GOVERNMENT workers are threatening to walk out amid growing concern that arms sales to Israel breach international law.
PCS union general secretary Fran Heathcote told a Palestine fringe event at this year’s Tolpuddle Martyrs festival: “Shame on those who sit on both sides of the House of Commons, including the new government who give cover to Israel as it commits war crimes.
“Shame on those who sell weapons to Israel and profiteer on the lives of Palestinians.
“The brutality, the suffering and the savagery simply has to stop. To those who sell arms, the message from PCS members working in government departments that grant weapons licences is this: If you are found to be in breach of international law, we will take legal action and we will suspend working.”
Ms Heathcote told the Morning Star that PCS was seeking legal advice after members in the Department for Business & Trade raised concerns that the department’s work is in breach of international law.
She said any eventual industrial action “very much depends” on how a Labour government’s actions on Palestine differ from the previous Tory administration’s.
“We have been approached by members who feel they are in breach of international law. Our job is to explore that,” she said “We would have to consult extensively, and our members would have to see whether they are willing to carry out the work.”
Speaking at the same event on Saturday, National Education Union general secretary Daniel Kebede said he was delighted to hear the Labour administration’s commitment to restoring funding to UNRWA, the UN agency supporting Palestinian refugees’ relief and human development.
He said: “Labour must go further: the UK must suspend arms sales to Israel because, as the International Court of Justice has ruled, there’s plausible evidence that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people.
“By continuing to arm Israel, the UK is complicit in genocide. As trade unionists in Britain, we have an obligation to call out this complicity.
“In what world are the senseless attacks on schools, hospitals and innocent lives considered legitimate? These are acts of terrorism by the Israeli state and against the Palestinian people.
“They are acts of terrorism against women and children who are suffering the worst impacts of this war.”
