Jewish
Frontier

At the mid-June International Labor Conference of the ILO in Geneva, a "Special Sitting" was convened on "The Situation of Workers of the Occupied Arab Territories." The reference is to the West Bank and Gaza, much of whose Arab population is no longer under Israel's authority.

Previous "special sittings" have been the scene of strong, anti-Israel speeches, led by Arab and non-Arab Muslim delegates. This recent sitting, at the 89th Session of the lLO's International Labor Conference, was no different. About sixty persons asked to speak, nearly all of whom criticized Israel. Several European delegates, including those from Norway, Sweden and France, and the European Union, joined in the criticism.

Among those seeking a more harmomous and productive role for the ILO was Jay Mazur, president of the National Committee for Labor Israel, in his capacity as president of UNITE and as a workers' delegate from the AFL-CIO. James Foley, the Government Delegate of the United States, joined him. Histadrut Chair Amir Peretz, MK (Member of Knesset), made a highly effective and emotional presentation. Peretz took the moral high ground, and called for Palestinians to join in a quest for peace. His appeal remains unanswered.

Jerry Goodman
Executive Director, NCLI

Statement of James Foley

Thank you, Madam President. The United States takes the position ... today, as it has in previous years, that it is inappropriate to hold this special sitting. Not only does this practice single out one member country for treatment different from others, but it also misuses the ILO as a form for political discussions and diverts attention from practical measures that can make a real difference in the daily lives of Palestinians.

The United States strongly agrees that the ILO should focus on programs of technical assistance that will improve the situation of workers in the West Bank and Gaza. We commend the Director-General for taking steps to strengthen the ILO's activities in this area by sending two high-level missions to the region, and by setting up a Task Force on emergency employment creation. The ILO is putting the emphasis on saving existing jobs, creating new ones, and setting up vocational training and rehabilitation programs. In our view this the the correct approach. Several donors are already contributing to these programs or have pledged to do so, and all who believe the ILO can play a role in bringing peace to the region owe them a debt of gratitude.

The Director-General's report points out, however, that some donors are wondering whether technical cooperation activities are feasible under existing circumstances. We believe they are, and we offer as evidence the U.S. Agency for International Development's Community Services Program for the West Bank and Gaza. This five year program, launched in September 1999, will grow to about 90 million dollars by the time it is completed in 2004. It focuses on creating jobs and improving infrastructure and services in communities hard hit by the current crisis, and it is continuing despite daunting operational difficulties related to that crisis. Agricultural roads are being built linking villages that have been largely cut off from the outside world due to closures. Schools are being refurbished, providing jobs to artisans and construction workers shut out of the Israeli labor market. Local communities have been eager to contribute materials, labor, and even cash toward these projects, demonstrating that technical assistance can continue even in the midst of an uprising.

Madam President, the Director-General's report documents a dramatic decline in the standard of living of Palestinian workers as a result of the tragic violence in the region. It is all the more tragic because it comes at a time when the economic situation in the West Bank and Gaza was improving. In the first three quarters of last year, per capita GDP and GNP were growing impressively. Employment rates were going up and unemployment rates were going down. The violence has taken an enormous toll, wiping out these gains and leading to widespread job insecurity and deepening poverty. And as the Director-General's report makes clear, the Israeli economy has suffered also. A report just released by the Federation of Israeli Chambers of Commerce estimates that the crisis could cost the Israeli economy two billion dollars this year.

The Director-General's report reminds us that this tragic situation is the result of political and military developments outside the lLO's area of competence. Yet it also points out that the ILO can make a genuine contribution to finding a way out of the vicious circle of fear, suspicion, and violence. This is through targeted technical assistance at the local level that will give unemployed Palestinian workers the training they need for future jobs, and through emergency employment generation. These are efforts to which the ILO's government, worker, and employer constituents can each find ways to contribute. If the message that goes out from this special sitting is that we will rededicate ourselves to this task, then our discussion here this afternoon will have served a useful purpose. Thank you, Madam President.

Statement of Jay Mazur

Thank you, Madam President, for giving me the opportunity to speak to what hopefully will be the last special sitting on the issue before us now. As has been the case every time, in 1990 through 1995, 1998, and 1999, and now this year, the ILO conference has held a special sitting on the situation of workers of the occupied Arab territories. The American labor movement, the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizaitons (AFl-CIO), has expressed its deep coneern over the sad misuse of the ILO.

It has been the AFL-CIO's consistent view that these special sittings do not contribute any constructive role to help guide the ILO. Simply stated, this is the wrong place to discuss the political and security aspects of a very tense situation.

The conferences of the ILO are not the same as the United Nations General Assembly or the Security Council. The ILO is a unique and specialized international organization, including its tripartite structure, within the U.N. system, and the ILO has a globally respected mandate, responsibility and competence.

These special sittings only serve to politicize and weaken the effectiveness of the ILO and ultimately its credibility. Unfortunately, there are some who, while not openly admitting so, would indeed like to see the ILO's credibility weakened and its organization undermined, or worse. And more disturbingly, there are lhose who would just as well like to see any progress towards genuine peace, security, democracy and economic and social justice undermined (or worse) in this part of the world.

Madam President. Certainly there is very clearly a constructive and important role for the ILO to contribute that is within its mandate and competence. The vision of decent work, including the strategic objectives and crosscutting issues, all have elements that through technical cooperation can help build essentially needed confidence, dialogue and negotiation within its sphere of competence.

The Appendix to the Director-General's report, which is the basis of the discussion in this special sitting, includes a useful summary of the technical assistance program underway within the framework of the 1994 Memorandum of Understanding.

The report specificallv mentions the project to assist members of the P.G.F.T.U. (Palestine General Federation of Trade Unions) in the formation, development and implemeniation of vocational training policies with the help of the ILO workers' activities branch, ACTRAV. Also noted is (the establishment of a vocational rehabilitation center for people with disabilities and youth with special needs, as well as the technical support to the employment program through the multidisciplinary team and the regional office.

Madam President. The work of the ILO, including its agenda of decent work, the strategic objectives and, in particular, gaining respect for and implementation of the Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, are now more important than ever around the world and especially in the surrounding wider region that we are addressing today.

The reality continues that there is a gaping absence of fundamental human labor rights in the wider region that has been documented in the ICFTU's (International Confederation of Free Trade Unions) annual survey of the violations of trade union rights and other sources for years. Trade unions arc simply banned in some states. In others, no collective bargaining is allowed. Outright government control is the situation in some others, and only a very few states permit trade unions to act, most often under severe limitations.

The fact is, these special sittings do not address the fundamental underlying problems of the massive and appalling social and economic inequalities that are so widespread throughout the greater surrounding region. These injustices are clearly linked to lhe harsh suppression of democracy and prohibitions against workers being able to freely form their own trade unions. In reality, that is the profound challenge facing the ILO in the wider region today and for the foreseeable future.

Thank you.

Statement of Amir Peretz, MK

Madame President, Ladies and Gentlemen. I had actually hoped to come here and talk about the strengthening of the peace process, but instead I find myself heartbroken, discussing the damage that has been caused by crisis after crisis in the last nine months. I see so many innocent people pay the highest price of all as a result of the ever-more horrific, senseless acts of unbelievable violence. Innocent Israeli citizens are forced to live in fear of terrorist attacks, buses and restaurants being blown up, innocent teenager killed and mutilated while standing in queue for a discotheque on a Friday night.

The Palestinians also pay the price in blood and death and in addition find themselves with no source of income and no way of supporting their families under the closure. These inhuman acts of violence are carried out by ever growing groups of fanatics. Throughout the history of the entire world, in every conflict between nations, there have been fanatics on both sides, and always the fanatics from one side encourage the other and serve each other in deepening the conflict. We in the Middle East suffer from the same problem.

The question is: who will be the victors? Will it be the fanatics, or is it to be the moderates who determine the future of the region?

Ladies and Gentlemen, Brothers and Sisters. The Palestinians are not our enemies. Terrorism is. Fanaticism is.

It has been said before, that the worst peace is better than the best war. I believe this to be true. I know this to be true.

Assuring human rights to Palestinians, creating a strong society and a strong economy among the Palestinian population, is of course in the interest of the Palestinians. But it is also an Israeli interest and in the interest of the region as a whole.

However, above all is the most basic human right, the right to life. This, we must protect first. I understand that you expect me to fight against the closure that prevents Palestinian workers from entering Israel to make a living with dignity. Neither I nor any of you sitting here today can take the responsibility that among those thousands of workers is concealed a terrorist fanatic, on a mission of mass murder and destruction.

Madame President. I was horn in Morocco. I came to Israel. I grew up in Israel. I served in lhe Israeli army as an officer. I was severely wounded and spent two years in a hospital. I left the hospital in a wheelchair, and when I first stood on my feet again I swore to myself that the next war I was going to fight was the war for peace.

From the start of my public life, I have always supported peace between Israel and its neighbors. As early as 1984, I believed and openly stated that the Palestinians have the right to a country of their own. Everyone knows I fully support the equal rights of the Palestinian workers. Despite the fact that the situation today is very difficult, I, as a member of the Israeli Parliament and the chairman of the Histadrut, the Israeli Trade Union, gave a very clear instruction to all the Histadrut departments to continue providing support and protection to the Palestinian workers. For example, teams of lawyers from the Histradrut are on the borders and receive complaints from Palestinians workers, which are then placed before the Israeli courts. However, as long as the acts of terror continue, with every new horror I can do less and less.

I call on you, my colleague Shaher Saed, head of the Palestinian trade unions, to fight against terrorism. I also call on you, the trade union leaders from Jordan and Egypt: instead of fighting the Peace Agreement, fight terrorism. As representatives of workers' rights and human rights in the region we should take a much more significant role in helping to change the atmosphere of hate in the Middle East. We are not and should not be swayed by political considerations, but by human ones.

I have always believed that our mission should be to build the infrastructure for peace by creating mutually beneficial activities. It has always been the case that when there are agreements on paper, between politicians, it has been our job, the workers' representatives, to implement those agreements on the ground, between real people, with real everyday problems. Political agreements between governments can stop tanks and missiles, but nothing can stop a hungry man. In a situation as today, our function, our mission, takes on a much greater importance. Of course, I realize that this cannot happen, will not happen, unless we can find the right framework and create the correct atmosphere.

Therefore, I turn to the ILO to sponsor such a framework under its auspices and in this way, perhaps, finally start talking. If by this action we can succeed in getting around lhe table, it we can show the world that it is possible and through this perhaps pressure the leaders of the region into following our footsteps, then we will have done our job. Then we will have fulfilled our true function. I have been dreaming and hoping for peace all my life. I believe the time has come to take more action towards turning this dream into a reality. I want peace, I support peace and I know that there is no alternative to peace.

Ladies and Gentlemen, when I hear the voices of hate in the debate, I ask myself, "why?" Will these voices strengthen the efforts that are happening now to bring a cease-fire? Will these voices help the efforts of Mr. Koffee Annan and Mr. George Tenet after the Mitchell Report? Can these voices bring us hack to the situation we were at nine months ago? My answer to this is very clear. No! If we really want to help the peace process, let's find the words that can change this atmosphere. Let's find the words with which we can, with pride, educate our children to love one another for their future and the future of peace.