Palestinian union boss calls for halt to Israeli imports until forces withdraw

Date: 24/01/02

By David Cronin

A PALESTINIAN trade union leader is calling on the EU to stop importing goods from Israel until its forces withdraw from the Palestinian-controlled areas.

During a visit to Brussels last weekend, Shaher Sae'd said the Union should impose sanctions on Ariel Sharon's government 'as long as it prevents Palestinians from entering their workplaces'.

Economic sanctions would be the most effective tool the EU could use to pressurise Sharon into respecting UN resolutions on Palestinian rights, he believes, because the Union is Israel's largest trading partner. EU-Israel trade stands at about €9 billion per year.

The highest-ranking official in the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU) said workers accounted for 35 of the 880 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in the past 15 months of unrest.

A further 37,000 have been arrested while trying to go to work and there have been 45,000 job losses due to the economic blockade Israel has been enforcing against Palestinian industry.

'More than two million Palestinians are living under the poverty line,' he added. 'They are greatly in need of international assistance.'

His comments came shortly after the European Commission confirmed it was drafting a list of EU-funded projects in Palestinian Authority areas that have been damaged by Israeli attacks.

Sae'd estimated that many of the 7,000 buildings destroyed in the Gaza Strip were constructed with the aid of Union finance.

It has been impossible for him, he said, to work normally due to restrictions on free movement in the West Bank and Gaza.

When a delegation from the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) arrived on a fact-finding mission to the Middle East last November, he had to leave his native Nablus by donkey to meet it. Sae'd held talks with Elmar Brok, chairman of the European Parliament's foreign affairs committee, in Strasbourg last week. He also met advisers to EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana in Brussels.

Data published by the Commission states it committed €398 million in aid to the Palestinian Authority in 2000-2001.

The sum includes some €200 million worth of 'unprecedented support' for the authority to help it cope with the crisis that developed after the Palestinian uprising or intifada began on 28 September 2000.

A Palestinian trade union leader has called on the EU to stop importing goods from Israel until its forces withdraw from the Palestinian-controlled areas.