\u201cGreens vote for new Israel policy without BDS\u201d<\/a> by James Munson on ipolitics.ca, \u201cApproximately [350] members voted on the \u2018compromise\u2019 resolution that purged the party\u2019s policies of any reference to the Palestinian-led boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement, which pressures companies, governments and institutions with ties to Israel.\u201d<\/p>\nThe article cites Green party president Ken Melamed as saying, \u201cThe party wanted to be careful not to align with a\u00a0particular organization or movement. The essence of it, I think, is that the party feels that diplomatic approaches to achieving\u00a0peace and justice in the Middle East have been ineffective and it\u2019s time to move to economic actions.\u201d<\/p>\n
The article said that, according to Melamed, about 85% of those who voted at the meeting supported the resolution \u2013 others opposed or abstained \u2013 but that it still had to be voted on electronically by all 20,000 party members before it became official policy.<\/p>\n
Shimon Koffler Fogel, chief executive officer of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), condemned the resolution. In a Dec. 3 statement, he noted, \u201cThe new policy is rife with historical distortions and places the Green party at odds with the Canadian consensus that BDS is discriminatory and counter-productive to peace. The Ontario legislature just voted by a tenfold margin to reject the differential treatment of Israel, underscoring how out of touch the Green party has become.<\/p>\n
\u201cElizabeth May and the party\u2019s leadership have turned their backs on the mainstream Jewish community, including the many Jewish Greens who no longer feel welcome. Despite repeatedly flagging that the anti-Israel vote was scheduled to take place on the Jewish sabbath, senior Green party officials insisted on holding the vote today, thereby excluding many Jewish Green party members from voting. This is an alarming development and a stunning failure of leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n
The December resolution replaces a resolution that was passed at the Green party convention in August.<\/p>\n
In the backgrounder to Fogel\u2019s statement, CIJA notes, \u201cThe party\u2019s decision to endorse economic penalties against Israel is incompatible with the wishes of the party\u2019s grassroots. A survey of Green members conducted by the party after their convention revealed that, of 2,800 respondents, 28% agreed with the decision to support BDS, 44% wanted it repealed and 28% thought it should be amended to remove any reference to a specific movement or country.\u201d<\/p>\n
The backgrounder further explains, \u201cThe text\u2019s exclusive recognition of Palestinians as \u2018the indigenous people\u2019 of the region implies that Jewish people have no ancestral or indigenous roots in Israel. This misleading suggestion contradicts millennia of archeological and documentary evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n
And, CIJA warns, \u201cThe one-sided nature of the resolution and its call for extreme measures against Israel puts the Green party outside the international consensus for achieving peace, which emphasizes the need for both parties to compromise and negotiate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Note: This article has been edited to reflect later reports that about 350\u00a0party members voted on the resolution, versus the number cited on ipolitics.ca, which was approximately 275.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Saturday, Dec. 3, at a meeting in Calgary, the Green Party of Canada (GPC) passed a resolution updating the party\u2019s position on the Israel-Palestine conflict. It puts the entire onus for the conflict\u2019s continuation on Israel, specifically on Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. \u201cThe possibility of a two-state solution is diminishing directly due to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[3555,3976,458,4613,4330,1673],"class_list":["post-22211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national","tag-bds","tag-boycott","tag-cija","tag-green-party","tag-israel","tag-israeli-palestinian-conflict"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22211\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}