Media Release
June 16, 2009
Jewish Conference Votes to Support Boycott of Israel
Ottawa -
Independent Jewish Voices (Canada) voted to join the growing international campaign in support of the Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel, at its first Annual General Meeting this past weekend. This decision makes IJV the first national Jewish organization in the world to do so. The adopted resolution states that IJV will “Support the Palestinian call for a campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions until Israel meets its obligation to recognize the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination and complies with the precepts of international law, including the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194.”
“Independent Jewish Voices has voted to join the international boycott campaign because we stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people and support their right to self-determination,” says Diana Ralph, Co-Chair of IJV. “We are calling on the Canadian government and all Members of Parliament to push for immediate sanctions on Israel.”
“The time has come for people around the world to rise to the challenge in Israel/Palestine, as we did for South Africa,” says Fabienne Presentey, Steering Committee member of IJV. “All voices that can be raised against this injustice must be.”
The resolution, which passed with the support of 95% of voting delegates, also calls on the Canadian government to “1) cease its one-sided and uncritical support for Israel and 2) insist that Israel abide by international law in its relations with Palestinians.”
The international call for boycott, divestment, and sanctions originated from 170 Palestinian civil society organizations and has sparked a growing global movement, modeled on the international campaign that successfully ended South African Apartheid. Many prominent organizations around the world have joined the BDS campaign, including the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), UNISON (UK), Transport and General Workers’ Union (UK), Canadian Union of Postal Workers, Canadian Union of Public Employees-Ontario, six Norwegian trade unions, Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Scottish Trades Union Congress, and Intersindical Alternativa de Catallunya.
Independent Jewish Voices is a member-led organization, with chapters in Vancouver, Winnipeg, Toronto, Hamilton, Ottawa, Montreal, and Halifax.
-30-
Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Resolution
Adopted at the Annual General Meeting of Independent Jewish Voices (Canada) on June 14, 2009.
Whereas there will be no lasting peace without implementation of international law, United Nations resolutions and respect for the human rights of both Palestinians and Jewish-Israelis, and
Whereas the United Nations Security Council unanimously passed resolution 242 in November 1967, calling on Israel to withdraw from the West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem, which it had invaded and occupied in June 1967, and
Whereas Israel has refused to implement resolution 242 and instead has illegally established Jewish-only settlements in these areas in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and
Whereas Independent Jewish Voices is based on a strong commitment to social justice and universal human rights, and
Whereas it is our view that the grave situation in the Middle East threatens the future of both Israelis and Palestinians as well as the stability of the whole region, and
Whereas we support a negotiated peace between the Israeli and Palestinian peoples and oppose attempts by the Israeli government to impose its own solutions on the Palestinians,
Therefore be it resolved that Independent Jewish Voices will:
1. Support the Palestinian call for a campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions until Israel meets its obligation to recognize the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination and complies with the precepts of international law, including the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194.
2. Work towards an end to military assaults and other acts of violence that target civilians.
3. Demand that the Israeli Government immediately and permanently withdraw from the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Golan Heights and cease all discrimination against Palestinian citizens of Israel.
4. Call on the Canadian government to 1) cease its one-sided and uncritical support for Israel and 2) insist that Israel abide by international law in its relations with Palestinians.
[...] this festering international issue. Jewish Voice for Peace cautiously supports BDS as a tactic. Independent Jewish Voices in Canada and Americans Jews for a Just Peace simply cite human rights as their justification for [...]
I am Mexican and I follow world news very carefully and as a neutral observer I would have to say that the end never justifies the means hammas and the Israeli government are guilty the question is who´s guiltier well gilt is guilt the send you to the electric chair if you commit one tree murders or 1400 murders, but what troubles me is the support that Israel receives after committing this genocide even the united states says that it´s ok to murder so many people my government lake a few others didn´t vote to keep the united states happy, the sad thing is even thought the united nations voted for the trials the united states will veto in favor of Israel and by the way this isn`t the first massacre that Israel participated in I also remember sabra and chatila and in that time everything got swept under the carpet like nothing really happened think about it.
This is incredible! How far can we go when seeking justice, even to the extent of denying our own family? Many US organizations dislike US government’s policies or openly reject them. I haven’t heard any of them saying people should boycott US as a whole. I mean you guys have the right to criticize (which many people in Israel do) but supporting the boycott against your own people’s country is way over the line. It’s very good to respect the rights of your enemies, that doesn’t change their status as enemies. What would happen to you if Canada started to persecute Jews? Where would you go? To Palestine? Would they receive you with open arms? Did you forget that they attacked Israel before she had done good or wrong? You are too comfortable in Canada and that’s what you defend, your right to remain abroad, the right to not have a Homeland of your own. You guys should be forced to spend a few days in Sderot and feel the sensation of rockets over your heads everyday for 8 years. That wouldn’t make you agree with everything but a least you could start to understand the Jews who live in Israel. Go on; try to make your brethren starve, Very Smart! Many of those who would lose their jobs if your boycott succeeds actually disagree with IDF behavior, but most of them don’t have anywhere else in the world to go either. Say that to the thousands of Ethiopians living in Israel, tell them that they must go back to starvation because their fellow Jews are supporting a boycott against the whole nation. I hope anti-Semitism doesn’t knock your doors one day and tear off your mezuzahs. By the way, Canada has supported many American war oriented policies, so they have killed infinitely more people than Israel. Why don’t you start a Boycott against Canada so you can lose your own jobs? That would demonstrate you’re coherent with your own statements.
Shalom
PD. You seem to have erased my comment last time, so I’m sending it again. I don’t think I’m insulting anyone as I offer my opinion respectfully and readers are entitled to see a different opinion, that’s the whole point of making comments.
Shalom
“Godless Zionists”? Huh?
Is there a place on Earth — or Internet — where one doesn’t have to run into Christian anti-Semites? Most of the crimes against humanity committed on this planet (including the Israeli crimes against Arabs) have been perpetrated by the mindless people believing in Vengeful gods, rarely by atheists.
Helen
Toronto
Gaza 12-2008/Jan-2009 was the final straw
To see the survivors of the Warsaw Ghetto do what they are doing to the people of Gaza has taken the Zionist zealots to the bottom of the rung on human rights – a virtual ‘terd in the punch bowl’ and certainly no ‘light unto the nations.’
The murder of Palestinian women as they waved the white flag of surrender in one hand and held their babies in the other by rabid IDF killers run amoke by ‘Kahanist’ materials distributed by the Rabbinite of the IDF military exacerbated the hate and disdain for people who’s only crime is to have been there when the Kahzars arrived from war torn Europe brought tears to the entire planet. The ad naseum repetition of the Holocaust will never again serve as ‘cover’ for the criminl acts of the G-D/less Zionists. Now, they know the entire world feels disdain for the Jew and everything they represent.
In South Africa the dock workers refused to unload Israeli ships – at Durban II, the US, Canada and Australia (all abusers of their indigenous people) teamed up against the world to ‘run cover for the criminal Jews, more tears from the decent people of the planet.
BDS represents the ‘beginning of the end,’ for Jewish state terror and in Afghanistan, where the US continues to murder and maim tens of hundred’s of innocent civilians with their savage B-1B ‘Lancers’ and Predator remote killers have sudddenly brought on an increasing numer of dead US/NATO war criminals – se there is a God!
To the prior Jewish commentator who states: ‘So what about China and others that violate human rights? I must say ‘You claim you are the ‘Chosen’ – would you ask less from your people? Remember, with titles comes responsibilities.
TheAZCowBoy
Tombstone, AZ.