Israel’s Aid to Emerging Nations Lauded by British Trade Union Leader

The 95th Trade Union Congress of Britain paid tribute here today to Israel’s “effective assistance” to developing countries. A. Zonnet, district secretary in Scotland, and a member of the general council of the National Union of General and Municipal Workers, told the 1,000 delegates from 176 British unions that Israel, “starting from scratch,” had achieved an outstanding record in development problems. He recently visited Israel with a delegation on behalf of his union, the third largest in Britain, with more than 800, 000 members.

“Israel is a young country with creative energy and the idealistic spirit so essential to newly emerging nations,” he told the packed audience. He stressed that Histadrut, Israel’s Labor Federation, has a “unique structure” in trade unionism and cooperative activities, which had been of great help to working people in developing countries “and an inspiration to trade unionists everywhere.”

He stated he had been particularly impressed by the Histadrut’s Afro-Asian Institute which, he said, had trained in its first year 640 students from 51 countries. Referring to the urgent needs of those countries, he declared that it was an “international duty” to aid newly emerging nations struggling to achieve economic progress.

“Israel shares its problems and has an unusual skill in providing solutions” to such problems, he said, adding that he believed that Israel’s contributions to social and economic progress could be great not only in Africa, Asia and Latin America, but also in the Middle East.

“We hope peace can and will be maintained all over the world, including the Middle East,” he said. “We are sure that this is not only in the interest of the peaceful development efforts of Israel and its trade union movement, but also in the interest of Israel’s neighboring countries.”