DUNDEE trade unionists have pledged to donate a fire engine to firefighters in Nablus as part of the first solidarity agreement between workers in Britain and Palestine. 

A delegation from Dundee Trades Union Council that includes members of the FBU firefighters’ union, general unions GMB and Unite and posties’ union CWU has travelled to the West Bank city for today’s signing of the agreement with Palestinian general union PGFTI. 

Jim Malone of the Dundee TUC said the new agreement serves to strengthen the historic relationship between Dundee and Nablus, which have had a twinning agreement going back to 1980. 

In 2011, the FBU drove two fire engines along with equipment to Nablus, and 100 Palestinian firefighters have been trained by the union in Scotland in the past decade. 

Speaking to the Morning Star from the West Bank, Mr Malone said: “We have another surprise for the firefighters: the FBU have donated another fire engine … which will be delivered next year. 

“Donations are so important [because] the municipalities here really struggle. Firefighters deliver a humanitarian service … and there’s no better example of that than the workers here in Palestine who try to do that with the least equipment, the least support.” 

The agreement reads: “This declaration confirms and celebrates the solidarity and co-operation between workers and trade unions in Dundee and Nablus both now and in the future.”

Mr Malone, a former firefighter himself, said it was important to continue showing solidarity with the Palestinian people. 

“Here in Nablus we’ve seen recent assaults where the occupation forces have resulted in the deaths of dozens of young men,” he said. “We’ve visited many of the sites of these losses. 

“But what we’re saying to them is: we’re not forgetting about you.”

He added that the socialist ideal of international solidarity has always been a priority for the trade union movement and workers in Dundee.