Dear ...
Greetings,
According to the report we received from the “Zenko” organization in Kyoto, Mr. Jeronimo Jeris, who served as a director at one of the hotels, has been subjected to clear injustice by the hotel management. He was dismissed from his job under pressure from the Israeli ambassador in Japan and the ruling authorities in Kyoto City. This came after a biased media campaign in Japan, on the grounds that he refused to receive an Israeli soldier and canceled his booking at the hotel. His stance was labeled as “racial discrimination” against the said soldier.
However, the action taken by Mr. Jeronimo Jeris was entirely appropriate and legal under both Japanese and international law. On November 21, 2024, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, on charges of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity during military operations in Gaza. Accordingly, Mr. Jeronimo Jeris’s refusal to accommodate an Israeli soldier does not violate international law, nor does it constitute racist policy. Rather, it is a principled and responsible act by a man who refused to collude with forces accused of committing massacres against civilians, while also protecting the hotel’s residents and workers from exposure to a soldier belonging to an army accused of genocide in Gaza.
Furthermore, international organizations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the United Nations Human Rights Mission have documented that the crimes committed by the Israeli army in Gaza amount to war crimes and genocide. Therefore, what Mr. Jeronimo Jeris did was in the hotel’s own interest, as he sought not to be complicit with an army responsible for killing more than 60,000 people, a quarter of whom were children.
Based on the above, we demand the restoration of Mr. Jeronimo Jeris’s dignity and his full legal rights, and that the hotel management be compelled to provide both material and moral compensation for his wrongful dismissal. A ruling in favor of Mr. Jeronimo Jeris would send a clear message that criminals complicit in genocide and crimes against humanity have no place in a world where human dignity takes precedence over all other considerations. It would also represent an important step toward advancing humanitarian efforts for a world free of all forms of injustice.
Respectfully,
Samir Adel
General Secretary of the UWFPP
Signatories of the founding organisations and bodies:
1) General Union of Workers' Unions in Iraq – Iraq
2) Union of Palestinian Workers’ Struggle – Palestine
3) Jordanian Independent Trade Union Confederation – Jordan
4) Sudanese Independent Labour Unions Federation – Sudan
5) "Workers' New Echo" Newspaper – Iraq
6) "Workers' Voice" Newspaper (Kurdish) – Iraqi Kurdistan
7) "Workers' Struggle" Magazine – Palestine
8) National General Union of Workers in Libya – Libya
9) Oil, Gas, and Petrochemicals Unions Federation – Iraq
10) General Union of Workers in Petrochemicals – Palestine
11) Union of the New Generation of Workers in Mauritania – Mauritania
12) In Solidarity Organisation – Morocco
13) Democratic Federation of Labour – Morocco
14) National Union for Education / Democratic Orientation – Morocco
15) ATTAC Morocco Association / Member of the International Network for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debts – Morocco
16) Global Network for the Palestinian Cause / Coalition of Organizations from Different Countries
17) Unified Socialist Party – Morocco
18) Palestinian Popular Struggle Front – Pal
19) Mauritanian Labor Union UMT
20) National Democratic Union of Mauritanian Workers UDNTM
21) The General Federation of Yemeni Trade Unions-YEMEN
22) The Egyptian Labor Solidarity Union-EGYPT
23) The Egyptian Federation of Independent Trade Union- EGYPT
24) Worker-communist Party of Iraq – Iraq
25) Hekmatist Worker-communist Party (Official Line) – Iran
26) Worker-communist Party of Kurdistan – Iraqi Kurdistan
27) Egyptian Socialist Party – Egypt