank.

Controversial new Israeli law against promoting boycotts attacked by wide coalition within and beyond Israel

A controversial new Israeli law, which sees the outlawing of any boycotts or promotion of boycotts of Israel or parts of Israel was passed by the Knesset on 11 July, resulting in criticism from a broad array of organisations and politicians in Israel and beyond, including the Kadima party, the largest single party in the Knesset, and the Israeli Labor party.

A debate on the law on 13 July resulted in three MKs being removed from the chamber, as opposition leader Tzipi Livni accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of betraying Israel’s democratic values, saying he is a “prime minister that doesn’t know what democracy is”.

Gush Shalom, an organisation of Israeli peace activists, submitted a petition against the anti-boycott measure to the Supreme Court on 12 July, which will now judge whether the law should be overturned as unconstitutional. Gush Shalom were joined by the New Israel Fund, a leading progressive organisation.

A growing list of Israeli academics have signed a petition aimed at Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein against the new law, declaring it unconstitutional and against freedom of expression. EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Catherine Ashton has said that whilst “the EU recognises Israel’s sovereignty” and “does not advocate boycotts,” “we are concerned about the effect that this legislation may have on the freedom of Israeli citizens and organisations to express non-violent political opinions”.

Israeli authorities peacefully intercept lone activist vessel en route to Hamas-ruled Gaza

A small ship of activists en route to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip was peacefully intercepted by Israeli forces in 19 July after its captain ignored requests for it to dock in the Israeli port of Ashdod.

Those on board were taken into custody and are left a few days later. This was the only ship in the planned ‘flotilla’ to set sail, after the Greek authorities prevented others from leaving Greek waters for the blockaded territory. The French Dignite-Al Karame managed to sail for Gaza by falsely claiming it was en route to the Egyptian port of Alexandria.

The number of participants in this year’s ‘flotilla’, originally estimated at 600, quickly fell after the withdrawal of major sponsors such as the Turkish-Islamist Insani Yardim Vakfi (IHH).

Israel maintains a naval blockade around the Gaza Strip to prevent Hamas illegally importing weapons. In July 2010 Israel began renovating its Kerem Shalom border crossing in order to increase its capacity to import and export goods from the territory. In the last week of May this year, for example, over 1,248 truckloads of goods were imported into Gaza from Israel through the Kerem Shalom crossing. Prior to July 2010, approximately 500 trucks entered Gaza per week.

Quartet Representative calls for Israelis and Palestinians to return to negotiations towards a two state solution

Quartet Representative and former Prime Minister Tony Blair met with Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard on Tuesday (26 July) to discuss how the international community can help the Israelis and Palestinians restart direct peace negotiations to bring about a two state solution to the conflict.

Speaking at a joint press conference after their meeting, Tony Blair said that the priority the Middle East Quartet (EU, US, UN and Russia) was working on was “to try and see if we can establish some principles of guidance to renew the negotiation”. Asserting that “we know what the issues are: borders, security, Jerusalem, refugees are the key issues,” Blair added that “President Obama set out in a speech a couple of months ago the basic analysis for this. If we could get agreed a set of principles that would then allow a negotiation to be credible, then I think that would enable us to manage any actions that are taken at the UN a lot more easily”.

The Quartet representative was making reference to ongoing Palestinian efforts to have the UN recognise a unilaterally declared state in September, rather than returning to peace negotiations. Asked about the potential vote at the UN, Blair said that: “The problem is that, as indeed the President of the Palestinian Authority has recognised, the problem is that anything you do unilaterally is not going, effectively, to deliver what the Palestinians want, and what we want to see, which is an independent and a sovereign Palestinian state.”