“This mass movement of solidarity with the people of Palestine, led by PSC with many trades unions affiliated to it, is the reason why your government was compelled to adopt minor measures in the right direction to end its complicity.”
Omar Barghouti, co-founder of the BDS movement:
By the Palestine Solidarity Campaign
In a historic vote today at the Trade Union Congress 2026, hundreds of delegates have unanimously voted to officially endorse the Palestinian led movement for boycotts, divestments and sanctions (BDS) for the first time.
Representing over 5 million workers across, from teachers to firefighters, artists to tech workers, doctors to cleaners, representatives voted to answer the call of Palestinian trade unions and civil society organisations and to support BDS measures against Israel, as Israel continues to commit the crimes of genocide, apartheid and illegal occupation.
In a direct challenge to Ed Miliband’s announcement last week when stated he ‘whole-heartedly opposes the BDS movement’ trade unions have shown that workers across the country will continue to stand with the Palestinian people and demand meaningful action be taken to end British complicity with Israel.
Omar Barghouti, co-founder of the BDS movement:
“This mass movement of solidarity with the people of Palestine, led by PSC with many trades unions affiliated to it, is the reason why your government was compelled to adopt minor measures in the right direction to end its complicity. But it’s way short of UK’s legal obligations to end complicity in genocide, in apartheid, in illegal occupation.
So we must work further to grow our BDS movement, to grow intersectional coalition building, so that we have massive people power to really make the government end its complicity by cutting all military, security, intelligence ties with Israel that enable its crimes against Palestinians; by ending preferential trade agreements, academic, cultural, sports agreements that enable Israeli apartheid and genocide. And we can achieve that, we know we can, because we are building massive power across the UK thanks to PSC and thanks to all the unions that have brought us to this point.”
The TUC also voted to reaffirm its support for the workplace days of action for Palestine, in which workers across sectors alongside students, take part in actions to demonstrate solidarity with the Palestinian people and call for an end for British support for Israel.
Alongside the continued sale of weapons to Israel, workers’ pensions continue to be invested in arms companies, tech companies whose programmes are being used by Israel to target Palestinians across Gaza and the West Bank are awarded government contracts and shops and bars across the country stock and sell Israeli goods and brands like Coca Cola, which operate on stolen Palestinian land.
Palestinian trade unions alongside the Palestinian BDS Movement National Committee, the largest coalition in Palestinian civil society, have called for global action from workers and students around the world and for trade unionists to launch campaigns for boycotts, divestments and sanctions. They have called on workers to take part in the workplace day of action in Britain on Thursday 26th November, alongside workers from around the world, the first global organised action of its kind.
Peter Leary Deputy Director of PSC added:
“This historic vote, committing the Trade Union Congress to support the Palestinian-led movement for boycott, divestment and sanctions, recognises that the limited steps announced by the government fall far short of meeting Britain’s legal obligations not to assist Israel’s ongoing genocide, apartheid, illegal occupation and other violations of international law. Trade unions and workers across Britain are right to call for continued political pressure and action in the workplace to end the complicity of companies, institutions and the government in Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people.
“In response to the call from Palestinian trade unions and the BDS movement, workers across Britain, alongside workers from around the world, will put this motion into practice on Thursday 26 November when they take part in the TUC-backed workplace day of action in solidarity with Palestine.”
Zita Holbourne FRSA co-chair of AUE and mover of the motion said:
“It’s essential for the trade union movement to answer the call from the BDS movement, to challenge all complicity and to use our collective powers, to stand shoulder to shoulder with Palestinians to Free Palestine.
“I am proud to have led boycotts against apartheid in South Africa as a student and to stand with Palestine today, moving the motion at TUC Congress. In the Artists Union we will continue to stand robustly against any attempts to cancel and censor our union members who are artists and whose work expressed solidarity with Palestine or documented their lived experience as Palestinians.”
Text of the call from Palestinian trade unions:
We, the undersigned Palestinian trade unions, call on workers and unions around the
world to escalate their support for our liberation struggle by:
- Organising, joining and amplifying global peaceful actions to mark the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People from Friday 20th to Sunday 29th November.
- Adopting ethical procurement policies (EPP) and, where applicable, ethical investment policies (EIP) that exclude corporations implicated in grave human rights violations anywhere, including in Palestine.
- Pressuring corporations and institutions they work in to end any complicity through ending contracts that directly or indirectly support Israel’s atrocity crimes, and adopting EPP and/or EIP.
- Rejecting any racist agreement with Israel that facilitates the substitution and further oppression of Palestinian workers.
- Escalating economic, academic, cultural, and sports BDS campaigns.
- Peacefully disrupting and blocking the transfer of military, energy and other dual-use supplies to Israel, by:
- Participating in actions to identify and stop the illegal transfer by sea, land or air, including by pressuring states to enforce international obligations in relation to such shipments, and by pressuring complicit corporate actors.
- Refusing to handle Israeli or Israeli-bound military supplies, energy and other dual-use cargo.
- Pressuring your governments to uphold their legal obligations following the ICJ rulings of 2024, as stated by UN human rights experts, by, at a minimum, imposing “a full arms embargo on Israel, halting all arms agreements, imports, exports and transfers, including of dual-use items that could be used against the Palestinian population under occupation,” as well as canceling or suspending “economic relationships, trade agreements and academic relations with Israel that may contribute to its unlawful presence and apartheid regime in the occupied Palestinian territory.”
- Cutting all ties with Israel’s colonial Histadrut federation and expelling it and all similarly complicit Israeli unions and associations (academic, medical, etc.) from all international fora.
- Declaring your union an Apartheid-Free Zone (AFZ) to end corporate and institutional complicity with systems of oppression, particularly Israel’s regime of apartheid and genocide against the Palestinian people.
Signatories:
- Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU), Gaza
- Palestinian General Federation of Trade Union (PGFTU), Jericho
- General Union of Palestinian Workers (GUPW)
- Palestinian Union of Postal, IT & Telecommunications Workers
- Federation of Independent Trade Unions
- The Palestinian New Federation of Trade Unions
- Association of Employees of The Financial Sector – Palestine
- Health Services Employees’ Union
- Union of Workers in Kindergartens and Private Schools
- Union of Workers in Local Authorities
- Palestinian Electricians Union
- Southern Electricity Company Employees Union
- Palestinian Union Of Postal Services
- Palestinian Painters and Plasters Association
- Union of the Southern Local Authorities
Proposed composite of motion 77 text
Palestine
Congress notes:
i. the catastrophic destruction of Gaza, including infrastructure, hospitals, schools, and universities, following Israel’s genocidal assault since 2023, killing over 70,000 Palestinians, displacing millions, and increase in illegal settlements, military occupation and apartheid
ii. findings by UN bodies and human rights organisations documenting grave violations of international law including genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity
iii. Israeli settlers’ violence and attacks, supported by the IDF, on Palestinian communities, has caused the deaths of several children and closure of many schools, leaving students and teaching staff terrorised
iv. the global Palestinian-led movement for boycott, divestment and sanctions initiated by Palestinian civil society including trade unions
v. ongoing government efforts to discourage and censure Palestine solidarity, including within art and culture.
Congress believes:
a. trade unions need to answer the call of Palestinian workers for solidarity
b. BDS is an effective strategy to pressure Israel to end its ongoing genocide, system of apartheid, occupation and denial of the right of return for refugees
c. the trade union movement has a proud history of BDS campaigns against oppression, including against apartheid South Africa.
Congress resolves:
1. campaign for a permanent ceasefire and just peace plan that respects international law and successive UN resolutions, providing for a two-state solution
2. campaign for legislation banning trade with the illegal settlements and suspension of the UK-Israel Trade and Partnership Agreement, until international law is respected
3. support: the Palestinian led BDS movement; and worker trade union-led campaigns in support of Palestine; the workplace days of action; divestment from companies complicit in Israel’s crimes against Palestinians, in cooperation with union members in those companies
4. end all military cooperation and arms trade with Israel to comply with international law
5. call on the government to impose wide-ranging sanctions on Israel until it complies with international law, and commit to freedom of speech and end attempts to censor artists and art organisations expressing solidarity with Palestine
6. support trade unionists, including artists, culture workers and education workers who refuse to handle goods and services linked to violations of international law.
- This article was originally published by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign on 16 September 2026.
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