Friday 15 May 2009
by John Millington in Scarborough.

AS the Fire Brigades Union conference ended on Friday, delegates gave overwhelming support for a boycott of Israeli goods and backed calls for sanctions in solidarity with the Palestinian people.

Moving the Palestine composite motion, Devon and Somerset delegate Dave Chappell began by praising the history of solidarity shown by firefighters to Palestinians and the people of South Africa during apartheid “before it was sexy to do so.

“What the Palestinians are being subjected to is nothing short of ethnic cleansing by the state of Israel.”

Mr Chappell referred to 185 separate organisations in Palestine which are calling on the international community to isolate Israel politically and economically to force them to stop their appalling treatment of the Palestinian people.

Speaking in support, Manchester delegate Alan Anderson stressed to conference that this motion was in no way anti-semitic.

“In fact we have many Jewish people supporting calls for a boycott. Our quarrel is with the apartheid wall the state of Israel has built,” he said.