Resolution, 20 July 2024: Branch Conference - Palestine Solidarity is AEU Vic Branch Union Business
That the AEU Victorian Branch joins with Australian and international unions in continuing to condemn Israel’s ongoing military assault on Gaza. Since October 7, Israel has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and displaced almost the en:re population of Gaza, destroying schools, hospitals, homes and other infrastructure, and creating the conditions for famine through the consistent blocking of humanitarian aid. The gravity of these actions was confirmed by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on 26 January 2024, when it ordered Israel to take all necessary measures to prevent the genocide of the Palestinian people, to prevent and punish the incitement to genocide, to ensure the provision of basic services and humanitarian assistance to Gaza, and to ensure that possible evidence of genocide not be destroyed [paragraphs 77-81].
Amnesty International has found that “Israel has failed to take even the bare minimum steps to comply” with this order.
The AEU Victorian Branch recognises that Israel's attacks are a continuation of the ethnic cleansing of the 1948 nakba, and the illegal occupation which began in 1967. This ongoing Israeli campaign has entailed killings, mass displacement, and apartheid discrimination against Palestinians.
The AEU Victorian Branch continues to reiterate state, national, and international calls for a lasting peace in Palestine, which requires a permanent ceasefire, an end to Israel’s occupation, and the dismantling of all elements of Israel’s apartheid discrimination.
The AEU Victorian Branch condemns the military, political and economic ties between the Victorian and Federal governments and the Israeli government where these ties have provided legitimacy to, and normalised Israel’s illegal attacks on Palestine.
The AEU Victorian Branch is concerned about:
- the lack of clarity in the use by the Victorian government of the IHRA definition of antisemitism, which invites a conflation of the criticism of the Israeli government with antisemitism
- the principles and standards which apply to school employees conduct are not applied consistently or replicated in an appropriate way to non-government organisations that receive government funding to operate programs in public schools
- the failure of the Department to ensure that school programs and teaching and learning resources, produced by or connected to the weapons companies contributing to the deaths, injuries, and destruction of infrastructure in Palestine, are not running in Victorian government schools, despite the Department’s appropriate materials and sponsorship policies stating companies involved in the sale or promotion of weapons, including firearms as inappropriate organisations to sponsor schools
- the failure to ensure that students and staff (who seek to act within the Code of Conduct for Victorian Public Sector Employees and the Child Safe Standards), who elevate Palestinian human rights by wearing Keffiyeh and Palestinian symbols at school, or who advance views to support those Palestinian rights with students (in the context of the curriculum), colleagues or members of the public, are not subject to unnecessary or unlawful departmental scrutiny or discipline.
The AEU Victorian Branch therefore resolves to:
- Continue to support union members who are taking appropriate and peaceful ac:on to advance the human rights of Palestinians and reject any unlawful employer and government actions that seek to restrict appropriate and peaceful action. The AEU will continue to provide direct support to AEU members where they may be subject to unlawful and unreasonable ac:on by their employer.
- Continue to work with the broader union movement in Australia and continue to insist that the Federal Government calls on the Israeli government to permanently ceasefire, and to take the steps necessary to end all apartheid structures and settler violence against Palestinians.
- Support the ACTU’s call on the Australian government to take immediate steps to secure peace, by:
• using all influence, pressure, and diploma:c measures to achieve a permanent ceasefire,
• ending all military trade with Israel,
• enacting targeted sanctions on Israeli officials who have called for the denial of aid, and military and civil servants denying essential food and materials to civilians of Gaza, and extend this call to the Victorian government. - Call on the Victorian Government to break the 2022 Memorandum of Understanding with the Israeli Defence Force and that it should end co-operation and investments with Israeli weapons companies.
- Call on the Victorian government to clarify use of the IHRA definition of antisemitism to ensure criticisms of the Israeli government or the Israeli Defence Forces are not considered to be antisemitic by definition, and to give active consideration to the use of the guidelines set out in the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism instead.
- Call on the Department of Education to ensure the principles and standards which apply to school employees conduct are applied in a consistent and appropriate way to non-government organisations that receive government funding to operate programs in public schools.
- Call on the Department of Education to proactively communicate to school leaders that programs which are contributed to and/or provided by companies involved in the sale or promotion of firearms are not to be considered as part of any incoming sponsorship arrangement, as outlined by the Department of Education sponsorship policy.