The British National Union of Journalists has voted to boycott Israeli goods.
The National Union of Journalists has voted at its annual meeting for a boycott of Israeli goods as part of a protest against last year’s war in Lebanon.
Today’s vote was carried 66 to 54 – a result that met with gasps and a small amount of applause from the union delegates present.
The vote came during a series of motions on international affairs and reads: “This ADM [annual delegate meeting] calls for a boycott of Israeli goods similar to those boycotts in the struggles against apartheid South Africa led by trade unions and the TUC [Trades Union Congress] to demand sanctions be imposed on Israel by the British government and the United Nations.”
The motion was originally brought by the union’s South Yorkshire branch and opposed by the Cumberland branch, which said it was too political and was not tied closely enough to journalistic matters.
After a show of hands twice failed to give a clear result, union scrutineers were called in and the doors to the conference room closed.
The vote on the motion was taken after it was split from a larger motion that condemned the “savage, pre-planned attack on Lebanon by Israel” last year.
Yep. The BBC fights in court to stop the release of a report that proves their anti-Israel bias, and the British journalists’ union votes to condemn Israel for the Lebanon war, and yet, I’m betting you will never see a word referring to the numerous suicide attacks against Israeli civilians.
This motion, known as Composite B in Order Paper 4, was carried by a large majority and also condemned the “slaughter of civilians by Israeli troops in Gaza and the IDF’s [Israeli Defense Forces] continued attacks inside Lebanon following the defeat of its army by Hezbollah”.
The motion called for the end of Israeli aggression in Gaza and other occupied territories.
The union’s national executive committee has been instructed to support organisations including the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign, Jews for Justice in Palestine and the Council for the Advancement of Arab-British Understanding.
That’s what we like to see. Journalists acting with impartiality. So, let’s stop pretending that the British newspapers aren’t staffed with Israel-haters, shall we? Let’s stop pretending that the Brits like Jews.
No wonder British Jews want to leave the country. The atmosphere continues to be as poisonous as it was hundreds of years ago. In the meantime, let’s take a pop quiz: Who bombed the British subway stations and buses on 7/7?
Yeah. Right. Go after the Jews, and ignore the real problem in your land.
I wish I could say that this doesn’t make sense to me, but unfortunately, it does.
British Journalist = the new French!
Not surprising, but disturbing. Fortunately, Americans haven’t given a crap what the British think since 1776.
The British journalists fearlessluy take their stand alongside those who would kill them if they dared to disagree with the killers. The British journalists fearlessly take their stand alongside those who would finish the job Hitler started. The British journalists fearlessly take their stand alongside the vicious terrorists, murderers of unarmed men, women, and children. The British journalists fearlessly criticize those who are no danger to them to curry favor with those who are a danger to them. The British journalists show themselves to be schmucks.
Notice the relentlessly bureaucratic style of the resolution and its passage through a process of confusion and intimidation. With all that, it barely passed.
Even the Brits are getting bored with “boycott”.
On the other hand, the State of Israel might reconsider press relations with overt allies of the enemy. Let them all cover the area from luxury accomodations in Rafah instead of Tel Aviv.
You write: In the meantime, let’s take a pop quiz: Who bombed the British subway stations and buses on 7/7?
Doesn’t affect the main point, Meryl, since we all know that the bombers wouldn’t have even thought to commit such an act if the Israelis would withdraw from the West Bank and the Golan Heights.
After all, as Cherie Blair pointed out, when people are hopeless and desperate, what can you expect? What else can they do to express their hopelessness and desperation other than killing some Jews or, if they can’t find enough Jews to hand, a few Brits?
Israel ought to reconsider on an individual basis granting visas to British reporters.