A GROUP of local activists held a demonstration outside Tesco in Letterkenny on Sunday afternoon after one of its stores suspended an employee for refusing to handle Israeli goods.
Since the worker’s suspension last month, there have been a number of protests organised nationwide and an online petition which has gained thousands of signatures, calling for the retailer to withdraw disciplinary action against the worker in county Down.
The demonstration in Letterkenny was organised by Caroline White. The Ballybofey woman said she was shocked when she first heard about the suspension.
“Imagine losing your job because of standing up for what you believe in and for what you know is wrong – they shouldn’t be punished for that,” she said.
She was joined by a number of pro-Palestinian activists. They were not calling for a boycott of Tesco stores but instead aimed to engage with customers and staff to inform them about the suspension.
They handed out hundreds of leaflets and spoke to shoppers and staff about the issue.
The activists made their way inside Tesco Letterkenny and handed a letter to management.
“Some of them had no idea that any of this was happening,” Caroline explained.
However, many of those they spoke with remembered when Dunnes Stores workers in Dublin refused to handle products from apartheid South Africa in 1984. The strike lasted three years and inspired the global anti-apartheid movement.
The group also delivered a letter to the management of the Letterkenny store before they were asked to move along.
“We demand that the worker be reinstated immediately and that Tesco should not penalise any worker for acting on their conscience and refusing to be complicit in an ongoing genocide and illegal system of apartheid,” the letter read.
The Irish Congress of Trade Unions has also stated that workers should not be placed in “unconscionable situations” of complicity and has committed to protecting members who might face discipline for refusing to handle Israeli goods.
“The Palestinian cause is the reason why we are all doing these actions and protests. We want to see a free Palestine, and the way to achieve that is by placing sanctions on Israel,” Caroline said.
