NPEU Leadership Stands in Solidarity with the Palestinian People
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Katie Barrows, NPEU, kbarrows@npeu.org, 360-624-6936
The officers and executive board of the Nonprofit Professional Employees Union, IFPTE Local 70, AFL-CIO, CLC stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people and workers in their struggle against oppression and for safety and freedom from the ongoing Israeli occupation of Palestine. We are proud to add our voice to the growing call for international solidarity alongside local, national and international unions and other labor organizations. While we are heartened to know that a ceasefire has been reached, we know that this escalation of violence is but the latest symptom of the larger crisis and that any long-term solution must include an end to the everyday violence of the Occupation.
We unequivocally condemn all violence directed at Palestinian and Israeli civilians, and our hearts go out to the many family members and friends of NPEU members who live in Gaza, the West Bank, and Israel and were directly affected by this escalation. But there can be no equivalence drawn between the military strength, diplomatic backing and ability to inflict mass casualties of the Israeli government compared to that of Hamas. Only Israel has the power to end the Occupation and Israel must take responsibility for stoking this latest cycle of violence, starting with the eviction of Palestinian families from the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah and the assault on the Al-Aqsa mosque during Ramadan.
As a union of nonprofit workers, we call on progressive organizations in the United States to include and listen to Palestinian voices in their own analysis and commentary. We call on our own national labor federation, the AFL-CIO, to follow in the footsteps of our siblings in the Canadian Labor Congress and take action to support the human rights of Palestinian workers. We also call on our representatives in congress to pass the Palestinian Children and Families Act to end U.S. complicity in human rights abuses in the Occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. Furthermore, we echo the demands of Palestinian organizations in the United States to halt the recent $735 million weapons deal to the Israeli military.
About NPEU:
The Nonprofit Professional Employees Union (NPEU), a local of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, represents professionals employed at more than 30 nonprofit organizations (and counting), including employees at Economic Policy Institute, the Center for American Progress, and Community Change. With several hundred members, NPEU gives nonprofit workers a voice to strengthen their workplaces and continue to do work that makes a difference in people’s lives.