Boycott? What boycott?

Thursday, 18 April 2007 .... There has been a massive response to one decision taken by ADM, whereby NUJ delegates voted to boycott Israeli goods.

The coverage has been extensive and at times, vitriolic in the extreme. I have reported for The Scotsman in the West Bank and Gaza - see http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=112442003 - and it was one of the most humbling experiences I've had as a journalist.

I was shot at on three occasions (forcing me back to the dreaded cigarettes, I had so valiantly attempted to give up), detained for hours at checkpoints before being allowed to proceed with the "have a nice day in Israel" refrain and amazed at the open air prison I encountered in Gaza.

However, I would never, ever call for or support a motion which called for the NUJ to endorse a boycott of Israeli goods. Our union is fiercely democratic and independent - and as part of those structures, delegates to our annual meeting can submit motions of concern and take an opinion on those.

In this case, the motion was carried by a small majority - it was not supported by the union's ruling executive, the NEC, of which I am a member. Also, the General Secretary, Jeremy Dear, has since subjected to intense and unwarranted criticism. For the record, Jeremy has no vote at neither the NEC nor conference.

This motion is not criticising our journalistic colleagues, either in Israel or Palestine - but expressing many people's concern over the lack of progress in resolving a key issue in moving forward peace in the Middle East.

For me, ADM was about moving forward our industrial agenda - fighting against low pay, redundancies, massive profiteering from fat cat employers, pensions, equality, leading the debate on digital convergence and battling to maintain quality journalism ....

The vast majority of motions were in relation to industrial issues faced by journalists - and most certainly not about where they should source their jaffa oranges ...