Policies on Palestine adopted by Unite conferences

This post covers the decisions made from Unite policy conferences 2014 through to 2023.

Our union has some very good policies on Palestine, adopted by democratically elected delegates at Policy Conferences over the last decade. We have reproduced them here to emphasise the strength of solidarity that our members feel with Palestine, and to emphasise how far short our national leadership have fallen in implementing those policies in the face of Israel’s genocidal onslaught against Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem.

Unite Policy Conference 2023  

Conference resolves to:

• raise awareness, build support, campaign and lobby for a free and independent Palestine, continue to campaign on BDS, notably against complicit companies involved in the occupation, the apartheid wall and the illegal settlements (such as Veolia, G4S and Sainsbury’s) through workforce pressure, contracts and pension funds; and encourage members to call on supermarkets and retailers to stop using companies which export goods from illegal settlements
• continue to support and offer practical help to the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, and encourage all branches to affiliate to PSC.
• Encourage branches and regions to send representatives on delegations to Palestine, to further strengthen the solidarity with Palestinian workers
• highlight the suffering, and support the Palestinian population in Gaza living under siege; Palestinians living in the West Bank who are seeing their land illegally seized by Israeli settlements and are forced to navigate checkpoints to go to work, school and hospital; and in Israel, where they are treated as second class citizens and subject to racist laws.

Conference notes the work done so far by Unite and its members in supporting the cause of Palestine liberation both at a regional, national and international level. The time has now come to stop the Israeli ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people and for Unite to take a lead in taking bolder steps like those that were taken against the South African apartheid regime.

Conference restates its commitment to existing policy on Palestine and the active involvement of the Union in ending the Israeli occupation.

Conference instructs the Executive Council to:

• Work with other NGOs and all other supportive bodies in the UK and around the world and develop a Unite campaigning and leverage strategy around BDS within the next 12 months.
• Organise and facilitate with other union bodies and campaigning groups, a national speaking tour to include lawyers and child prisoners/families in the next 12 months;
• Raise the issue and table motions for support of the BDS campaign in the European and Global Federations;
• Organise and facilitate national or regional delegations to be sent to Palestine at least twice a year
• Establish the issue as a standing item on the agenda of the EC and all other constitutional committee
• Deliver a full report to the 2026 policy conference on the activities of the union

Conference therefore instructs the Executive council to ensure that Unite:

• reiterates its full support for its existing policy of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, called for by Palestinian civil society, in support of full equality and justice for the Palestinian people, and the right of UK citizens, pubic bodies and civil society organisations to campaign on BDS
• calls on the UK government to make clear that it will not follow the lead of Trump in moving its Embassy to Jerusalem, and accepting the illegal annexation of the Golan Heights
• opposes any proposed solution for Palestinians, including Trump’s ‘deal’, not based on international law and UN resolutions recognising the Palestinian’s collective right to self-determination and to return to their homes
• supports the work of Palestine Solidarity Campaign and others in campaigning to oppose the proposed law to prohibit public bodies from supporting BDS campaigns
• encourages all regions and branches to affiliate to the Palestine Solidarity Campaign
• supports the work of Labour and Palestine in developing progressive Labour Party policy on Palestine opposing the shrinking and fearful space for debate on Palestine in the Labour Party and support PSC activists inside the party who have suffered ‘trumped up’ disciplinary action on dubious charges
• exerts influence on the international trade union federations to which Unite affiliates to build wider and stronger support and international solidarity for the Palestinians

Unite Policy Conference 2021  

Unite is committed to:

• Full support for existing policy of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS);
• Calling on UK government to make clear that it will not follow the lead of Trump in moving its Embassy to Jerusalem, and accepting the illegal the annexation of the Golan Heights;
• Opposing any proposed solution for Palestinians, including Trump’s ‘deal’, not based on international law and UN resolutions recognising the Palestinian’s collective right to self-determination and to return to their homes;
• Supporting the work of Palestine Solidarity Campaign and others in campaigning to oppose the proposed law to prohibit public bodies from supporting BDS campaigns;
• Encouraging all regions and branches to affiliate to the Palestine Solidarity Campaign;
• Supporting the work of Labour and Palestine in developing progressive Labour Party policy on Palestine;
• Exerting influence on the international trade union federations to which Unite affiliates to build wider and stronger support and international solidarity for the Palestinians;
• Opposing the shrinking and fearful space for debate on Palestine in the Labour Party and support PSC activists inside the party who have suffered ‘trumped up’ disciplinary action on dubious charges.

Unite Policy Conference 2018  

Israeli Government Attack on Human Rights  

Unite condemns the decision of the Israeli Government to ban members and officers of 20 global human rights organisations, who have supported the campaign for boycott and disinvestment, from entering Israel or Palestine. The list includes three UK organisations - the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Friends of Al Aqsa and War on Want.

Unite categorically condemns the decision taken by President Trump to move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Unite is committed to:

• Contact the UK Foreign Secretary and demand that he condemns the Israeli attack on human rights;
• Call for support for a renewed campaign in Britain, involving all relevant solidarity bodies, including Palestine Solidarity Campaign, for a two state settlement and for the British government to give this demand full and material backing – including sanctions on Israel if the Israeli government continues its policy of constructing illegal settlements in violation of the UN Security Council resolution;
• Reaffirm its support for a boycott of all settlement goods;
• Call on the British government to follow the 150 other UN members in giving recognition to Palestine as a state.

Gaza - Israeli army’s unlawful killing and maiming of peaceful Palestinian protesters  

Unite is committed to:

• Call on Unite members in the Parliamentary Labour Party to:
• sign Early Day Motion 1163 (‘Violence Against Protestors in Gaza’);
• call for an independent international investigation into Israel’s use of force against Palestinian demonstrators;
• call for a freeze of UK Government arms sales to Israel pending the results of such an investigation;
• call for an immediate and unconditional end to the illegal blockade and closure of Gaza.

Unite Policy Conference 2016  

Unite is committed to:

• Continue to support Palestinian civil society’s call for boycott, divestment and sanctions against the occupation, the apartheid wall and the illegal settlements;
• Support the campaigning work for justice and peace in the Middle East by organisations in the UK, such as Palestine Solidarity Campaign, aiming to end Israel’s ongoing policies of ethnic cleansing and breaches of international law against the Palestinian people;
• Pressure the UK government to impose an immediate two-way arms embargo against Israel, and to ban the import of illegal settlement products and goods in line with its own FCO advice;
• Organising to send delegations of Unite members to Palestine to witness the situation first-hand;
• Support campaigns targeting companies complicit with Israel’s illegal occupation and settlements, such as Hewlett Packard and G4S;
• Unless G4S ends its engagement with the occupation of Palestine:
• not engage the services of G4S for its own purposes;
• campaign for other public bodies, community organisations and trade unions against engaging the services of G4S;
• ensure that all Unite’s regional and local bodies are aware of this policy and are active in implementing it;
• prepare a G4S briefing for all Unite supported MPs and councillors.

Unite Policy Conference 2014  

Unite restates its commitment to existing policy on Palestine and the active involvement of the union at regional, national and international level at ending the Israeli occupation and bringing about a just and lasting peace. The siege on Gaza must be lifted and the Palestinian people in Gaza must be able to travel and interact freely with neighbouring states.

Unite believes that the continuing arrest, detention and torture of Palestinian children, in contravention of international law and human rights treaties, is part of a deliberate policy to criminalise and intimidate the general Palestinian population.

Unite is committed to:

• Raise awareness, build support, campaign and lobby for a free and independent Palestine;
• Highlight the suffering, and support the Palestinian population in Gaza living under siege; Palestinians living in the West Bank who are seeing their land illegally seized by Israeli settlements and are forced to navigate checkpoints to go to work, school and hospital; and in Israel, where they are treated as second class citizens and subject to racist laws;
• Work with other NGOs and all other supportive bodies in the UK and around the world and develop a Unite campaigning and leverage strategy around Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) within the next 12 months, notably against complicit companies involved in the occupation, the apartheid wall and the illegal settlements, through workforce pressure, contracts and pension funds, and encourage members to call on supermarkets and retailers to stop using companies which export goods from illegal settlements;
• Continue to support and offer practical help to the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and encourage all branches to affiliate to PSC. Encourage branches and regions to send representatives on delegations to Palestine, to further strengthen the solidarity with Palestinian workers;
• Organise and facilitate with other union bodies and campaigning groups a national speaking tour to include lawyers and child prisoners/families in the next 12 months;
• Raise the issue and table motions for support of the BDS campaign in the European and Global Federations;
• Organise and facilitate national or regional delegations to be sent to Palestine at least twice a year;
• Establish the issue as a standing item on the agenda of the EC and all other constitutional committees;
• Deliver a full report to the 2016 policy conference on the activities of the union.