End the Genocide in Palestine

Starting with the UE 53^rd Convention in 1988, delegates to UE conventions have adopted resolutions opposing the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza; supporting the human rights of the Palestinians; opposing the one-sided policy by which the U.S. government funds and arms the Israeli government; and calling for negotiations toward a just and peaceful solution to this longstanding conflict.

At our 74^th Convention in 2015, we took our commitment to peace and justice for Palestine and Israel one step further, endorsing the worldwide Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. BDS arose from a 2005 call by Palestinian trade unions and hundreds of Palestinian civil society organizations for a worldwide, nonviolent campaign of boycotts to pressure Israel to end its apartheid rule over the Palestinians. BDS was modeled after the 1980s international solidarity campaign that put economic pressure on South Africa’s government and helped end apartheid.

The Israeli government used the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas (which happened shortly after our last convention) as a pretext to launch a military assault against the entire population of Gaza. They have killed over 90,000 civilians, the majority of them women and children, and displaced virtually the entire population. They have decimated the healthcare system, bombed every last Palestinian university, systematically killed journalists covering the conflict, and are engaging in deliberate starvation of the population. Israel is now openly proposing illegally moving Palestinians from their land to other countries, some of which are themselves war-torn. There is only one word which is adequate to describe Israel’s actions, and that is genocide.

In the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, the Israeli government continues to confiscate homes and land to expand Israeli settlements. Palestinians are forbidden from reacting to acts of violence by Israeli settlers. In a recent report, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) found that on average 100 Palestinians are attacked monthly by Israeli settlers in the West Bank (up from 30 in 2024) and 168 have been killed since the start of 2025. Since 1967 Israel has settled more than 750,000 of its citizens in the West Bank, and has been building walls that prevent Palestinians from accessing needed resources. Farmers are cut off from their fields and water supplies, which could soon wipe out Palestinian agriculture in the Jordan River Valley. All of this is illegal under international law.

For the past several decades, the U.S. working class has been forced to fund this genocidal project through U.S. military aid to Israel, which UE has long called to end. The ruling class, Democrats and Republicans alike, scramble to provide intellectual and political justification for continuing to send billions of dollars in weapons and aid to Israel, while millions of working people here at home lack jobs, healthcare, or adequate housing, and are increasingly left homeless by devastating climate catastrophes and forced into unlivable and undignified conditions. Because Israel’s military is so heavily funded and supplied by our government, the U.S. labor movement has a special responsibility to speak out against what is being done with our tax dollars.

Despite the brutality of Israel’s assault on the Palestinian people, the U.S. ruling class is using false claims of “antisemitism” to smear anyone who criticizes Israel, and to justify repression of protests against Israel’s actions. Members of UE and other unions have been suspended, fired, or detained because of their protest activities. Much like scapegoating of communists during the McCarthy era, these baseless accusations are being used to attack UE and other militant unions and organizations.

Due to the undue influence of pro-Israel power brokers such as American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and Christians United for Israel (CUFI), many American states have passed laws forbidding involvement in BDS activities, and paint any opposition to Israel’s crimes as bigotry and antisemitism. Israel rightly proclaims “never again” in response to the genocidal Holocaust by the Nazis in the 1930s and 40s, yet engages in these unconscionable actions.

UE has played an important leadership role in mobilizing labor opposition to Israel’s actions, including cosponsoring a labor statement calling for a ceasefire in October 2023, helping to initiate and lead the National Labor Network for Ceasefire (NLNC), and working with other unions to send a letter to Biden demanding that he end U.S. military aid to Israel in July 2024. Both NLNC and the letter to Biden were joined by unions representing the majority of union members in the U.S.—the first time in the history of the modern labor movement that a significant part of the U.S. labor movement has opposed the foreign policy of a Democratic President.

In the face of Israel’s genocide, we intend to continue to mobilize our members and our allies to demand an end to the Israeli apartheid regime and the ongoing occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, and to pursue effective means to achieve it, such as BDS.

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT THIS 79^th UE CONVENTION:

1. Demands that the U.S. government immediately cease all military aid to Israel, and instead pressure Israel to:
   1. End their apartheid policies, and the genocide, occupation, and destruction in Gaza, as well as the occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and;
   2. Negotiate a peace agreement on the basis of equality, democracy, and human rights for the Palestinian and Israeli people, including Palestinian self-determination and the right of return for refugees;
2. Endorses the BDS movement and urges the union at all levels to become engaged in BDS and the movement for peace, justice and equality for Palestinians by:
3. Creating forums for locals that have undertaken campaigns for divestment to lead workshops for member-to-member education so that other locals may learn from them;
4. Creating and distributing educational materials about BDS;
5. Identifying areas of investment not in compliance with BDS;
6. Opposes all anti-BDS legislation, and opposes all efforts to outlaw BDS, existing BDS legislation, and otherwise punish critics of Israeli policies;
7. Condemns the use of accusations of “antisemitism” to silence critics of Israel, and the use of such charges to suspend, fire, detain or deport people whose only “crime” is speech or protest.