The Israeli occupation continues its Nazi aggression and war of extermination against the Gaza Strip in all forms and against all fields of life – educational, health, cultural and economic, in defiance of all humanitarian principles, UN resolutions and the orders of the International Court of Justice to stop the genocidal killings and war of extermination.
As we write this statement and address our fellow workers around the world, the workers of Palestine are confronting the genocidal machine and resisting it with their bare chests and strong arms. Our workers have been subjected to all kinds of killing and displacement, to imprisonment, torture and exploitation, at the hands of the occupier, which continues to bomb their homes and slaughter them in their workplaces. Expressing our moral and human responsibilities to uphold Palestinian rights and stand with the Palestinian workers in Gaza, we in the Palestinian professional unions affirm the following:
First: We call upon the workers of the world on May 1, (International Workers’ Day) to escalate and expand the struggle everywhere to end the Israeli-U.S. aggression and the genocidal war waged by the occupation army in Gaza, and we call on you to cut off the supply lines to the criminal, racist, occupation entity, and to take a stand to support our people, demanding our rights and justice.
Second: We salute the workers and trade unions around the world that stand with the Palestinian just cause, and we call on all unions and labor organizations to support and implement a boycott of the occupation institutions, including the boycott of the Histadrut, the Zionist organization that forms an integral part of the genocidal system against our people.
Third: The occupation’s measures and hostilities have systematically and deliberately targeted teachers, bakers, health workers, journalists, farmers, fishermen, and municipal workers.
Fourth: All educational, health and service institutions have stopped working, as a result of the aggression and barbaric bombing. The occupation targeted bakery workers and shot journalists to hide the truth from you. They attacked the ships of fishermen and killed them. They are carrying out a genocide against our people in the Gaza Strip.
Fifth: We call for the broadest international trade union and labor movement that includes the following:
- Implementing a series of simultaneous activities by professional and labor unions around the world (strikes, marches, and demonstrations) to support the Palestinian people and workers in the Gaza Strip, and to stop the war of genocide and hostilities against the people of Gaza and its workers.
- We call for a boycott of capitalist goods, companies, and imperialist powers that profit from the genocidal Israeli war on the Palestinian people, and the continuing attacks on our land and people in the Gaza Strip and throughout occupied Palestine.
- We emphasize the role of workers in the boycott movement in particular through united labor struggle. This historical moment is an opportunity for collective and effective action to stop the genocidal war against the oppressed in Gaza, and to struggle alongside the growing and rising student movement around the world.
- We particularly call on port, dock and transportation workers to refuse to deal with Israeli shipping and goods.
Workers of the world, unite against genocide and for a world in which the spirit of solidarity, brotherhood and sisterhood, and noble human values prevail.
Palestinian Professional Syndicates Association
May 1, 2024