Delegates at the SIPTU Biennial Delegate Conference (BDC) have called for an immediate cessation of all hostilities in Gaza. The delegates passed the emergency motion proposed by Cathal Rogers of the Meath District Council of the union at the conference in Galway today. “A cessation should immediately accommodate the requisite supplies of humanitarian aid such as medicine, water, food, clothing and fuel to aid the injured, starving and displaced Palestinian people, and to accommodate the release of all hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza,” the motion stated. “The cessation of war and violence would allow for sincere brokered negotiations, so as to bring about a permanent and final resolution to the 75 years of occupation, strife and aggression that have been visited upon the people of Palestine. “While the Meath District Committee abhors the Hamas attack on Israeli settlers and all Israeli civilians, which took place on 7th October, and utterly condemns such wanton and unprecedented violence in the strongest possible terms, we are clear that there must be no distinction between the value placed upon the life of an Israeli or a Palestinian, as is currently the case. “We must as a trade union be on the right side of history in relation to this catastrophic situation, which involves indiscriminate attacks by the Israeli Defence Forces on hospitals, ambulances, schools and places of worship, which are clear and unambiguous war crimes. “Collective punishment and revenge killings of Palestinians in their thousands by Israel must stop immediately and we call on the European Union, the UK and the US to use their undoubted influence with Israel to stop this barbaric slaughter now.”
SIPTU conference calls for immediate ceasefire in Gaza
