British trade unionist, detained at checkpoint: `IDF treats people like dirt'

Chairman of the British Trade Union Friends of Israel said this week he was "shocked" by the conduct of IDF soldiers at internal checkpoints in the West Bank, where both he and general secretary of the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions Shaher Sae'd were refused passage this week.

Roger Lyons, who is president of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) and general secretary of the Amicas union in the UK, said his experience of being delayed at a checkpoint on Monday was "a reflection of how the IDF treats ordinary people - like dirt."

Lyons was here for six days this week leading a six-member delegation of British Trade Union leaders to meet with union leaders and politicians in both Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Lyons, who condemned the network of checkpoints inside the West Bank as a "collective punishment, which has no positive impact on security," said that on Monday the six British delegates traveling in UN vehicles were initially refused passage at a checkpoint between Nablus and Ramallah, despite the journey having been reported to the Israeli government in advance by the Histadrut Labor Federation to avoid problems. "And this is what happens to visiting officials discussing peace and employment," he said pointedly, adding that after a series of mobile telephone calls the delegation was permitted to pass.

The incident came a day after Sae'd arrived three hours late for a meeting with the delegation after being refused passage at a checkpoint, also between Nablus and Ramallah. When the delegates tried to intervene by contacting the Israeli embassy in London, they were told by a senior official there that the refusal "could not be true," as Sae'd has freedom of movement inside the West Bank. "It seems that the IDF does not talk to the Foreign Ministry," Lyons commented.

Lyons said when two members of the delegation met with a Foreign Ministry official on Wednesday, they complained about the checkpoints and that no Palestinian trade union representatives were permitted to use Ben-Gurion Airport. Foreign Ministry spokesman Yonatan Peled said there was a "frank and open" exchange at the meeting, in which the official explained Israeli government policies to the trade unionists.

Lyons said the delegation also met with PA Chairman Yasser Arafat, to whom he said he emphasized the need for security for Israelis in a two-state solution.

The goal of the fact-finding mission was to determine what role the TUC could play in "developing trust" between Israeli and Palestinian trade union workers. Lyons said the delegates would return to London and put together proposals for a joint seminar for Israeli and Palestinian trade union representatives as soon as an agenda acceptable to both was agreed.

According to Lyons, before the outbreak of the second intifada in September 2000, the British TUC had been working closely with Israeli and Palestinian trade union officials. "We had been operating as a mutually acceptable honest broker," said Lyons.