UNISON, Great Britain's largest trade union, has passed a resolution calling for a total boycott of Israel until it "ends the occupation" - Israel's 2005 withdrawal from Gaza and the ensuing chaos there and in Sderot notwithstanding.



The resolution apparently has no practical consequences, but Israel's National Histadrut Labor Union chief Ofer Eini says it is still a "difficult" one for Israel. Its goal is to have Israel leave all of Judea and Samaria, allow the "right of return" to millions of Arabs to these areas, and dismantle the Jewish towns in the Golan Heights.



Eini expressed some satisfaction that his work of the past few weeks had apparently succeeded in preventing an even worse resolution from being passed. However, he responded with a sharp letter, writing as follows:
"Despite the end of Israel's conquest of Gaza, the Palestinians decided to continue the path of murder and violence. As you know, the city of Sderot and the towns around Gaza - children, women, workers and pensioners - suffer day in and day out from non-stop and indiscriminate shooting of rockets that kill innocent people and cause much destruction. This Palestinian line of attack has turned Israeli residents into refugees in their own country, who are forced to wander to tent sites in Israel's safer cities... Despite this, it never occurred to me to call for a boycott of the Palestinians or European companies who do business with them."
Another UNISON motion would have condemned the its fellow trade union, the Histadrut, for failing to condemn Israel's actions during the Second Lebanon War of last year, "despite [the Histadrut's] own substantial economic conflicts with the Israeli government."