Palestinian union not backing Israel boycott

November 17, 2009

NEW YORK (JTA) -- The top Palestinian trade union says it does not support a boycott of Israeli goods.

Shaher Saeed, general secretary of the Palestine General Federation of Trade Unions, told British counterparts at a conference that his organization is not campaigning for a general ban on products made in Israel, Britain's Jewish Chronicle reported last Friday.

“The only area where the PGFTU did have a boycott policy was with regard to produce from West Bank settlements," Steve Scott, director of Trade Union Friends of Israel, told the Jewish Chronicle. "Even then, there was concern about whether that boycott could do more harm than good for the 30,000 Palestinians employed there."

Scott added that “Both [the Israeli union federation] Histadrut and the PGFTU are working hard to improve relations. It is very important that UK unionists see and hear for themselves the views of people on the ground rather than the one-sided rhetoric of some of the organizations in Britain.”

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