Canada’s Green Party has voted to endorse the global anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign. http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/canadian-politics/greens-add-support-for-boycott-divestment-and-sanctions-against-israel-to-official-party-policies
The resolution was presented by the party’s shadow justice critic, Dimitri Lascaris who listed political parties and international figures — including Archbishop Desmond Tutu and physicist Stephen Hawking — who have endorsed BDS.
Earlier, Green Party chief Elizabeth May wrote in the Victoria Times-Colonist. “I am honestly torn. I along with all Greens, denounce anti-Semitism in all its forms... I support unequivocally the right of the State of Israel to exist. I also have deep sympathies with the plight of the Palestinian people, and I find the illegal expansion of settlements on the West Bank deeply concerning.” http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/canadian-politics/greens-add-support-for-boycott-divestment-and-sanctions-against-israel-to-official-party-policies
A thoughtful empathetic position for both sides in the complicated Holy Land. But as H.L. Mencken noted: “For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.” http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/h/hlmencke129796.html
The Greens’ vote was clear enough and dead wrong. Here’s why:
* BDS hasn’t helped a single Palestinian, only punishes Israelis.
The BDS movement seeks to cripple Israel’s economy, demonize her academicians, and delegitimize her very existence. It attempts to shut down enterprises where Palestinians and work Jews together, even when that means hundreds of Palestinians can no longer support their families. Tying a boycott noose around Israel’s neck would destroy the spirit of compromise and trust needed for peace.
**Canada benefits from a robust annual C$1.6 billion in bilateral trade. Besides Canadian jobs and revenues, the strengths of Israel’s R&D enhance the lives of Canadians.
**Israeli bio-medical advances are saving lives every day. Not even his genocidal hatred for Zionists stopped Hamas’ terrorist chief from seeking Israeli expertise for his own family.http://www.timesofisrael.com/hamas-spokesmans-sister-treated-in-israeli-hospital/ Would the Green Party now move to bar Canadians from accessing life-saving equipment and know-how?
***Israeli high-tech hardware and apps are part of Canadians’ daily lives. From ATMs, to computers, to cutting-edge software to safeguard us from digital attacks. Will Green Party BDSers pull the plug on these advances?
****Barring Israeli academics from Canadian conferences and shunning Israel’s dynamic universities are unwarranted draconian moves appropriate perhaps for state-controlled Iranian and North Korean institutions, not Canada’s most reliable friend in the Middle East.
*****Greens could have helped degrade a pernicious source of anti-Semitism by rejecting BDS. A 2015 report focused on the University of California system concluded that “BDS activity is the strongest predictor of incidents that target Jewish students for harm, the factor with the most deleterious effect on campus climate… In 95% of schools with BDS activity, one or more incidents of anti-Semitic expression occurred, while in schools with no evidence of BDS activity, only 33% reported such incidents…The chilling effect on the climate for Jewish students has been even more far-reaching.”
Canada isn’t immune from anti-Semitism. Jewish students on leading Canadian campuses have faced intimidation and hate from extremist campaigns against the Jewish State. The Toronto Police Service’s annual report confirms that Jews are most targeted in hate crimes. http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/why-is-antisemitism-in-canada-soaring/2015/06/17/And Yves Engler, a well-known Canadian “thinker” issued this warning to the victims of history’s oldest hate: “Without an intervention of some sort, the Jewish community risks having future dictionaries defining ‘anti-Semitism’ as ‘a movement for justice and equality.’” https://yvesengler.com/2016/04/16/could-it-be-anti-semitic-to-misuse-the-term-anti-semitic/
Former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar has warned. “I think BDS is an unfair, discriminatory movement based on a moral double standard that is, in the final analysis, anti-Semitic.”
The toxicity of the BDS/Israel-Apartheid State canard was personally experienced by one of the authors (Cooper) at the UN’s 2001 World Conference Against Racism in South Africa. It was there where the international campaign to demonize Israel was canonized amidst 3,900 NGOs. On Friday, Durban’s Police Chief warned us, “Please tell your people not to attempt to walk over to the nearby Jewish Community Center. I cannot guarantee your safety.” We soon understood why. Thousands were loudly protesting― not Israeli policies—but the very existence of the Jewish state. A large banner proclaimed, “HITLER WAS RIGHT”!
We know Canadians care about both Jews and Arabs, but isn’t sure how to make a positive contribution to a complex situation. Uncertainty is far better than indifference. In this case, however, the BDS vote is both morally wrong and practically bankrupt.
Beyond the shameful extreme move by the Green Party, mainstream leadership of Canada can and should continue building trust in the Holy Land, while committing to combat anti-Semitism at home. They can help the moderates by nurturing economic and educational ties with Israel, and by investing in, not divesting from peace- building by brokering joint Israeli-Palestinian undertakings - especially environmental ones. That would be a true Green revolution.
Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein is the Director of Interfaith Affairs for the Simon Wiesenthal Center co-authored this essay.