The 15th of May, 1948, is known in history for the Palestinian people and the world as the “Day of Catastrophe”, the “Nakba Day”, when 15,000 Palestinians were murdered and another 750,000 were displaced from their land.
The World Federation of Trade Unions along with our brothers and sisters in Palestine remembers and condemns this day every year, which marked the beginning of the occupation, the illegal settlement and the crimes of Israel against the Palestinian people.
Today, 76 years after the Nakba Day, a new Nakba is being performed by the murderous state of Israel, with the support of the USA, the EU and the rest of their allies. 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 consistent and principled support and solidarity with the heroic Palestinian people had always been a priority for the international class-oriented trade union movement. 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 Organisations and institutions that have never been respected by Israel, including the recent decision of the International Court. An independent Palestinian state must be established on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, guaranteeing the right of return for Palestinian refugees.
On the occasion of the 76th anniversary of Nakba Day, the WFTU expresses once again its full solidarity with the Palestinian people. The class-oriented trade union movement, will continue proudly waving the Palestinian flag next to the flag of the WFTU, demanding an end to the genocide, and standing in the right side of history!
We reiterate our call to 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.
We salute the militant students in the US, Europe and elsewhere, who despite the repression, have flooded dozens of universities demanding an end to the massacre and the non-engagement of their countries in the crime against the Palestinian people.
In the framework of intensifying the internationalist solidarity for Palestine, the WFTU is organizing a solidarity visit of a wide International Delegation with the participation of trade unionist of the WFTU from every continent, 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 in 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 our brothers and sisters in Palestine are not alone in their struggle.
