{"id":66695,"date":"2019-02-11T17:05:16","date_gmt":"2019-02-11T15:05:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=66695"},"modified":"2019-02-02T12:07:00","modified_gmt":"2019-02-02T10:07:00","slug":"14-05-42","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=66695","title":{"rendered":"UK Education Union Promoting BDS"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>UK Education Union Backtracks After Promoting BDS and Pledging to Blacklist Ads From Israeli Companies<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

Shiri Moshe<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Delegates wave Palestinian flag at the Trades Union Congress in the UK in September 2018. Photo: Twitter \/ Quds News Network<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The largest education union in the United Kingdom backtracked on a pledge to boycott advertisements from Israeli companies, with its co-head confirming on Wednesday that the statement was \u201cmade in error.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The clarification came after criticism of a statement made by the National Education Union (NEU) \u2014 which claims more than 500,000 members \u2014 in the January\/February 2019 issue of its magazine, which responded to a concern raised by a subscriber identified as Ian R K Davies from Edinburgh, who said he was pleased to read that the Trades Union Congress endorsed a motion in September \u201cin favour of Palestinian citizens of Israel and of Palestinian refugees\u201d in the previous edition.<\/span><\/p>\n

The measure was passed without opposition, with dozens of audience members waving Palestinian flags and holding banners reading \u201cI support Palestine.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet Davies said he was \u201cdismayed to see a half-page advertisement, three pages further on, for SodaStream,\u201d noting that the company is based in Israel.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI cannot understand why the [NEU\u2019s] own magazine accepts advertisement revenue from an Israeli company,\u201d Davies wrote, before urging the union to support the Palestinian-led boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign.<\/span><\/p>\n

The movement says it seeks to isolate Israel until it accedes to three Palestinian demands, which supporters say are grounded in international law. Critics \u2014 including major Jewish organizations in the UK and worldwide \u2014 have branded it discriminatory for denying the Jewish people\u2019s right to self-determination.<\/span><\/p>\n

Davies pointed out that SodaStream maintained a factory in the West Bank until 2015, on land claimed by Palestinians for a future state. \u201cHappily (the loss of Palestinian workers\u2019 jobs notwithstanding), this was closed following pressure from campaigners,\u201d he continued. \u201cI urge you to support the BDS campaign by rejecting advertising revenue from Israel-based companies in future.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

After reprinting the letter, an NEU magazine editor wrote that the union scrutinizes \u201cour adverts to make sure they are in line with union policies and decision making.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe will not be carrying adverts from SodaStream in future,\u201d the editor pledged, before directing readers to the official website of the BDS campaign.<\/span><\/p>\n

The exchange drew some criticism on social media, with a Twitter user by the name of Melanie Golding \u200f\u2013 who identified herself as a Jewish teacher \u2014 saying<\/a><\/strong><\/span> in late December that she was \u201cshocked\u201d by the decision to print the statement. She followed-up on her tweet on Tuesday to confirm<\/a><\/strong><\/span> that she had cancelled her \u201clongstanding membership.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Neil O\u2019Brien, a member of parliament with the ruling Conservative Party, subsequently shared Golding\u2019s tweet and asked NEU joint general secretary Mary Bousted, \u201cIs it really NEU policy to ban adverts from any Israeli firms in your paper?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMany of your members will be doing a good job teaching kids about tolerance and getting along with other people \u2014 please think about what message you are sending here,\u201d he said in a separate tweet.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bousted replied<\/strong><\/span><\/a> on Wednesday by confirming that it \u201cis not the @NEUnion policy to ban adverts from Israeli companies in our union magazine.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe response to the letter was made in error,\u201d she added. \u201cThe @NEU has not yet developed policy in this area.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The NEU was formed in 2017 after a merger between the National Union of Teachers (NUT) and the Association of Teachers and Lecturers. The union\u2019s NUT section regularly sends delegations to the Palestinian territories, and describes itself as having \u201ca proud history of solidarity with the Palestinian people.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

Zawarto\u015b\u0107 publikowanych artyku\u0142\u00f3w i materia\u0142\u00f3w nie reprezentuje pogl\u0105d\u00f3w ani opinii Reunion’68,<\/em>
\nani te\u017c webmastera Blogu Reunion’68, chyba ze jest to wyra\u017anie zaznaczone.
\nTwoje uwagi, linki, w\u0142asne artyku\u0142y lub wiadomo\u015bci prze\u015blij na adres:
\n<\/em>webmaster@reunion68.com<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UK Education Union Backtracks After Promoting BDS and Pledging to Blacklist Ads From Israeli Companies Shiri Moshe Delegates wave Palestinian flag at the Trades Union Congress in the UK in September 2018. Photo: Twitter \/ Quds News Network The largest education union in the United Kingdom backtracked on a pledge to boycott advertisements from Israeli […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[26,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66695"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=66695"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66695\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66759,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66695\/revisions\/66759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=66695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=66695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=66695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}