TODAY Dr Husam Zomlot, the Palestinian ambassador to Britain, will address Unison’s national delegate conference on the ongoing genocide in Gaza and the struggle against the oppression of the Palestinian people.

Israel’s genocide has caused the complete collapse of healthcare and all public services in Gaza. The ordered evacuation of hospitals and deliberate targeting of healthcare facilities has furthered the catastrophe. Israel’s persistent attacks on the healthcare system in Palestine are war crimes. It is clear: this isn’t a war waged by Israel on Hamas, but a war waged against all Palestinians.

It is important to be clear also that this did not begin on October 7, as some in the British media would like to suggest. The attack on October 7 did not happen in a vacuum.

The reality is that before October 7 the tight land, sea and air blockade of Gaza had led to the highest rate of unemployment in the world and denied over two million Palestinians their right to decent work, healthcare, education, electricity and water and sanitation.

It was prior to October 7 that Palestinian trade unions and civil society, UN special rapporteurs, the TUC, Unison and human rights organisations including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Israeli organisation, B’Tselem, recognised that the systematic discrimination faced by the Palestinian people constitutes the crime of apartheid under international law.

Again, this is not a war against Hamas and it did not begin on October 7. It’s a war that has been waged against the Palestinian people for 75 years.

Unison has been clear in its calls for a ceasefire in Gaza and in its condemnation of Israeli apartheid. A motion passed at our national delegate conference last year on Palestine welcomed the Amnesty International report “Israel’s apartheid against Palestinians: a cruel system of domination and a crime against humanity,” which sets out how massive seizures of Palestinian land and property, unlawful killings, forcible transfers, drastic movement restrictions and the denial of nationality and citizenship to Palestinians are all components of a system which amounts to apartheid under international law.

Unison was one of the first trade unions in Europe to respond to the call from Palestinian civil society, including trade unions, by passing a policy in support of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) as a way to force the Israeli government to end the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian land against the oppression of the Palestinian people.

The motion on Palestine going to conference reiterates this — but also calls on the British government to take measures to uphold international law, including the suspension of arms sales with Israel, banning trade with the illegal settlements and supporting the prosecution of violations of international law to the International Criminal Court and International Court of Justice.

It reiterates our support for BDS and steps up the campaign to divest from local government pension schemes to branches and regions. It encourages our members to organise in their workplaces around Palestine and continues our longstanding support of the work that the Palestine Solidarity Campaign undertakes — encouraging regions and branches to affiliate, and calls for any incoming government to recognise an independent Palestinian state.

Unison, being the largest public-sector union, has a responsibility to call out the complicity of the British government in the crimes against the Palestinian people and the powerful role that it plays in facilitating the deaths of thousands of Palestinians, but also to call out the complicity of the Labour Party. Britain has not just overtly supported the Israeli government politically, but has materially — it has sent ammunition and warships to Israel.

As public-sector workers, it is not in the interests of our members to support calls for war and increases in military spending. All the money that is being directed towards the Israeli war machine will take away from much-needed investment in our public services.

We must be loudly in opposition to increased military expenditure and the military-industrial complex. We need opposition to all war.

There needs to be an understanding that British foreign policy is not detached from our own struggle here. As the largest union in Britain, we need to hold the incoming Labour government to account and ensure it enacts these actions.

Any incoming Labour government will need to stop denying Palestinians their inalienable right to sovereignty and recognise an independent Palestinian state.

As a young trade unionist, the cause of the Palestinian people holds a place close to my heart. Fifty per cent of the people living in Gaza are under the age of 18. They are children, with the dreams, hopes and aspirations that all young people have.

They haven’t been able to live their lives as young people; they have had their childhood taken away from them through war and occupation. The perpetrators are Israel and its allies.

We must be more than ready to escalate the struggle to fight for the Palestinian people. We must step up. We must not stop campaigning until Palestine is free.

Micaela Tracey-Ramos is a member of the Unison NEC.