Irish Teachers Union Votes to Boycott Israel

The Teachers Union of Ireland has become the first educational trade union within the European Union to vote to boycott the State of Israel. During its last annual conference, the Teachers Union of Ireland unanimously decided in favor of a comprehensive academic and cultural boycott of Israel that would include scientific exchanges, students, academics, and research cooperation. Furthermore, the Teachers Union of Ireland calls upon the Irish Congress of Trade Unions to “step up its campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions against the Apartheid State of Israel.”

The motion was raised by Jim Roche, an activist from the fringe groups Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign and Gaza Action that has partook on a solidarity trip to the Gaza Strip. He has made a number of libelous accusations against Israel. For example, Roche claims that Israel is worse than the apartheid regime in South Africa, despite the fact that anti-apartheid activist Benjamin Pogrund, who reported on the apartheid regime in South Africa for 26 years, claimed that the conditions that made South Africa an apartheid state do not exist in Israel. He asserted in the Guardian, “Arabs have the vote, which in itself makes them fundamentally different from South Africa’s black population under apartheid. And even the current right wing government says that it wants to overcome Arab disadvantage and promises action to upgrade education and housing and increase job opportunities.” Roche also accused Israel of targeting Palestinian education, even though the Palestinian literacy rate has risen from 88 percent to 93 percent ever since Israel gained control of the area.

Many Jewish organizations have come out against the Teachers Union of Ireland supporting boycotting Israel, arguing that it does nothing to enhance the status of the Palestinians or encourage peace in the Middle East. As Stephen Scott of the Trade Union Friends of Israel proclaimed, “The move by the TUI to boycott Israeli teachers and lecturers is a regressive step that will not enhance the chance for peace or reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians. Surely as trade unionists they should be seeking peace through dialogue and exchange between educationalists on both sides.”

American Jewish Committee Executive Director David Harris had even harsher words. He declared that the Teachers Union of Ireland “undermines the cause of Israeli-Palestinian peace by singling out, unfairly and without reference to the facts, one side in the conflict for targeting and isolation. Four consecutive Israeli prime ministers have called for a two-state accord with the Palestinians, only to be rebuffed time and again. It does take two to make peace. Meanwhile, we trust that the leaders of the Irish campaign, to be consistent, will seek to ensure that they do not benefit from any life-saving Israeli medical advance, technology in their computers, innovations in their cell phones, or other Israeli contributions to the world’s well-being. Teachers should be dedicated to cooperating with colleagues in other countries, including Israel, and not shunning other teachers for narrow political agendas!”

The Jewish Labor Committee also condemned the boycott Israel motion of the Teachers Union of Ireland. They stated, “Academic boycotts are anathema to academic freedom, a principle that must be embraced, not spurned by teacher organizations. They are totally inconsistent with the democratic values embodied in academic freedom and free expression of ideas. This TUI resolution implicitly discourages all open discussion and debate between Israelis and Palestinians in a way that can resolve their conflict. It explicitly focuses solely on Israel, without even mentioning actions or policies of Palestinian or other Arab governments, parties or movements that hinder a peaceful outcome toward a two-state solution.”

The Jewish Labor Committee continued, “Israel is the only country in the region with freedom of speech, a free press, free and fair elections with numerous parties, including those specifically representing Israeli Arabs, an independent, vibrant trade union movement, an independent judiciary and freedom of religion – all of which are afforded to and used by Israeli Arabs and hardly the mark of apartheid. Arab-Israelis have full equality under Israeli law. The situation confronting Palestinians living in the West Bank is hard, and must be improved. But the boycott of the TUI Motion 241 will do nothing to ameliorate or in any meaningful way change the lot of the Palestinian people. Indeed, there is nothing within that resolution that either rhetorically or programmatically addresses the real needs of Palestinians, either teachers in specific or Palestinians more generally.”

Please tell the Teachers Union of Ireland that boycotting Israel is absurd.

Contact: tui@tui.ie

Dear Gerald Craughwell,

As a concerned citizen, I am deeply disturbed that a teachers’ union has voted unanimously to boycott the State of Israel, even though such boycotts do absolutely nothing to enhance the status of the Palestinian people, help Israelis and Palestinians live in peace, and are a clear violation of the very principle of academic freedom. Indeed, boycott, divestment and sanctions does not bring the Palestinians once step closer to having more economic opportunities and a country to call their own; all it does is foster ethnic hatred that in the long term doesn’t really benefit the Palestinians, since it brings them further away from achieving peace.

Yet, what is even more disturbing is that the Teachers Union of Ireland adopted this motion based completely on false information. Jim Roche claimed that Israel inhibits Palestinian education. Yet in reality, Palestinian literacy rates rose from 88 percent to 93 percent since Israel took control of the area. How can Israel be harming Palestinian education if Palestinian literacy rates have actually improved? Furthermore, the Teachers Union of Ireland asserted that Israel was an apartheid state, despite the fact that anti-apartheid activist Benjamin Pogrund, who reported on the apartheid regime in South Africa for 26 years, has demonstrated that Israel is clearly not an apartheid state and that Arabs living in Israel enjoy many freedoms and liberties that blacks in apartheid South Africa never had.

As the Jewish Labor Committee proclaimed, “Israel is the only country in the region with freedom of speech, a free press, free and fair elections with numerous parties, including those specifically representing Israeli Arabs, an independent, vibrant trade union movement, an independent judiciary and freedom of religion – all of which are afforded to and used by Israeli Arabs and hardly the mark of apartheid. Arab-Israelis have full equality under Israeli law. The situation confronting Palestinians living in the West Bank is hard, and must be improved. But the boycott of the TUI Motion 241 will do nothing to ameliorate or in any meaningful way change the lot of the Palestinian people. Indeed, there is nothing within that resolution that either rhetorically or programmatically addresses the real needs of Palestinians, either teachers in specific or Palestinians more generally.”

Thus, I call upon you to reverse TUI Motion 241 and work instead to promote academic cooperation between Israelis and Palestinians, in order to enhance the chances that peace can succeed in the Middle East.

Sincerely,
Your Name

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