All India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU) conveys its complete solidarity with the people of Palestine, and calls on the working class of the world to stand against the horrifying war crimes being committed by the Israel including stopping all food supplies, water, electricity and fuel alongside a bombing campaign targeting hospitals, schools, homes, and people. Hundreds of Palestinians, including several children have been detained in the occupied West Bank. The Israeli government has warned millions of Palestinians living in the northern half of Gaza to leave even as it continues with constant bombardment. This clearly is an attempt by the Israel to re-enact another Nakba - ethnic cleansing of Palestinians- that in 1948 saw millions of Palestinians becoming refugees in their own land.

We condemn the US and the western allies of Israel for extending support and providing massive military aid and weapons that will only further the Israel's genocidal war on Palestinians. The US and western allies are complicit in the war crimes being committed against the people of occupied Gaza and West Bank

We all extend our support to the call by Palestinian trade unions to all workers of the world and their unions to unite and boycott manufacturing or loading of weapons and military equipment destined to Israel and its brutal war.

We salute the hundreds of thousands of people across the world standing in support with the people of Palestine through huge rallies in country after country, from France to the UK to Egypt to India. Numerous cities in the US have witnessed mammoth rallies questioning the complicity of the US. In Washington DC, thousands are protesting outside the Capitol while 500 Jews, Rabbis and descendants of holocaust survivors chant “Let Gaza Live!”. In Israel too, the people are raising their voice unequivocally holding Netanyahu responsible for this conflict.

AICCTU calls upon the Indian government to urge the Israeli government to initiate direct negotiations towards establishing a sovereign and independent state of Palestine.

AICCTU also demands immediate lifting of the embargo on essential supplies and an immediate end to the war on Gaza and Palestine.

AICCTU appeals to the working class of the globe, to stand up with the people of Palestine, against the pro-war, pro-Israel attitude of their own military industrial complexes and the governments!

- issued by AICCTU HQ on 21 October 2023

Excerpts from Palestinian Trade Unions Call for an End to Arming Israel

On Monday October 16, 2023, Palestinian trade unions released an urgent call for international trade unions to take action to halt the arms trade to Israel. The call comes amid a ruthless bombing campaign of Gaza, following Hamas’ October 7 offensive into Israel, and as Israel prepares for a ground invasion into the territory.  As Israel escalates its military campaign, Palestinian trade unions call on our counterparts internationally and all people of conscience to end all forms of complicity with Israel’s crimes—most urgently halting the arms trade with Israel, as well as all funding and military research. The time for action is now—Palestinian lives hang in the balance.

We are calling on trade unions in relevant industries:

•     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.

We make this call as we see attempts to ban and silence all forms of solidarity with the Palestinian people. We ask you to speak out and take action in the face of injustice as trade unions have done historically. We make this call in the belief that the struggle for Palestinian justice and liberation is not only a regionally and globally determined struggle. It is a lever for the liberation of all dispossessed and exploited people of the world.

-Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions, Gaza & other unions.