Globe: CUPE and Israel
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Thursday June 29 2006, Globe and Mail Editorial, CUPE and Israel
When the Canadian Union of Public Employees, Ontario branch, voted last month to support an economic boycott of Israel, it went well beyond simply taking sides in a complex dispute. The first part of its resolution makes clear CUPE Ontario's intention to delegitimize the Jewish state. "With Palestine solidarity and human-rights organizations, develop an education campaign about the apartheid nature of the Israeli state and the political and economic support of Canada for these practices." (Emphasis added.)
This is a message that harks back to the notorious Zionism-is-racism resolution at the United Nations in 1976. It is similar in its thrust to the long-running boycott by the Arab League aimed at Israel and anyone who did business with Israel. It rejects Israel for what it is -- a Jewish state.
It thus brings to mind an article published in these pages four years ago by three prominent Jewish Canadian leftists: trade unionist Jeff Rose, medical doctor Philip Berger and lawyer Clayton Ruby. The three were fed up with what they perceived to be anti-Semitism in the left. "The singularity of focus on Israel, which is increasingly common within the Canadian left (for example, equating Israel with apartheid South Africa), raises our fears that anti-Semitism has emerged as a powerful force in the polemic." The three went on to say: "A balanced analysis of the Middle East should be based on universally accepted, measurable standards of conduct. Israel should be held accountable, but no more accountable than other nations, including Palestine." CUPE Ontario has not called for the boycott of any other country.
Adding insult to injury, the Toronto Conference of the United Church publicly commended CUPE Ontario yesterday and revived a three-year-old motion calling for an end to investment in Israeli companies with dealings in the West Bank or East Jerusalem. That motion, narrower than CUPE's, is regrettable at a time when the elected Palestinian government refuses to offer an open, direct acceptance of Israel's existence. More regrettable is the church's support for the CUPE resolution, a throwback to a time when the Arab world insisted that Israel could never belong to the community of nations.
Of course Israel should not be immune from criticism. But by the same token, those such as CUPE Ontario that would treat the Jewish state as a pariah will raise legitimate fears, as Messrs. Rose, Berger and Ruby put it, that anti-Semitism is a powerful force in the left-wing polemic.
When the Canadian Union of Public Employees, Ontario branch, voted last month to support an economic boycott of Israel, it went well beyond simply taking sides in a complex dispute. The first part of its resolution makes clear CUPE Ontario's intention to delegitimize the Jewish state. "With Palestine solidarity and human-rights organizations, develop an education campaign about the apartheid nature of the Israeli state and the political and economic support of Canada for these practices." (Emphasis added.)
This is a message that harks back to the notorious Zionism-is-racism resolution at the United Nations in 1976. It is similar in its thrust to the long-running boycott by the Arab League aimed at Israel and anyone who did business with Israel. It rejects Israel for what it is -- a Jewish state.
It thus brings to mind an article published in these pages four years ago by three prominent Jewish Canadian leftists: trade unionist Jeff Rose, medical doctor Philip Berger and lawyer Clayton Ruby. The three were fed up with what they perceived to be anti-Semitism in the left. "The singularity of focus on Israel, which is increasingly common within the Canadian left (for example, equating Israel with apartheid South Africa), raises our fears that anti-Semitism has emerged as a powerful force in the polemic." The three went on to say: "A balanced analysis of the Middle East should be based on universally accepted, measurable standards of conduct. Israel should be held accountable, but no more accountable than other nations, including Palestine." CUPE Ontario has not called for the boycott of any other country.
Adding insult to injury, the Toronto Conference of the United Church publicly commended CUPE Ontario yesterday and revived a three-year-old motion calling for an end to investment in Israeli companies with dealings in the West Bank or East Jerusalem. That motion, narrower than CUPE's, is regrettable at a time when the elected Palestinian government refuses to offer an open, direct acceptance of Israel's existence. More regrettable is the church's support for the CUPE resolution, a throwback to a time when the Arab world insisted that Israel could never belong to the community of nations.
Of course Israel should not be immune from criticism. But by the same token, those such as CUPE Ontario that would treat the Jewish state as a pariah will raise legitimate fears, as Messrs. Rose, Berger and Ruby put it, that anti-Semitism is a powerful force in the left-wing polemic.
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