Time to Resign

This petition has been brought to my attention and I figured I had to act. I have been looking for an excuse to resign and this killed two birds with one stone. I didn't mean to use a pun when I referred to throwing stones.

To Whom It May Concern:

It has come to my horrified attention that my Union, and therefore me by extension, has signed onto a petition denouncing the courageous stand taken by British Unions to boycott the State of Israel. That there is a basic level of Human Rights seems self-evident and it is painfully obvious to anyone, who reads non-American newspapers, that Israel violates even the most basic Human Rights of the Palestinians continuously. I could go into detail but that seems unnecessary since it is has been well documented and from the looks of it, irrelevant to you. So if the UFCW is against a boycott of the State of Israel it is easy, even if incorrect, to follow a logical path to the point where one says, “British Unions are using one of the only effective incentives for change, economics. The UFCW doesn’t think that boycotting Israel is right, therefore the UFCW does not think that Israel should change and grant even the most basic Human Rights, like freedom of movement, control of one’s borders, what roads one can travel on, even whom one can marry, etc., to the Palestinians.” Well I do, and I strongly disagree with the Unions stance on basic Human Rights, as does nearly the entire world.
Israel is a First World nation and should have to play by its rules not those of the Third World. Israel’s Human Rights record is, at the moment, the worst in the First World with its legal torture, detention without charges, use of F-16 fighter jets to shoot missiles into densely populated neighborhoods, kidnapping family member to use as “bargaining chips”, complete control of movement with a series of hundreds of checkpoints, extra-judicial targeted assassinations, illegal settlements, and many other violations of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Human Rights record of Israel is so well documented it is amazing that it is even mentioned in the same breath, as Palestinian Human Rights violations, which, of course, do exist.
The statement signed onto argues not enough attention is given to other Arab Governments, but that is a red herring. This conflict is between the Israelis and the Palestinians and, no matter what the government of Yemen does, it is irrelevant to Israel’s Human Rights record. The statement also questions the motives of singling out one country when there are so many other conflicts and repressive regimes around the world. Here the writers are using the logical fallacy To Quoque where one argues that since the Unions are not actively trying to stop all the world’s conflicts then therefore the idea of stopping the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is flawed or of questionable motives which is a sly way to imply Anti-Semitism as its root. Anyone with even a minor understanding of the conflict has heard these all ad nauseam.
Many people over thirty years of age remember the name Checkpoint Charlie, the famous checkpoint separating East Berlin and West Berlin. Most also remember Ronald Reagan’s famous speech in which he called on Russian Premier Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall.” Eventually Walls always come down and repression comes to an end, history has proven this true time and time again. People were on the wrong side of Jim Crow laws, the Vietnam War, abolition, Universal Suffrage, and one could go on. By signing this statement it seems as if the leaders of the UFCW haven’t read history and will end up on the wrong side of history like so many before them.
People have to be able to look themselves in the mirror each day, and as much as my deep-seated political and economic views make it hard to terminate my position as an advocate for my fellow workers, I must. Otherwise looking at myself in that mirror would be impossible. So therefore I must hereby resign my post as Union Steward.



Sincerely,



Justin Loper