This Is Solidarity

This is what solidarity is about. Make no mistake about it, the union knows this simple act isn't enough for peace. But the immediate objective isn't peace, it's solidarity. And I'm a little insulted that the Israeli leader is making sarcastic comments suggesting otherwise. Don't get me wrong, I'm not for murder. If for only my faith, I'm for nonviolent protest. But knowing what Israel is doing to Palestine . . . eh . . . - No1KState


South African Dock Workers Won't Unload Israeli Goods

Associated Press
February 4, 2009

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/02/04/world/AP-AF-South-Africa-Israel.html?_r=1

JOHANNESBURG

South African dock workers won't unload ships carrying
goods from Israel in solidarity with the Palestinians,
a union leader said Wednesday.

Randall Howard, general secretary of the South African
Transport and Allied Workers Union, said it appeared a
ship carrying goods from Israel was nearing Durban's
port. If once the ship docks its cargo is determined to
be Israeli, he said, union workers won't unload it.

"We will make that contribution," he said. "The
historic and heroic struggle of the Palestinian people
for self-determination ... is a struggle that SATAWU
supports."

Last year, South African dock and freight workers
refused to unload a ship carrying weapons for Zimbabwe
to protest Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's rule of
the neighboring country. In the case of Israeli goods,
Howard said, it did not matter whether they were
weapons of vegetables.

"If it's an Israeli product, we're going to boycott
it, plain and simple," he said.

In Israel, Foreign Minister spokesman Yigal Palmor
said: "If these people think that by refusing to
unload shipments from Israel they are promoting peace
they should go back to school because they have misread
the situation in the Middle East big time."

Israel's three-week military offensive against Gaza,
which killed hundreds of civilians before ending last
month, sparked protests in South Africa. Israel says
the operation was aimed at halting Hamas rocket fire
from Gaza.

Howard, decrying Palestinian as well as Israeli
violence, says Israeli attacks were "extremely
disproportionate."

Strong South Africa-Israel ties cultivated by the white
government in the apartheid era have been maintained
since the onset of majority rule. South Africa also has
a close relationship with Palestinians, thanks to long-
standing connections between the governing African
National Congress and the Palestinian Liberation
Organization.