17 September 2026
The TUC, of which the National Education Union and the University and College Union are members, voted overwhelmingly to support BDS at its annual Congress this week. BRICUP is delighted with the decision and strongly encourages all academics to sign the Commitment which can be found on this website.
Here is a useful report on the TUC decision from The New Arab.
UK trade unions back BDS in historic vote
The TUC has voted for the first time to endorse the Palestinian-led BDS movement and called for an end to UK military cooperation and arms sales to Israel
16 September, 2026
Britain’s Trades Union Congress (TUC) has backed the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement in a historic vote.
Following calls from Palestinian trade unions, delegates voted to support a motion proposed by Artists’ Union England (AUE) and seconded by UNISON, Britain’s largest trade union, at the TUC’s annual congress on Wednesday.
Representatives from some of the country’s largest trade unions took to the floor to speak in support of the motion, including UNISON, Unite, the National Education Union, the Communication Workers Union and the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS).
The TUC’s formal endorsement of BDS represents the latest development in the organisation’s support for the Palestinian solidarity movement.
The motion commits the TUC to campaigning for an immediate end to UK military cooperation and arms sales to Israel, alongside expanding economic, academic, cultural and sporting BDS campaigns and cutting ties with Israeli unions and associations.
Peter Leary, deputy director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), which was a leading supporter of the motion, described the vote as an affirmation of longstanding criticism of the UK government’s position on the Israeli occupation, apartheid and the ongoing genocidal war in Gaza since 7 October 2023.
He said the government, despite its latests sanctions on Israeli settlements, “fall[s] far short of meeting Britain’s legal obligations”.
“Trade unions and workers across Britain are right to call for continued political pressure and action in the workplace to end the complicity of companies, institutions and the government in Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people,” he added.
Leary said that, following the passage of the motion, a national day of action will take place on 26 November, when union members will participate in the TUC-backed workplace day of action in solidarity with Palestine.
Zita Holbourne, co-chair of AUE, also welcomed the motion, stressing that it is “essential for the trade union movement to answer the call from the BDS movement”.
“I am proud to have led boycotts against apartheid in South Africa as a student and to stand with Palestine today, moving the motion at TUC Congress,” she added.
“In the Artists Union we will continue to stand robustly against any attempts to cancel and censor our union members who are artists and whose work expressed solidarity with Palestine or documented their lived experience as Palestinians.”
The historic vote follows UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband’s announcement of sanctions targeting Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Miliband has, however, said that he “wholeheartedly oppose[s] the boycott, divestment, sanctions or BDS campaign”.
In a statement, BDS co-founder Omar Barghouti welcomed what he described as an important demonstration of solidarity with Palestinians by Britain’s trade unions.
“This mass movement of solidarity with the people of Palestine, led by PSC with many trades unions affiliated to it, is the reason why your government was compelled to adopt minor measures in the right direction to end its complicity,” Barghouti said.
“But it’s way short of UK’s legal obligations to end complicity in genocide, in apartheid, in illegal occupation.”
He added: “So we must work further to grow our BDS movement, to grow intersectional coalition building, so that we have massive people power to really make the government end its complicity by cutting all military, security, intelligence ties with Israel that enable its crimes against Palestinians; by ending preferential trade agreements, academic, cultural, sports agreements that enable Israeli apartheid and genocide.”
“And we can achieve that, we know we can, because we are building massive power across the UK thanks to PSC and thanks to all the unions that have brought us to this point.”
In a previous interview with The New Arab, Barghouti urged the UK government to end relations with Israel that enable it to continue its occupation and genocide, rather than rely on “performative measures”.
Palestinian figures and rights groups have also responded to the UK’s recently announced sanctions, with some describing them as a significant shift while calling for broader measures against Israel.
On Monday, Israeli rights group B’Tselem said Israel’s offensive in the West Bank formed part of a broader project intended to “dismantle [the] collective existence” of Palestinians.
The report pointed to an alarming increase in violence by settlers and the military against Palestinians, which the Palestinian health ministry says has killed 1,108 people since 7 October 2023.
