RMT General Secretary Bob Crow has sent the following letter to the Israeli ambassador. ...

April 27 2009

His Excellency Ron Prosor Israeli ambassador to the Court of St James 2 Palace Green London W8 4QB

Dear Mr Prosor

I refer to the matter of 40 Israeli Arab citizens who were handed redundancy notices on Sunday March 29, effective from the beginning of April, following the decision of Israel Railways to change its employment terms.

These terms now specify that Israel Railways will employ only army veterans in the positions these workers held, namely as lookouts at level crossings to prevent collisions between trains and vehicles.

As you may know, implementation of the workers’ dismissal has been suspended on two occasions by the Tel Aviv labour court, most recently on April 19.

You must also know that the decision to make military service, from which Arab citizens are exempt, an employment condition contradicts the Employment (Equal Opportunities) Act, 1988 and that this position has been upheld in a number of court decisions, adjudging the employment condition of military service as discrimination based on nationality.

In addition, the position of Israel Railways as a government company puts an onus on the Israeli government to avoid national/racial discrimination, given Israel’s status as a binational state and its professed commitment to racial equality.

While my trade union would hope that the judiciary will take a principled decision and not back prejudice and racial exclusion, I believe that the best outcome would be for Israel Railways to decide for itself to drop the proposal to dismiss these Arab workers or, failing that, for your government to instruct Israel Railways to do so.

On behalf of 80,000 RMT members in Britain, I urge the Israeli government to intervene to end this injustice.

Yours sincerely

Bob Crow General Secretary