Folks,
Greetings from Valinhos, Brazil, where Lula just announced that Brazil would support genocide charges against Israel at the International Criminal Court.
Lula Supports Genocide Charges Against Israel
Tonite, Brazilian President Lula, the leader of the Workers Party, announced that Brazil would support genocide charges being leveled against Israel in the International Criminal Court.
“In light of the blatant violations of international humanitarian law, the president expressed his support for South Africa’s initiative to bring Israel before the International Court of Justice to determine that Israel immediately ceases all acts and measures that may constitute genocide or related crimes under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide,” said the Brazilian Foreign Ministry in a statement put out tonite.
For more, check out Brazil 24/7.
Weingarten Calls for Ceasefire & Netanyahu to Resign
In the United States, Randi Weingarten, the Jewish leader of the 1.8 million members American Federation of Teachers, has called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to resign.
“Itt is well past time for a ceasefire agreement. An end to the war,” tweeted Weingarten on Monday. “The hostages must be released. Robust humanitarian aid must get to the people of Gaza. Netanyahu has to go (along with Ben Gvir, Smotrich and others.) Only embracing a future with both peoples secure and free will bring peace”.
New York Times Looks at Massive Shift of Unions on Israel
Finally, the New York Times has a long look at how unions have shifted on Israel:
After Israel’s founding in 1948, American unions started investing in the country’s bond program, using money from strike and pension funds. Some also donated money to build stadiums and children’s homes in Israel. By 1994, $1 billion had been invested in those bonds by around 1,700 American trade unions, according to archival research from Jeff Schuhrke, a labor historian at Empire State University.
“In many ways, you can argue that U.S. unions helped construct the state of Israel,” Mr. Schuhrke said.
In 1980, the president of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., Lane Kirkland, declared that a Palestinian state would be “a terrorist state” and “an unmixed disaster to the United States” before hundreds of labor lawyers and union officials. In 1982, the union took out an advertisement in The New York Times declaring support for Israel in its war against Lebanon: “The A.F.L.-C.I.O. is not neutral.”
Union support for Israel sometimes bred internal tensions, with some of the union rank-and-file membership protesting the relationship. In 1949, the same year the International Ladies Garment Worker Union made a $1 million Israeli bond purchase, a group of its members asked the union to support Palestinian refugees. In 1973, thousands of Arab American auto workers in Detroit briefly walked off the job to protest the U.A.W.’s financial support of Israel. In 2002, after John J. Sweeney, then the A.F.L.-C.I.O. president, spoke at the National Rally for Israel, a group of union members circulated a petition condemning his support for the country.
For more, check out the New York Times.
Alright folks, that’s all for today. We will have much more tomorrow. Keep sending tips, story ideas, and comments to [email protected]
Donate to help us keep covering unions fighting for a ceasefire in Gaza. Please, if you can, sign up as one of our 775 recurring donors today.
See yinz tomorrow.
Melk
