Briefing:

The Jewish Labor Committee andApartheid Israel

International JewishAnti-Zionist Network-Labor, and Labor for Palestine(U.S.),April 13, 2010

Israelwas left with no choice but to defend itself and dismantle Hamas's ability tolaunch more missiles. . . . Israelis continuing to supply humanitarian aid of food, water and medicine into Gaza, and to allow relief agencies to supply material tothe suffering people of Gaza.

-"Jewish LaborCommittee Statement on Gaza,"January 9, 2009[i]

TheJLC put together a delegation of Irish-American trade union leaders lastNovember (including one of our honorees tonight) to go to Ireland and to stand up for the State of Israel whenIrish trade unionists were considering positions with which we disagreed.

-"StuartAppelbaum's Remarks at October 2009 JLC Dinner"[ii]

   •Overview.The Jewish Labor Committee (JLC) presents itself as a model of progressive,socially conscious trade unionism. But as a U.S.mouthpiece for the Histadrut, this false image has been a smokescreen to disguiseand promote Apartheid Israel,"AFL-CIA" support war and empire, and racism in the labor movement.

   •1940s:The Nakba. The JLC was founded in 1934 to fight fascism and helpJewish refugees from Europe.[iii]But in the late-1940s, the JLC joins with Labor Zionist union officials who helppersuade both Truman and Stalin to support partition and establishment of theZionist state.[iv]

   •1950s:McCarthyism. Under the banner, "Jewish Labor FightsCommunism,"[v] the JLC supports McCarthyite purges of government and labor,[vi] and undermines the campaign to defend the Rosenbergs from execution.[vii]

   The JLC also supports overall U.S. Cold Warforeign policy,[viii] urgesthe U.S. to arm Israel against "Communist and Arab designs,"[ix]and declares that conflict in the Middle East, "is not simply between Egypt and Israel,but between democracy and expansionist dictatorship, between the free world andNasserism backed by Moscow.. . . Events also have demonstrated the basic identity of interest of Israel and thefree world."[x]