{"id":22323,"date":"2016-12-16T02:43:26","date_gmt":"2016-12-16T10:43:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=22323"},"modified":"2016-12-14T16:51:54","modified_gmt":"2016-12-15T00:51:54","slug":"may-defends-new-resolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2016\/12\/16\/may-defends-new-resolution\/","title":{"rendered":"May defends new resolution"},"content":{"rendered":"

Green Party of Canada leader Elizabeth May. (photo from cjnews.com<\/a>)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Federal Green Party of Canada Leader Elizabeth May said she was able to support a revised policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict because it rejects the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, but still puts the onus on the Jewish state to move towards a two-state solution.<\/p>\n

At a special general meeting held Dec. 3-4 in Calgary, 350 members voted to pass a policy titled \u201cMeasures to pressure the government of Israel to preserve the two-state solution: addendum to current<\/p>\n

Middle East policy.\u201d It replaced a policy titled \u201cPalestinian self-determination and the movement for boycott, divestment and sanctions\u201d that passed in August at a Green party convention in Ottawa.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt needs to be said very clearly that the BDS movement does not understand the issue properly and is in fact undermining the peace process itself,\u201d May told the CJN the day after the addendum passed.<\/p>\n

Immediately following the August convention, May firmly opposed the policy that supported the BDS movement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason I couldn\u2019t accept our policy in August is because it looked very much as though we were adopting the BDS movement. And the BDS movement, although there are well-meaning people who support it, when you get down to it, their core goals do not include at all \u2026 the right of the state of Israel to exist,\u201d May said.<\/p>\n

At that time, May considered stepping down as leader as a result but, following a family vacation, she ultimately announced she would stay on as leader, partly because the party\u2019s executive council agreed to call a special meeting to give members the opportunity to revisit the BDS resolution.<\/p>\n

The amended policy states, among other things, that the \u201cPalestinian people are among the indigenous people of the geographic region now designated as Israel and the OPT [occupied Palestinian territory],\u201d and it supports \u201conly non-violent responses to violence and oppression, including economic measures such as government sanctions, consumer boycotts, institutional divestment, economic sanctions and arms embargoes.\u201d<\/p>\n

It calls for a ban on products produced \u201cwholly or partly within or by illegal Israeli settlements, or by Israeli businesses directly benefiting from the illegal occupation,\u201d and it calls on the Canadian government to repeal the House of Commons resolution that condemned the BDS movement last February.<\/p>\n

According to a statement by Thomas Woodley, president of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East, Green members voted 85% in favor of the revised policy.<\/p>\n

Although the policy remains critical of Israel and still supports boycotts, divestment, sanctions and arms embargoes, its drafters were careful not to specifically endorse the international BDS movement. May insists the Green party is committed to a two-state solution.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe condemn anyone who imagines that they don\u2019t support, unequivocally, the right of the state of Israel to exist. That prefacing is critical to understanding the addendum,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve never been a party that was afraid to say out loud that we are critical of the decisions of the Israeli government from time to time. I think many Israelis are also critical of the decisions of the government from time to time.\u201d<\/p>\n

May said retired Israeli generals and intelligence officers who accuse Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu of undermining the peace process and weakening security for Israelis \u201cmake the case better than we can as Canadian Greens that there needs to be a course correction on the occupation, expansion of illegal settlements and so on\u2026. We\u2019d rather be aligning ourselves with criticisms that come from within the state of Israel, than with a movement that doesn\u2019t understand the critical necessity to defend the right of the state of Israel to exist.\u201d<\/p>\n

May said she understands that the policy won\u2019t sit well with many members of the Jewish community, but added, \u201cThere are a limited number of mechanisms that governments and parties can use to signal to a foreign government that we think you\u2019re making a mistake here, while at the same time, remaining allies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shimon Koffler Fogel, chief executive officer of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, said in a statement that the group condemns the resolution, \u201cwhich confirms the Green party has been co-opted by extreme activists who \u2013 in their obsessive campaign of prejudice against Israelis \u2013 threaten the party\u2019s own credibility and relevance in Canadian politics.<\/p>\n

\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.\u201d<\/p>\n

The statement also pointed to the policy\u2019s assertion that Palestinians are Israel\u2019s \u201cindigenous people,\u201d and the implication that Jews have no ancestral or indigenous roots in Israel.<\/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,\u201d he said, adding that despite calling attention to the Green party that the vote would take place on Shabbat, excluding observant Jews from the vote, the vote was held on Dec. 3.<\/p>\n

Although May rejected the idea of boycotting Israel, she made a distinction between \u201clegal Israel\u201d and \u201cillegal Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d go out of my way to buy a product that is labeled a product of Israel from within the legal boundaries of Israel. But, personally, I prefer not to buy products that come from an area that is in illegally occupied territories, which, again, even retired members of the\u00a0Israeli Defence Forces are saying are making life less secure for legal Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

B\u2019nai Brith Canada chief executive officer Michael Mostyn said he was encouraged by the rejection of the BDS movement.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo matter how the party came to this position, it is a positive thing for Canadians that, once again, the antisemitic BDS movement has been rejected. It is especially significant given the amount of energy, time and resources being poured into the promotion of the antisemitic BDS movement by certain factions within the Green party.\u201d<\/p>\n

That being said, Mostyn added there is still misinformation in the policy.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor example, the very characterization of settlements as \u2018illegal\u2019 under Article 49 of the Geneva Convention is either a deliberate misreading of that document, or complete ignorance of international law,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u2013 For more national Jewish news, visit cjnews.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Green Party of Canada leader Elizabeth May. (photo from cjnews.com) Federal Green Party of Canada Leader Elizabeth May said she was able to support a revised policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict because it rejects the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, but still puts the onus on the Jewish state to move towards […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[3555,4612,4613,4330,1673],"class_list":["post-22323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","tag-bds","tag-elizabeth-may","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\/22323","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=22323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}