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Israeli Ambassador to Canada, Alan Baker (file)
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| By Associated Press June 4, 2006 |
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Israel's ambassador to Canada on Friday condemned a move by the Ontario leg of the country's largest public employee union to join an international campaign protesting Israel's policies toward the Palestinian territories.
National Jewish groups and prominent Jewish politicians have also blasted the move by delegates at the Canadian Union of Public Employees convention, who voted Saturday to support the campaign calling for sanctions and disinvestment from Israel until it recognizes a Palestinian right to self-determination.
The Ontario branch represents nearly half of the 450,000 union members across Canada in health care, education, social services, universities, transportation and other sectors.
Ottawa is a close ally of Israel, yet also a strong proponent of Palestinian statehood. Canada, under Conservative Party Prime Minister Stephen Harper, was the first country after Israel to suspend financial assistance to the Palestinian Authority in March because the new Hamas-led government refuses to renounce violence and recognize Israel.
The campaign to boycott Israel started last year, spearheaded by the Jerusalem-based Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center, and has been supported by a growing number of groups around the world, including many North American churches and 20 Quebec organizations.
Britain's largest college teachers' union voted Monday to consider boycotting Israeli academics over what members termed "apartheid" policies and discrimination against Palestinians.
The movement has outraged Jewish leaders, who say the strategy is anti-Semitic and fails to recognize Israel's right to defend itself against terrorist attacks by Palestinian extremists.
"Many -- including members of CUPE -- are questioning why CUPE is so unwisely injecting itself, its good name and the goodwill of its members in such a partisan and openly hostile manner into Middle East politics," Israeli Ambassador Alan Baker wrote in an editorial in the National Post on Friday.
Under the resolution approved by delegates, CUPE Ontario said it will develop an education campaign similar to one by the British Columbia CUPE chapter, which since 2000 has promoted a "solidarity campaign" with the Palestinians. The British Columbia chapter has noted that the International Court of Justice ruled in July 2005 that Israel's West Bank barrier was illegal and must be dismantled.
CUPE said in a news release after its Ontario convention that the Israeli "apartheid wall" has been condemned and determined illegal under international law.
The union noted that Canada's free-trade agreement with Israel was the only such pact the country has outside the Western Hemisphere. In Ontario, the provincial liquor control board carries more than 30 Israeli wines, many produced in the occupied Golan Heights, CUPE said.
"Boycott, divestment and sanction worked to end apartheid in South Africa," said Katherine Nastovski, chairwoman of the CUPE Ontario international solidarity committee. "We believe the same strategy will work to enforce the rights of Palestinian people, including the right of refugees to return to their homes and properties."
Natan Sharansky, a hard-line member of the Likud Party in Israel, wrote in an editorial Thursday that he was "shocked and saddened" by the CUPE vote.
"This decision is totally out of sync with Mideast realities, and runs counter to every principle of justice and human rights," Sharansky wrote in The Globe and Mail.
Leaders of B'nai Brith Canada, the Canadian Jewish Congress and the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center also called the vote outrageous, saying Jewish and non-Jewish CUPE members had contacted them to complain they felt betrayed by the vote.
"What we are seeing is a blatant attempt by CUPE to advance a clearly politicized anti-Israel agenda that is inconsistent with the union's core mandate of serving its members," said Frank Dimant, vice president of B'nai Brith Canada.
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