PV staff
May 15, 1948 is known in history for the Palestinian people and the world as Nakba Day – the “Day of Catastrophe” – when 15,000 Palestinians were murdered and another 750,000 were displaced from their land.
Every year, the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) remembers and condemns this day, which marked the beginning of the occupation, illegal settlement and crimes of Israel against the Palestinian people.
Today, 76 years later, the WFTU warns that a new Nakba is being performed by the murderous state of Israel, with the support of the US, the EU and their allies including Canada. “Continuing its methodical tactic of genocide and the total expulsion of the Palestinians from their land, Israel is proceeding with the attack on Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are trying to survive. The intensifying aggression and the imminent attack are going to multiply the civilian and child victims in the Gaza Strip.”
The WFTU, with its internationalist and class struggle orientation, has always placed a high priority on consistent and principled support and solidarity with the Palestinian people. The global labour body understands that the only way to guarantee and consolidate peace and security in the region is to immediately end Israeli occupation and settlement on Palestinian land, as stipulated in dozens of resolutions of the UN and other international organizations and institutions, including the recent decision of the International Court.
On the 76th anniversary of Nakba Day, the WFTU has issued a statement reiterating its full solidarity with the Palestinian people and insisting that “an independent Palestinian state must be established on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, and with the guaranteed right of return for Palestinian refugees.”
The WFTU is also reiterating its call to its affiliates and friends “to intensify all actions in solidarity with Palestine through mass demonstrations, mobilizations, protests, strikes, initiatives and struggles of various forms, using the means of military, commercial, academic and institutional boycotts.” It also offered a salute to students throughout the world who are occupying university campuses to demand that their institutions and countries disengage from the genocide, including through divestment in Israel.
In order to strengthen solidarity with Palestine, the WFTU is organizing a solidarity visit by a broad international delegation including trade unionists from every continent and inside Palestine, for the last week of June. “This visit aims to strengthen the solidarity and support of the large WFTU family to the hard struggle of the Palestinian people. Through the visits to several Palestinian areas, through the activities organized, and through the meetings with Palestinian workers, officials, refugees and the political leadership of the country, the WFTU international delegation will convey in a more direct way the message that the people of Palestine are not alone in their struggle.”
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