Since the day after 7 October, Gaza has been under bombardment. Under the pretext of breaking up Hamas and avenging its civilian victims, the Israeli government has announced a deployment of troops in the Palestinian enclave. In reality, its aim is to seize the northern half of the Gaza Strip, massacring and driving a million Gazans southwards. This war is profoundly asymmetrical. On one side, an open-air prison crammed with 2.3 million people. On the other, a colonial power armed and financed by the United States and France, among others.

On 24 October, Emmanuel Macron travelled to Tel Aviv to reaffirm his unwavering political support for ex-convict Netanyahu and his far-right government. He even proposed that the international coalition against Daesh should also fight Hamas, with all the implications, including for France, that this implies.

But this support is also material: from 2013 to 2022, France sold €207.6 million worth of arms to Israel. At least two major French companies, Thales and Safran, sell arms to Israel, thereby making themselves and the government that encourages these sales complicit in Israel’s war crimes. Since 7 October, Thales’ share price has soared. These weapons are used to massacre Palestinians in the Gaza enclave under bombs and to raze Gaza City to the ground, of course. But also in the West Bank, where weapons are massively distributed to the settlers, who are multiplying the killings and displacements of Palestinians, with the support of the army.

Let’s support the Palestinian trade unions’ appeal

On 16 October, more than 30 Palestinian trade unions launched the « Stop Arming Israel » appeal reproduced below and in our magazine L’Emancipation syndicale et pédagogique. In this text, they call on trade unions internationally:

• To refuse to build weapons destined for Israel.
• To refuse to transport weapons to Israel.
• To pass motions in their trade union to this effect.
• To take action against complicit companies involved in implementing Israel’s brutal and illegal siege, especially if they have contracts with your institution.
• Pressure governments to stop all military trade with Israel, and in the case of the US, funding to it.

Paris, 26 October 2023

Emancipation, an inter-union tendency, bringing together national education staff who are members of the CGT, FO, FSU and SUD, fully supports this campaign and will circulate this appeal to trade unions and trade unionists in France, proposing that they take a stand and contact these Palestinian trade unions for other forms of active solidarity.