Unions in Egypt and Jordan have organised mass demonstrations to protest against Israeli actions in Jerusalem over the last few days, with protests in Cairo backing sometimes violent university student anti-Israel activity.
Trade unions often form the core base of organised hostility to Israel in these two countries.
Unions are one of the key centres promoting opposition to the peace treaties signed several decades ago by the governments of both Egypt and Jordan with Israel.
Unions for professional workers lead opposition to peace with Israel
All of the unions who led the demonstrations, or supported protests organised by university students or the Muslim Brotherhood, were those representing professional workers – teachers, pharmacists, lawyers etc.
The Al Masry Al Youm website reports that in Alexandria, Egypt, members from the inter-syndicate coordination committee organized protests in front of the Supreme Court of Justice.
Members from the pharmacists, teachers and lawyers syndicates, the Teachers Without a Syndicate Movement, Kefaya, the Ghad Party, and the Karama party joined in the protests, Al Masry says.
Lawyers union head office in Cairo site of anti-Israel protests
“ Dozens of lawyers protested in front of the Lawyers Syndicate headquarters in Cairo to express their rejection of Israeli violations of Al-Aqsa.
“ The protesters called for relations with Israel to be severed and its ( newly appointed) ambassador ejected. The protesters also urged Arab governments to stand up to Israeli assaults on Al-Aqsa.
“ Hamdi Khalifa, head of the Lawyers Syndicate, said the syndicate council is looking at ways to save Al-Aqsa and called on the international community to intervene.
“ He added that the council calls on all Arab regimes to expel Israeli ambassadors and cut relations with Israel until Israeli assaults end,” Al Masry says.
Meanwhile the German newsagency Deutsche Presse Agentur reports that in Jordan hundreds of trade union members, leaders of political parties and politicians staged a sit-in at the Trade Unions Complex.
“ They chanted slogans and raised placards urging the government to sever political ties with Israel and “abrogate” the peace treaty which the Hashemite Kingdom concluded with Israel in 1994,” DPA reports.
The Jordan Times also reported the anti-Israel union protest which they said was a one-hour demonstration at the professional trade unions complex in the Shmeisani district of the Jordanian capital of Amman.