Passed at Unite Policy Conference July 2023
We must stand up at all levels of the union for the policies passed at our 2023 Policy Conference and previous policy conferences.
See the policy below:
Conference resolves to:
- raise awareness, build support, campaign and lobby for a free and independent Palestine, continue to campaign on BDS, notably against complicit companies involved in the occupation, the apartheid wall and the illegal settlements (such as Veolia, G4S and Sainsbury’s) through workforce pressure, contracts and pension funds; and encourage members to call on supermarkets and retailers to stop using companies which export goods from illegal settlements
- continue to support and offer practical help to the Palestine Solidarity Campaign,
and
- encourage all branches to affiliate to PSC.
- Encourage branches and regions to send representatives on delegations to Palestine, to further strengthen the solidarity with Palestinian workers
- highlight the suffering, and support the Palestinian population in Gaza living under siege; Palestinians living in the West Bank who are seeing their land illegally seized by Israeli settlements and are forced to navigate checkpoints to go to work, school and hospital; and in Israel, where they are treated as second class citizens and subject to racist laws.
Conference notes the work done so far by Unite and its members in supporting the cause of Palestine liberation both at a regional, national and international level. The time has now come to stop the Israeli ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people and for Unite to take a lead in taking bolder steps like those that were taken against the South African apartheid regime.
Conference restates its commitment to existing policy on Palestine and the active involvement of the Union in ending the Israeli occupation.
Conference instructs the Executive Council to:
- Work with other NGOs and all other supportive bodies in the UK and around the world and develop a Unite campaigning and leverage strategy around BDS within the next 12 months.
- Organise and facilitate with other union bodies and campaigning groups, a national speaking tour to include lawyers and child prisoners/families in the next 12 months;
- Raise the issue and table motions for support of the BDS campaign in the European and Global Federations;
- Organise and facilitate national or regional delegations to be sent to Palestine at least twice a year
- Establish the issue as a standing item on the agenda of the EC and all other constitutional committee
- Deliver a full report to the 2026 policy conference on the activities of the union
Conference therefore instructs the Executive council to ensure that Unite:
- reiterates its full support for its existing policy of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, called for by Palestinian civil society, in support of full equality and justice for the Palestinian people, and the right of UK citizens, pubic bodies and civil society organisations to campaign on BDS
- calls on the UK government to make clear that it will not follow the lead of Trump in moving its Embassy to Jerusalem, and accepting the illegal the annexation of the Golan Heights
- opposes any proposed solution for Palestinians, including Trump’s ‘deal’, not based on international law and UN resolutions recognising the Palestinian’s collective right to self-determination and to return to their homes supports the work of Palestine Solidarity Campaign and others in campaigning to oppose the proposed law to prohibit public bodies from supporting BDS campaigns
- encourages all regions and branches to affiliate to the Palestine Solidarity Campaign
- supports the work of Labour and Palestine in developing progressive Labour Party policy on Palestine opposing the shrinking and fearful space for debate on Palestine in the Labour Party and support PSC activists inside the party who have suffered ‘trumped up’ disciplinary action on dubious charges
- exerts influence on the international trade union federations to which Unite affiliates to build wider and stronger support and international solidarity for the Palestinians