'Big Brands Profit by Israeli Oppression': TUC

[Bilal Mahmud المكافح المخلص]

Mainstream enterprises are blasted for relying on products made by Israelis living in illegal Tel Aviv-built

settlements on occupied Palestinian lands.

On Tuesday, representatives at the United Kingdom's Trades Union Congress (TUC), which was held in Manchester, reaffirmed the gathering's agreement last year to impose a ban on the merchandise, AFP reported.

"Household names are making money out of illegal settlements, making profits on the back of oppression," said Paul Kenny, general secretary of Britain's General Union (GMB).

"We must put teeth into the policy we passed last year," said Kenny. He noted that pro-Palestinian intentions had to be put into action.

Acting on the approved strategy, the TUC plans to contact supermarkets and other retailers and urge them to stop selling goods from settlements, the agency added.

Israel has been erecting settler units in the Palestinian territories, it occupied in 1967, defying the Palestinian Authority (PA), which has called for a complete freeze in the settlement activities.

The PA itself imposed a boycott on trade of goods, produced in settlements in late April. The move was meant to rid the Palestinian markets of the commodities and to encourage the 27-member European Union to prohibit trade with the enterprises based in the settlements.