Regarding the Aug. 12 story about the federal Green Party endorsing the policy of BDS, Boycott, Divest and Sanctions against Israel, despite the objections of leader Elizabeth May and provincial leader Andrew Weaver.
The BDS policy is a movement intended to exert pressure on Israel to make it change its policies towards the Palestinians. One of these policies is the building of illegal settlements on the Westbank, on land the Palestinians see as theirs.
Canada’s official position is that the settlements violate the Fourth Geneva Convention. From the Global Affairs Canada website under Occupied Territories and Settlements: “As referred to in UN Security Counsel Resolutions 446 and 465, Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention.”
Hence Israel could appease the BDS movement by changing its policies, but the settler movement is an important supporter of the current Israeli government
Mr. Mostyn of B’nai Brith Canada equates BDS supporters with “shills for 9/11 conspiracy theories and terror apologists” and calls Israel a democracy.
Yet boycott is a peaceful policy designed to effect change; a policy practised by Gandhi, and he was no shill. And it is a strange democracy that allows settlers (who don’t live in Israel) to vote to take the land of Palestinians who have no say in the matter.
Richard Wallace
Saanich