International trade union delegations blocked from entering Palestine

In the last three weeks, two high-level delegations of trade union leaders from around the world were blocked by Israeli authorities from entering the Occupied Palestinian Territories (West Bank). The general secretaries of two global union federations -- Ambet Yuson from Building and Wood Workers' International (BWI) and David Edwards from the Education International (EI) -- were there, leading the delegations. BWI and EI's affiliated unions have a total of 45,000,000 members and these include affiliates in both Israel and Palestine. This week we interviewed Ambet and David together and heard their stories -- why they were going to Palestine, who invited them, what they were going to do there, and how they faced hours of interrogation and false accusations before being sent back into Jordan. The interview ended on a determined note from both leaders to continue to fight for the rights of all workers and to show our solidarity wherever and whenever it's needed.

Learn more about EI's experience at the Israeli/Jordanian border here. And read about BWI's experience a week later here. LabourStart's full coverage of Palestinian labour news can be found here.

Support the show