Francesca Rosa adds

and if you want to go the distance also send it to the Attorney General of Israel whose address is also listed. Palestinian workers in the Occupied Territories, and as is the case below, Palestinian citizens inside the green line ‘48 borders of Israel often feel abandoned by the world at large and often they are right. Please let them know they are not alone and sign and send the appeal. These workers are fighting a ‘welfare reform’ plan that robs them of everything, including their dignity. The progressive Israeli organizers trying to work in Solidarity with them are not exactly supported by mainstream Israeli labor either. Please go to the excellent ‘Laborer’s Voice’ website to learn more about the ‘ Sawt El Amel 8’ http://www.laborers-voice.org/home-e.aspx -F.

From: Chloe Osmer

Sent: Feb 2, 2008 2:43 PM
Subject: Urgent Appeal for Palestinian workers’ organization

On Saturday the Nazareth Tribunal pronounced the leader and 7 other members of Sawt El Amel guilty of organizing illegal demonstrations. The final verdict will be delivered on Feb 14. They face 6 months in prison and a heavy fine. The authorities aim to destroy Sawt el Amel as a workers’ organization with these charges. They urgently need as much international support as possible We need to get this out as broadly as possible before the 14th, so please forward to anyone else you think might be willing to add their name as a signatory or help with the legal fund campaign. thanks! Chloe

International Trade Union Committee in support of Palestinian working men and women

- Let us place the Sawt El Amel 8 under the protection of the international labour movement

- Revoke the Nazareth court decision against Wehbe Badarne and the workers from Ein Mahel Village

- No penalty should be imposed on trade unionists who have simply carried out their mandate

On Thursday, 24 January 2008, in a decision that sweeps aside the most elementary principles of democracy and the ILO Conventions, the court in Nazareth has just pronounced 8 Palestinian Arab trade unionists from Galilee guilty of holding an illegal meeting and disturbing the peace, assaulting a police officer, and possession of a weapon, in connection with a demonstration of unemployed in October of 1999.

The court will deliver its sentence on 14 February. The Sawt El Amel 8 face terms in prison and heavy fines. Jamal Hassanen, Samir Habiballah, Wahida Habiballah, Khaldiya Hassanen, Mahmoud Habiballah, Wehbe Badarne, Arif Habiballah and Khitam Habiballah are representatives of Sawt el-Amel - an organisation which defends the rights of Palestinian Arabs within the 1948 borders who are being subjected to the Wisconsin Plan, a so-called back-to-work scheme that contravenes all of the provisions of the ILO’s international employment standards.

The facts of this case go back eight years - to 27 October 1999 - and involve unemployed workers from Ein Mahe, an Arab village. More than 200 job seekers demonstrated in front of the Employment Bureau of nearby Upper Nazareth, calling for an end to that office’s racist policy of segregating them and ignoring their rights. 199 out of the 454 unemployed from Ein Mahel had lost their social benefits in September and October 1999 for allegedly “refusing to work“. One of the bureau’s main strategies was to send the Ein Mahel unemployed to workplaces that did not exist.

The demonstration, which received wide media coverage, expressed the depth of the crisis in Arab unemployment. Ein Mahel has an official jobless rate of 17. 7%. During the demonstrations and subsequent polic provocations, three unemployed women were injured and nine people were arrested, including Sawt el-Amel’s director Wehbe Badarne.

We call on the international labour movement for solidarity in supporting Sawt El Amel - a workers’ organization being persecuted for simply defending the rights and interests of workers.

Appeal

We, the undersigned trade union and human rights activists and ordinary citizens demand that no penalty whatsoever be imposed on the Sawt El Amel 8: Wehbe Badarne, Director of Sawt El Amel, Jamal Hassanen, Samir Habiballah, Wahida Habiballah, Khaldiya Hassanen, Mahmoud Habiballah, Arif Habiballah and Khitam Habiballah.

These activists have done nothing more than carry out their duty as defenders of workers’ interests, by organising meetings, demonstrations and protests to defend the material and moral interests of their constituents, specifically the unemployed men and women who have been subjected to the Wisconsin Plan.

This is an inalienable and indivisible right that is recognised under every international convention on human rights, as well as by the Conventions of the ILO of which Israel is a member State.

We call upon Attorney General Menahem Mazuz, and through him upon all the authorities, saying:

We, the undersigned place the Sawt El Amel 8 under the protection of the international labour movement.

Revoke the Nazareth court decision against Wehbe Badarne and the workers from Ein Mahel Village

No penalty whatsoever should be imposed on trade unionists who have simply carried out their mandate!

I endorse this appeal:

Name:

Trade union or organisation (specify if for ID purposes only) :

Address:

Email:

In a personal capacity / On behalf of my organisation

We call upon all trade unionists and human rights activists all over the world to endorse this appeal and return it to us with a copy to: Attorney General Menahem Mazuz, Ministry of Justice, Salah ad-Din Street 29, Jerusalem 91010, Israel; Fax: +972 (0) 2 6467001.

Please return this APPEAL to

j-p.barrois@wanadoo.fr

with a copy to:

Attorney General Menahem Mazuz, Ministry of Justice, Salah ad-Din Street 29, Jerusalem 91010, Israel; Fax: +972 (0) 2 6467001.

Legal Support Fund

This unjustified court case involves huge legal costs. This is why we call on the endorsers of this appeal - individuals and trade union organisations - to contribute towards the legal costs by making a donation to the “Nazareth Women Solidarity Fund - Fonds de solidarité avec les femmes de Nazareth“, 52 rue du Louvre, PO Box 2405, 75024 Paris CEDEX 01, France.

International donations should be paid to: LCL account no. 30002-00441-0000008791R-5

IBAN: FR 89 3000 2004 4100 0000 8791 R 05 BIC: CRLYFRPP

Postal address: “Nazareth Women Solidarity Fund - Fonds de solidarité avec les femmes de Nazareth“, 52 rue du Louvre, PO Box 2405, 75024 Paris CEDEX 01, France.

The International Trade Union Committee in support of Palestinian working men and women was set up in December 2006 in Algiers, by trade unionists from 23 countries who participated in an international conference in support of Palestinian Arab workers of Nazareth being subjected to the Wisconsin Plan.