The Clean Clothes Campaign stands in solidarity with the workers of Palestine on Nakba Day 2024

As a global network of over 220 organisations in 45 countries organising to structurally improve working conditions and build the power of manufacturing workers in global garment and sportswear supply chains, we respond to the call from the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions for international solidarity on Nakba day to “raise our voices and take action to disrupt the flow of commerce and trade that sustains Israel’s military colonisation of the palestinian occupied teritory and exploitation of Palestinian workers”.
Unions in Pakistan demonstrating for workers rights and in solidarity with Palestine on 1 May 2024. NTUF and HBWWF

As a network supporting workers’ struggle and fighting corporate impunity in the garment sector, we are taking the following steps to respond to the call for solidarity from workers in Palestine: to campaign against brands profiting from Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories; and to take action against the manufacture, transportation and handling of garments used by the Israeli state for warfare, occupation and apartheid.

As labour and human rights defenders, we join the international labour movement and others in urging Israel to comply with the ICJ's Order to take immediate steps to prevent acts of genocide, punish incitement to genocide, and facilitate the provision of basic services and humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in Gaza. We are also deeply concerned by the escalating settler violence in the occupied Palestinian territory. We support the calls for an immediate and permanent ceasefire, the protection of all civilians and the release of those in captivity, including thousands of Palestinians in Israeli imprisonment. We also support the investigation into and punishment of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The deteriorating and devastating situation that confronts Palestinian workers must stop. Israel has to comply with its international legal obligations and respect the Palestinian right to self-determination. Third States must stop aiding and abetting Israel in its constant violations of international law. States have an obligation not to recognise the settler colonisation of the occupied Palestinian territory and to take all measures in their power to ensure the respect of international humanitarian law by Israel. They also must take all measures in their power to prevent ongoing genocide in Gaza and to ensure that all Palestinians are protected.

Companies that supply equipment or material that facilitates the expansion, development or maintenance of settler colonialism are complicit in a war crime and should be held accountable. Companies that are providing military garments fall in that category, as do companies that are profiting from the institutionalised regime of systematic oppression and domination that exploits Palestinian workers and uses natural resources in violation of the Palestinian right to self-determination. Garment factories that employ Palestinian workers on low wages are also complicit in Israeli crimes.

Our action is in line with the call of the PGFTU and Palestinian workers for a decent living, free from settler colonialism and military occupation.

published 2024-05-15