The ACTU’s overseas aid agency, Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA, has announced its next Study Tour to the Middle East, to go in April 2011.  Many Australian unions actively support APHEDA’s work in the Middle East, and this will be a prime opportunity for your union to send a delegate to learn about the important humanitarian work that your union’s aid agency does with Palestinian refugees. If you want a relaxed sight-seeing holiday, this study tour is not for you; if you are serious about understanding the situation of Palestinian workers, and believe that “peace is union business”, and you are prepared to report back to workers in Australia, then you should start planning.

A participant in the first tour early this year, Sally McManus, Secretary, Australian Services Union NSW & ACT Services Branch, said “going on the recent Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA study tour to the region has driven home to me the daily sufferings of the Palestinian people – as workers, women, refugees, children, families and communities under occupation.” 

Full details about the April 2011 Middle East Study Tour are available on the Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA website, or via the AUSPalestine EVENTS page.  Get in early, as tour registrations are due 30 November 2010.

In other union news, Palestinian academics and students have written an open letter to eight American universities raising serious questions about their offering free study for American students at Israeli universities, particularly when “Israeli academic institutions have for so long remained silent on the crimes their state is committing.”  Read the full letter in October news on the AUSPalestine NEWS page.

A number of Australian unionists will be addressing an upcoming national conference on the Boycott/Divestment/Sanctions (BDS)  initiative in Australia.  The conference will be held 29-31 October in Melbourne; conference details are available via the AUSPalestine EVENTS page.

If your union has news, articles, or events about Palestine, let us know here at AUSPalestine.