CJPME celebrates with the Green Party membership for its strong endorsement of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement this past Sunday. CJPME was honoured to be an important supporting player in this historic BDS vote, with CJPME observers active behind the scenes at the Green Party Convention. BDS is a movement applying economic pressure on Israel until it respects the human rights of Palestinians in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza.

The BDS resolution had strong opponents at the weekend’s convention, including opposition from Green leader Elizabeth May. Nevertheless, through the hard work of many Green Party members and the support of CJPME and other groups, the resolution passed with an overwhelming majority. In fact, the support was so strong that the resolution passed by acclamation, with no need to count votes.

CJPME prepared for the convention by preparing two flyers providing supportive arguments for the two key resolutions of the convention. CJPME prepared a powerful flyer supporting the BDS resolution, depicting Israel’s violation of Palestinian human rights, and the way BDS aligns with international law. The second flyer highlighted the racist land use practices of the Jewish National Fund (JNF.) The JNF was targeted in a second Green party resolution which passed, but in a watered-down form.

The Battle isn't over

The Green Party is facing criticism as opponents of the party seek to vilify it. Now more than ever, the GPC leadership needs to hear messages of support.

Please click here to send an email to Green Party leaders to thank them for the passage of the resolution.

(If the link above does not work properly for you, please simply open your email program and address an email to [email protected], [email protected], and [email protected].)

Please forward this email to others and encourage them to send an email of encouragement to May and the Greens.

More Info

The Green Party had two resolutions relating to Israel-Palestine at last week’s Convention. One resolution called for the Green party to support the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement targeting Israel until Israel bans “settlement” construction and enters into good faith negotiations with the Palestinians. This resolution was very well-reasoned, and cited international law and previous precedent in calling for support for BDS. This resolution passed!

The second resolution had to do with the Canadian affiliate of an organization which discriminates against Palestinians. This resolution asks the Green Party of Canada to call for “the Canada Revenue Agency to revoke the charitable status of the Jewish National Fund [JNF] for contravening public policy against discrimination and for its failure to comply with international human rights law.” The resolution cited Israel’s own Attorney General who charged the JNF with practicing institutional discrimination against non-Jewish citizens of Israel. This resolution passed, but only after being amended to target all racist charities, and having all references to the JNF removed.

Elizabeth May has waffled terribly on the BDS issue since the vote. She has gone so far as to say that she opposes the resolution, and may not be able to support it publicly.

Officially, the Green Party has some good party policy on the Israel-Palestine conflict. Elizabeth May has never been good about publicly representing party policy on Middle East issues. Also, the Middle East and Israel-Palestine is not May’s area of strength. By demonstrating Canadian support for these resolutions, we show May that these resolutions are good policy.

If you believe in CJPME's work, please also consider donating so we can expand our impact. When we all pitch in, we can make a huge difference!