I hope our readers who are members of the National Union of Journalists will make an effort to overturn a motion supporting a boycott of Israeli goods which was narrowly approved at the annual delegates’ meeting.
The vote came during a series of motions on international affairs and reads: “This ADM [annual delegate meeting] calls for a boycott of Israeli goods similar to those boycotts in the struggles against apartheid South Africa led by trade unions and the TUC [Trades Union Congress] to demand sanctions be imposed on Israel by the British government and the United Nations.”
The motion was originally brought by the union’s South Yorkshire branch and opposed by the Cumberland branch, which said it was too political and was not tied closely enough to journalistic matters.
After a show of hands twice failed to give a clear result, union scrutineers were called in and the doors to the conference room closed.
The vote on the motion was taken after it was split from a larger motion that condemned the “savage, pre-planned attack on Lebanon by Israel” last year.
This motion… was carried by a large majority and also condemned the “slaughter of civilians by Israeli troops in Gaza and the IDF’s [Israeli Defense Forces] continued attacks inside Lebanon following the defeat of its army by Hezbollah”.
That motion, of course, deserves to be overturned too. And it’s disturbing that even a few people calling themselves journalists would so eagerly swallow the anti-Israel propaganda line on last year’s war. But one thing at a time.
Who exactly are the NUJ members pushing this stuff?
(Hat tip: simonh and Fabian in the comments.)
Update: Of course an upside to all this boycott-Israel stuff is that the boycotters will have to undergo old-fashioned colonoscopies while the rest of us simply swallow pills and the like.
(Via Will at DSTPFW.)
