The full speech to the TUC conference by Shaher Saed of the Palestinian General Federation of Trades Unions.

"President, General Secretary, colleagues, it is my pleasure and honour to be with you at this Congress and I would first like to thank the TUC for all the efforts they made so that I could be with you today.

It is not easy. Your staff at the TUC, the General Secretary, and the colleagues in the EU and International Department did everything possible to ensure that I could be with you; especially as I live in the city of Nablus and Nablus has been under curfew for 77 days.

The curfew means spending 24 hours per day at home. During these 77 days, that curfew has only been lifted for a total of 57 hours -- not even one hour a day.

Before telling you more about our difficult circumstances, I should like to mention that the PGFTU, and I myself, have supported the peace process from the beginning and we condemn the bombing and the killing of Israeli civilians. Indeed, in June, I joined 50 other leading Palestinians in signing a public appeal for an end to these attacks.

We call on our Israeli trade union colleagues to condemn the military attacks on Palestinian civilians and the attacks on our economy.

Before the last Intifada, the PGFTU was engaged in many peace-building activities with the Israeli trade unions, and the last time we were together here, in Britain, was with the General Secretary of the TUC, John Monks, our colleagues from Unison and the AEEU for a week of joint discussions.

But I would like to tell you the truth. On 28th September 2000, Ariel Sharon, now the Prime Minister of Israel, made his infamous walk at Al Aqsa mosque -- an area occupied by Israel since 4th June 1967. This visit undermined serious discussions which were taking place at the time between Prime Minister Barak and President Yasser Arafat.

Colleagues, after that visit, what happened - 5,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers; 39,000 Palestinians have been injured; more than 10,000 buildings - homes and factories -- have been demolished by F-16 and Apache aircraft and tanks; more than 100,000 olive, lemon and orange trees have been uprooted by the Israeli army and Israeli settlers, plus all the main roads, all the exits from the cities and the villages, are closed with barriers of rock or deep ditches. There are more than 10,000 Israeli military positions in our territories. Most of the main roads are blocked by Israeli tanks.

Let me tell you some more about Palestinian workers.

The total workforce in Palestine is 835,000. More than 400,000 workers have been without work since September 2000. 200,000 of them worked in Israel or in the industrial zone on the border. Each day, they earned a total of $5 million.

Another 200,000 worked in different parts of Palestine -- in the West Bank and in Gaza. Thirty-seven of these workers have been killed trying to get to work -- four of them just five days ago. 3,152 workers have been arrested by the Israeli army and the Israeli police because they tried to cross the border to their workplaces without permission. Those workers have been fined between US $150 and US $200 and they have also been held in detention for between one month to three months. 1,795 workers have been beaten by Israeli soldiers at checkpoints. They have complained to the Israeli police about these attacks but only in the rarest of cases, when the attacks have been filmed on video, was any action taken.

What have the border closures, the curfew and the Israeli military incursion into our towns and villages meant for Palestinian workers and their families over the last 23 months? No work; no healthcare; the water infrastructure has been demolished by tanks in all of the cities and the villages; days on end without electricity; no school; no university; no visits to relatives; poverty; no trade union meetings in 23 months; no trade union elections in 23 months. Child labour is encouraged as families struggle to survive. My children, just like all the children in Palestine, have not been able to leave their towns and villages for 23 months.

I am the General Secretary of the Palestine General Federation of Trade Unions but I cannot move from my city, Nablus, to another city or to another village and that has been the case for 23 months.

Under these circumstances, we continue to represent and serve our members.

Some governments are providing relief aid. We, the trade union movement, have used this distributed fund aid and money to provide health insurance to hundreds of thousands of the workers, but this aid is only a tiny representation of what Palestinian workers have lost in wages as a result of the occupations, the border closure and the curfew. We welcome the new ILO fund and we hope all the Government will contribute to it.

President, General Secretary, delegates, the Palestinian workers are suffering. We need initiatives from the international trade union Movement; from the ICFTU; from ETUC and from ILO to stop the suffering of the Palestinian workers.

We welcome the discussion by the TUC General Council to send a delegation to Palestine to see the facts through their own eyes. They are assured of a warm welcome and we will do everything we can to ensure the success of this visit.

We need a just and comprehensive peace and we need to secure an independent and democratic state for our two peoples, as laid down in United Nation Resolutions 242 and 338 -- a secure Palestine and a secure Israel living together in peace and co-operation.

We are talking only about the land occupied by Israel on 4th June 1967. The occupation must end. The discrimination must end. The illegal settlements must go. There should be no more occupation. There should be no more occupation!

We thank you and we want peace. On behalf of the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions, I convey our best wishes for a successful Congress and long life to the trade union Movement in Britain. Thank you."