NUT Policy on the Middle East, the Iraq War, Israel &
Palestine
NUT Conference 2006
Middle East (Iraq and
Palestine)
Conference reaffirms its support for existing Union policies in respect
of Iraq and Palestine and its commitment to continue to campaign for the
objectives expressed in resolutions adopted at previous Conferences.
Conference reaffirms its opposition to the occupation of Iraq, calls for
the withdrawal of British troops and reaffirms its instruction to the Executive
“to make the Union’s views known to the UK Government and to give active
support to initiatives which seek to win support for these views including by
giving support, for example, to demonstrations called by the Stop the War
Campaign on this platform”.
Conference expresses its grave concern for peace resulting from the
recent decisions of the British government to deploy additional troops to
Afghanistan and the statements of the United States Administration threatening
Iran. Conference notes with grave alarm these statements of the United States
Administration.
Conference reaffirms its support for “initiatives to establish links
with Iraqi trades unionists seeking to rebuild their trade union movement” and
“links with teacher trade unionists” to see what assistance can be provided.
Conference recognises that possibilities for peace in the Middle East
will be enhanced by the achievement of justice for Palestinian people and,
therefore, instructs the Executive to maintain the advancement of Union policy
on Iraq and Palestine as high priorities in the international work of the
Union.
Conference noting that the withdrawal of the Israeli army from Gaza has
yet to be followed by a withdrawal from the Occupied Territories of East
Jerusalem and the West Bank calls on the British Government to put the maximum
pressure on the Government of Israel to abide by International Law and to act
on United Nations resolutions.
Conference notes and supports the objectives:
a) to
raise awareness of the issues facing Palestinian education under Israeli
military occupation;
b) to
build national and international campaigns in support of Palestinian students,
teachers and educational institutions;
c) to
oppose the illegal military occupation and its attacks on Palestinian
education, demanding the right to education and unimpeded access for all
Palestinian students to their educational institutions.
Conference therefore agrees to:
i) lobby
Members of Parliament and the Government to put pressure on the Government of
Israel to adhere to its legal obligations to end attacks on civilian
infrastructure and to allow unimpeded access for all Palestinians to their
educational institutions;
ii) call
on the Government, the European Union, all donor nations and agencies to
guarantee the continuation of funding to the Palestinian people through those
structures deemed appropriate by the Palestinian people.
Conference congratulates the Executive for the decision to participate
in the May 2005 demonstration organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign
seeking justice for the Palestinian people.
Conference calls on the Executive to initiate an investigation to
consider the Union’s investments and their consistency with its commitment to
human rights, its international policies and priorities.
Conference further calls on the Executive to ensure that it makes
consistent statements on trade in arms in relation to its international
priorities and protective of its commitment to human rights. These should be in
line with earlier statements dealing with attacks on trade unionists and the
civilian population in Colombia.
In making these calls the Union shall ensure that it also makes clear
that full account shall be taken of the importance of thriving economies,
including that in Palestine, to ensure that all people and especially children
do not live in poverty. Full account also needs to be taken of decisions made
by international bodies, the United Nations and its agencies, the International
Court of Justice and international trade union bodies.
Conference additionally calls upon the Executive to make appropriate
representations to the UK Government and the European Union, making clear that
all actions taken by these bodies should be supportive of a child’s right to
education and other important provisions within the UN Convention on the Rights
of the Child. Conference regards it as imperative that children and teachers
are free and unimpeded to travel to school in safety.
Conference further instructs the Executive to call upon the UK
Government to seek to ensure the compliance of companies in the UK with the
requirements of the judgement of the International Court of Justice on the
construction of the wall.
NUT
Conference 2005
PALESTINE AND IRAQ
Conference
reaffirms Union policy adopted at Conference 2004 calling for an end to the
illegal occupation of Iraq and expresses support for TUC 2004 policy calling
for “the speedy withdrawal of the coalition forces and the dismantling of their
military bases in favour of the Iraqi people being left free to build their
country’s infrastructure, public services and education system, with assistance
from international agencies if required”.
Conference notes opinion polls in Iraq, Britain and the USA show consistent popular support for the ‘speedy withdrawal’ of US/UK military forces from Iraq. Also, despite the nature of the 30 January election, the structure and rules of which were imposed by the American occupation forces, the clear winner ‘The United Iraq Alliance’ campaigned on a programme of a rapid withdrawal of US/UK troops from Iraq.
Conference
instructs the Executive to make the Union’s views known to the UK Government
and to give active support to initiatives which seek to win support for these
views including by giving support for example to demonstrations called by the
Stop the War Campaign on this platform.
Conference
calls upon the Executive to support initiatives to establish links with Iraqi
trades unionists seeking to rebuild their trade union movement and in
particular to seek to make links with teacher trade unionists to see what
assistance could be provided.
Conference notes
the successful tour of Hassan Juma’a, General Secretary of the Southern
Oil Company Union and President of the General Union of Oil Sector Workers in
Basra; a union opposed to the US/UK occupation of Iraq and the linked massive
privatisation of Iraq’s basic industries.
The tour included speaking at the annual conferences of ‘Labour against
the War’ and the Stop the War Coalition, as well as a TUC Solidarity
Conference and many trade union meetings in England and Scotland.
Conference
recognises that the achievement of peace in the Middle East would not only be
assisted by the steps outlined above but also by the establishment of a viable
independent Palestinian state.
Conference reaffirms Union policy in support of the rights of the Palestinian
people.
Conference
notes the tragic impact of Israeli aggression on the lives of the Palestinian
people:
1. 84.6%
of Palestinian households in Gaza and 57.8% of households in the West Bank live
below the poverty line;
2. there
is a disproportionate effect of poverty on Palestinian children (53% of the
Palestinian population is below 18 years) with more than two-thirds of
Palestinian children living in poverty;
3. 30%
of children under five suffer from chronic malnutrition, 21% from acute
malnutrition;
4. the
United Nations World Food Program says the situation is alarming and hunger and
malnutrition is increasing.
Conference further notes that the Israeli army has targeted children from the ages of 9 – 17 and that an estimated 344 children (10 January 2005) Palestinian children are currently detained in prisons. Conference notes that the Israeli Government and its army have acted in contravention of the 1907 Hague Convention Respecting Laws and Customs of War and the Geneva Conventions (1949) and its Articles specifically concerning their rights to: freedom from torture; defence and legal counsel; an interpreter during interrogation and hearing in court; detention inside the occupied territories; submit an appeal; conditions of food and hygiene sufficient to maintain good health; spiritual assistance; and visits by the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Conference
condemns the Israeli Government’s disregard for Geneva Convention Article 76,
which states ‘Proper regard shall be paid to the special treatment due to
minors’, and Article 31, which states ‘No physical or moral coercion shall be
exercised against a protected person, in particular to obtain information from
them or from third parties’. Children
have been taken at checkpoints without their families’ knowledge, denied
lawyers and access to their relatives.
These children are frequently the victims of torture, being denied sleep
and food.
Conference recognises the important role played by the NUT at the Education International World Congress held last year in asking the Union to reach agreement on a motion. Conference in particular endorses the following clauses in the motion adopted with the support of the Israel Teachers’ Union (ITU) and the General Union of Palestinian Teachers (GUPT):
‘Committed to peace through international law and respect for United Nations resolutions and the UN system. Dialogue and negotiation are a means to solve conflicts and build a new and peaceful world free of violence and terror. This can occur in a climate of confidence and entente which builds mutual respect and friendship between peoples.
‘Demands the immediate application of the International Court of Justice decision by destroying the separation wall.
‘Reaffirms its commitment to do all that it can to promote peace with justice for both Israelis and Palestinians.
‘Calls for the establishment of a just peace in this region which will eradicate the terror of individuals, groups and states and end suicide bombings.
‘Further determines to establish an advisory group to support the work of the Executive Board, composed of affiliates to be selected by the Executive Board in agreement with the affiliates in the concerned countries.’
Conference
calls on the Executive to take an initiative through Education International’s
‘Advisory Group’ to pressurise the Israeli Government on this subject.
Conference calls upon Education International to seek to co-ordinate the work of affiliates on the key role that education can play in supporting a peace process in the favourable conditions that seem to be developing in the area. Such work should include a campaign on the right to education for all children in the region consistent with the terms of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Conference fully supports the initiative of the Executive in establishing a Tom Hurndall Scholarship Fund to support the professional development of teachers in SEN in Gaza and calls upon all local associations and divisions to contribute to the fund.
Conference
instructs the Executive to act on the policy adopted in 2004 which instructed
‘the Executive to:
1. ensure
that the Union policy is communicated to members through The Teacher and other
relevant publications; and
2. organise a conference for representatives from divisions and associations to be held before the end of the Autumn Term to discuss the implementation of Union policy as determined by Conference resolutions on Palestine, Iraq and Cuba.’
NUT
Conference
2004
Middle East Peace
Conference
expressly endorses the TUC view that condemned “the British and US Governments’
unilateral decision to wage war on Iraq” and its opposition to “any future
attempts by the US to target independent states such as Iran, Syria, North
Korea and Cuba for regime change.”
Conference notes the call by TUC Congress 2003 for ‘measures through
the world community to achieve the withdrawal of UK and US military forces from
Iraq; to reconstruct Iraq after the devastation of war; and to ensure that the
Iraqi people have the right to self-determination.’ Conference agrees, that
since no measures have been taken by the world community to achieve the
withdrawal of UK and US military forces from Iraq, to call on the TUC to
campaign for the withdrawal of UK forces from Iraq.
Conference
endorses the statement of TUC Congress 2003 “that basic infrastructure (in
Iraq) must be rebuilt, including as a necessity the provision of food, water
and shelter; that there is an urgent need for medical and humanitarian aid and
recognises that one of the first medical issues is to help provide the
necessary supplies for hospitals to function, and that this is made all the
more urgent because of the backlog of problems in such areas as vaccinations
for children following many years of sanctions against the previous regime.”
Conference
further believes that every effort should be made to re-open schools in Iraq.
Conference
endorses the call by TUC Congress 2003 for the reconstruction of Iraq after the
devastation of war; and to ensure that the Iraqi people have the right to
self-determination.
Conference
recognises “that there has been the destruction of much of Iraq’s
infrastructure whilst billions of dollars of contracts for work in Iraq have
been awarded to multinationals.”
Conference
believes that the actions of the US Administration backed by the UK Government
have made a mockery of the Rule of International Law and gravely discredited
the United Nations.
Conference
reaffirms existing support for the rights of the Palestinian people as
expressed at Annual Conference 2002 and believes Israel’s apartheid wall in the
West Bank is incompatible with a viable Palestinian State and calls for an
immediate halt in construction and demolition of that which has already been
built.
Conference notes the failure to implement Conference policy adopted in
2003 and in particular instructs the Executive to ensure that: ‘the Union gives
support to demonstrations and initiatives which promote Union’s policy on Iraq
and justice for the Palestinian people; and the Union sends a delegation to
Palestine consisting of Executive members and non-Executive members to produce
a report on the situation facing Palestinian teachers and students to report to
Conference 2004.
Conference
instructs the Executive to carry out these decisions before next Conference in
2005.
Conference instructs the Executive to:
1.
ensure that
Union policy is communicated to members through ‘The Teacher’ and other
relevant Union publications.
2. organise
a conference for representatives from divisions and associations to be held
before the end of the Autumn Term to discuss practical steps for the
implementation of Union policy as determined by Conference resolutions on
Palestine, Iraq and Cuba.
Conference notes the stand taken by 550 officers and soldiers of the
Israeli Defence Forces who have stated ‘we shall take no part in the missions
of occupation and oppression’ and have refused to serve in the occupied
territories. Conference further notes the statement by 341 Academics in
universities in Israel supporting their students’ refusal to participate in
this occupation.
Conference agrees to send a message of support to them and to demand
the release of the 5 High School Senior (schministim) conscientious objectors
who are in military prison because they have refused to serve in the Israeli
Defence Forces.