SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
virginia foxx
Union Decries GOP Subpoena Over Gaza Resolution as 'Attack' on Free Speech
"We stand by our resolution in support of a free Palestine, which was passed overwhelmingly after a full membership vote."
Mar 11, 2024
Free speech defenders on Monday condemned Republican North Carolina Congresswoman Virginia Foxx's subpoena of a labor union after its members overwhelmingly voted in favor of a resolution calling for a Gaza cease-fire and condemning Israeli genocide, apartheid, and other crimes in Palestine.
The Association of Legal Aid Attorneys (ALAA) Local 2325 of the United Auto Workers (UAW) voted 1,067-570 in December to approve a sweeping resolution endorsing the international Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement for Palestinian rights and condemning Israel's "occupation, ethnic cleansing, and genocide" in Palestine. The measure called for an end to these and other human rights violations as well as "an immediate cease-fire" in Gaza and an end to the Israeli siege on the embattled Palestinian territory.
According toHuffPost, several of the measure's organizers are Jewish. On Monday, ALAA president Lisa Ohta told the outlet that "we stand by our resolution in support of a free Palestine, which was passed overwhelmingly after a full membership vote."
"This is a transparent attack on our union's democratic processes and freedom of speech," Ohta said of Foxx's move.
Foxx—who chairs the House Committee on Education and the Workforce— said she was serving the subpoena because the union was "obstructing" an inquiry into the "divisive, antisemitic resolution."
The congresswoman previously accused the union of supporting a resolution that "calls for an economic boycott of Israel, fails to acknowledge the horrific actions committed by Hamas on October 7, 2023, and puts Jewish union members in a compromising position."
Foxx further charged that the measure "alienated a sizeable portion" of the union's membership while forcing Jewish members "to take a position critical on their faith, Israel, and Israel's sovereignty."
ALAA had originally planned to vote on the resolution on November 17. However, four union members filed a lawsuit in state court that resulted in a temporary restraining order blocking a vote. In December, a federal judge lifted the order, in part because it violated union members' First Amendment rights.
Foxx, who is 80 years old, has gained national prominence since the October 7 attacks and Israel's genocidal retaliation for
leading congressional probes into antisemitism on college and university campuses.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular