Month: December 2020

CPA 2020, Year in Review

CPA 2020, Year in Review

Canada Palestine Association and BDS Vancouver were busy in 2020 with both on-line and in-person events and campaigns. We had demos and rallies to reject “The Theft of the Century” and Israeli annexation. We supported Palestinian prisoners campaigns, commemorated Nakba72 and called out the CBC for its attempts to erase “Palestine”. Our BDS actions targeted Israeli wines, HP and Puma. The #BoycottPuma campaign closed out the year with a bang, and was linked to our Make your Holidays Apartheid-Free solidarity videos. We are proud of all the work done by our strictly volunteer-run committees, that rely solely on the dedication of their activist base. Next year in a Free Palestine!

Events and Campaigns:

  1. Rally to support Palestine and reject Trump’s plan
    Feb. 2, 2020
    Video and more photos on Facebook event
  2. Freedom for Ahmad Sa’adat – Freedom for Palestine
    January 28
    Video, Facebook Event
  3. Boycott Israeli Wine, Stand up for Palestine!!
    Feb. 29, 2020
    Video and more on Facebook Event
  4. Action Alert: Demand that Canada pressure Israel to end the siege of Gaza!
    March 25, 2020
  5. Virtual Days of Action: Support Palestine, End the Siege of Gaza, Boycott HP
    March 28– 30
    Check photos on Facebook Event
  6. Solidarity with Palestinian Political Prisoners
    April 17, 2020
  7. #PalestinianPrisonersDay: Ansar and the Israeli Jailer
    April 17, 2020
  8. Commemorating #Nakba72
    May 15, 2020
  9. Vancouver support for Palestine
    June 26, 2020, Facebook Event
  10. Vancouver Actions to support the Palestinian People.
    a. Outdoor Left Film Night: Resisting Colonialism & Displacement From Secwepemc to Gaza
    July 31, 2020, Facebook event
    b. Defend Palestine – Boycott Israeli Apartheid! Protest
    August 8, 2020, Facebook event
  11. #BoycottPuma: Give Puma the Boot!
    October 19, 2020, Facebook event
  12. #BoycottPuma takes off in Canada
    October 28, 2020
  13. Make holiday shopping apartheid-free, Boycott Puma and HP!
    November 27, 2020
  14. Organizations in Canada tell Puma to end complicity in Israel’s violations of Palestinian rights
    December 9, 2020
  15. Keeping Puma out of our Shopping Carts
    December 10, 2020

CPA Statements:

  1. CPA statement on the Bias of N.S. Human Rights Commission
    January 10, 2020
  2. BC Attorney General: Still stonewalling on illegal Israeli wines in BC stores
    January 17, 2020
  3. Indigenous solidarity: Sovereign Forever, Never Surrender!
    February 13, 2020
    Video
  4. Maiming for Sport: Canada enables Israel’s War Crimes
    March 9, 2020
  5. Does the Israeli Military Censor impact our News?
  6. March 30, 2020
  7. Western hypocrisy is empowering Israeli annexation!
    May 24, 2020
  8. Canadian Hypocrisy at its Zenith
    June 2, 2020
  9. Canadian Hypocrisy and the UN Security Council Seat
    June 11, 2020
  10. Why I oppose Canada’s bid for the UN Security Council seat
    June 12, 2020
  11. #NoIHRA: Bill 168 will contribute to anti-Palestinian racism.
    July 22, 2020
  12. Support Dimitri Lascaris for Green Party leader
    August 21, 2020
  13. CBC Denies Palestine’s Existence
    August 25, 2020
  14. CBC Insists on Erasing Palestinian National Identity
    September 11, 2020
  15. Sabra and Shatila massacre: a scar that won’t heal
    September 19, 2020
  16. Its wrong to legitimize supporters of Israeli militarism!
    October 13, 2020
  17. Canada’s anti-Palestinianism on display again at UN
    November 5, 2020
  18. Appointing Irwin Cotler is the crown jewel in Canada’s anti-Palestinianism
    December 2, 2020

Articles:

  1. Oslo Accords and the PA are a Hindrance to Palestinian Liberation
    Palestine Chronicle, February 8, 2020
  2. Solidarity between Palestinians and Indigenous Activists has Deep Roots
    Palestine Chronicle, February 18, 2020
  3. Maiming Palestinians for Sport is a War Crime
    Palestine Chronicle, March 10, 2020
  4. How does the Israeli Military Censor Impact Our News Coverage?
    Palestine Chronicle, April 1, 2020
  5. Ansar: A Testament to the Ugly Brutality of the Israeli Jailer
    Palestine Chronicle, April 14, 2020
  6. Palestinians and the ‘Security’ Narrative
    Canadian Dimension, May 4, 2020
    Also published in Palestine Chronicle, May 6, 2020
  7. Western Hypocrisy has Empowered Israeli Annexation
    Palestine Chronicle, May 25, 2020
  8. Trudeau’s knee of hypocrisy is an empty symbolic gesture
    Canadian Dimension, June 9, 2020
  9. Why we oppose Canada’s bid for the UN Security Council
    Mondoweiss, June 15, 2020
  10. Why is the CBC denying Palestine’s existence?
    Canadian Dimension, August 25, 2020
  11. CBC Doubles Down on Erasing Palestine
    Canadian Dimension, September 14, 2020
  12. The 38th anniversary of Sabra and Shatila massacre: a scar that won’t heal
    Mondoweiss, September 17, 2020
  13. The glass ceiling for Palestinian rights
    Mondoweiss, October 15, 2020
  14. Canada’s appointment of Special Envoy Irwin Cotler aims to silence pro-Palestine discourse
    Mondoweiss, December 2, 2020
  15. Boycott Puma for its complicity in Israeli apartheid
    Canada Files, December 12, 2020

Interviews:

CPA Facebook pages (all likes are generated organically; on principle, we refuse to pay FB for ads or promoting posts):
Canada Palestine Association (Over 4,700 likes)
BDS Vancouver – Coast Salish Territories (Over 840 likes)
Stop G4S in Canada – Boycott and Divest from G4S (Over 330 likes)
Boycott Israeli Wines – Don’t Drink with Apartheid (Over 1300 likes)
Boycott TEVA – Apartheid is BAD Medicine (Over 500 likes)

CPA Facebook groups:
Voice of Palestine صوت فلسطين (Over 1700 members)
Canada Palestine Association (Over 2700 members)
Air Canada: We are not On-Board with Human Rights Violations (Over 775 members)

Follow us on Twitter:
BDS Vancouver



Keeping Puma out of our Shopping Carts

New update on Puma campaign – Puma Swaps One Complicit Israeli Distributor for Another.

(Puma responded quickly to our December 9th letter, which over 25 organizations in Canada had endorsed. Following is our reply to them, as well as a copy of their letter.)

December 10, 2020
Bob Philion
President, Puma North America

Thanks for your quick reply to our letter. However, our main concern about Puma sponsorship of the Israel Football Association IFA remains unanswered.

Puma’s current exclusive licensee in Israel, Delta Galil Industries, has been listed on the United Nations database of companies that are complicit in, or profit from, illegal settlement activity. So it is encouraging to hear that the contract with Delta Galil expires at the end of 2020 and there is a new distribution contract with Al Srad Ltd, that “does also not have any operations or branches in settlements”.

However, this does not change the fact that Puma is still a sponsor of the Israeli Football Association IFA. An association that you acknowledge in your letter includes teams from illegal settlements. Having the Puma logo proudly displayed on the IFA website connects your company with this egregious violation of international law. To claim that Puma does not directly put jerseys on the backs of players in those specific illegal settlement teams in no way alleviates that complicity.

In today’s global economy, a company’s brand is its currency. Your brand is tainted by your involvement with the IFA. As we said in our original letter, “we will not purchase Puma products until the company stops these unethical practices, and until the Puma logo is no longer featured on the website for the Israel Football Association”. Until then, we are keeping Puma out of our shopping cart.
________________________________________
Puma’s Response to our Initial Letter:

BDS Vancouver-Coast Salish
Canada Palestine Association

With regards to your recent memo, please know that PUMA does not support football teams in settlements nor does its Israeli distributor have branches in settlements. 

PUMA’s local distribution partner Delta Galil supplies the Israeli National Teams with PUMA branded football equipment to compete in international competitions. PUMA’s contract with its Israeli distributor Delta Galil will expire at the end of 2020. The new distribution contract is with Al Srad Ltd, a company of Irani Corporation. Al Srad Ltd. does also not have any operations or branches in settlements. It is the decision between our new distributor and the Israeli Federation to mutually agree whether to continue the cooperation or not.

PUMA does not have any other connection or association with any other Israeli football club team – neither in mainland Israel nor in settlements. The six football clubs (Ma’ale Adumim, Ariel, Bikat HaYarden, Kiryat Arba, Givaat Zeev and Oranit) which play in different leagues of the IFA and are based in the West Bank are not equipped with PUMA products, but by other sports brands. 

PUMA continues to support and outfit athletes from all backgrounds, regardless of race, color, creed, religion, sexual orientation and national origin. As a brand concerned only with the power that Sport has to bring people together, PUMA does not support any political direction, political parties or governments. We welcome the opportunity to help everyone compete in sports no matter who they are or where they are from.

Sincerely, 
Bob Philion
President  
PUMA NORTH AMERICA | COBRA PUMA GOLF | 10 Lyberty Way | Westford, MA. 01886  

Organizations in Canada tell Puma to end complicity in Israel’s violations of Palestinian rights

Check out the newest action in the #BoycottPuma – Give Puma the Boot campaign. Over twenty-five organizations in Canada, including unions, student associations and social justice groups, endorsed our letter to Puma calling on them to end their sponsorship of the Israel Football Association.
(le français suit)

December 9, 2020

Mr. Maguire, Senior VP, Canada
Mr. Philion, CEO, Puma North America

People in Canada have recently come together to send the message that we should all be concerned about Puma’s involvement in violations of international law and the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people. Folks from Vancouver to Calgary to Toronto have gone on social media to express their concerns and to say #BoycottPuma until it stops legitimizing Israeli apartheid.

Why? Because Puma is the main sponsor of the Israel Football Association (IFA), which includes teams in Israel’s illegal settlements on occupied Palestinian land. In addition, Puma’s exclusive licensee in Israel is Delta Galil Industries, which has branches in those same illegal Israeli settlements.

We join with other consumers in Canada and around the world in letting you know that we will not purchase Puma products until the company stops these unethical practices, and until the Puma logo is no longer featured on the website for the Israel Football Association. The first sentence in your “Code of Conduct” is “Puma respects human rights”; we call on Puma to live up to that commitment.

Sincerely,
BDS Vancouver-Coast Salish
Canada Palestine Association

Endorsed by:
Canadian Union of Postal Workers CUPW-STTP
Vancouver & District Labour Council
Bayan Canada
BDS Québec
Canada Philippines Solidarity for Human Rights
Canadian BDS Coalition
CanPalNet (Canada-Palestine Support Network)
Independent Jewish Voices Vancouver
IJV Vancouver Youth Bloc
International League of Peoples’ Struggle ILPS Canada/Ligue internationale de lutte des peuples
Just Peace Advocates/Mouvement pour une Paix Juste
MidIslanders for Justice and Peace in the Middle East
Niagara Movement for Justice in Palestine-Israel (NMJPI)
Oakville Palestinian Rights Association OPRA
PAJU Palestinian and Jewish Unity/Palestiniens et Juifs unis
Palestine House (Palestinian Canadian Community Centre)
Palestine Solidarity Working Group-Sudbury
Palestinian Youth Movement – Toronto
Palestinian Youth Movement – Vancouver
Peace Alliance Winnipeg
Regina Peace Council
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights – Queen’s University
Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights-SPHR McMaster
Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights – UBC
Students in Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights McGill
Sulong UBC
University of Toronto Students Against Israeli Apartheid
Young Communist League Vancouver

____________________________________________

Monsieur Maguire, Vice-président senior, Canada
Monsieur Philion, PDG, Amérique du nord

De nombreuses personnes au Canada se sont récemment réunies pour signaler que nous devrions tous nous inquiéter de l’implication de Puma dans des violations du droit international et des droits légitimes du peuple palestinien. Des citoyens de Vancouver à Toronto, en passant par Calgary, ont utilisé les médias sociaux pour exprimer leurs inquiétudes et dire #BoycottPuma jusqu’à tant que l’entreprise cesse de légitimer l’apartheid israélien.

Pourquoi? Parce que Puma est le principal sponsor de l’Association israélienne de football (IFA), laquelle comprend des équipes dans les colonies illégales d’Israël situées sur les terres palestiniennes occupées. En outre, Delta Galil Industries, titulaire exclusif de la licence Puma en Israël, possède des succursales dans ces mêmes colonies israéliennes illégales.

Nous nous joignons à d’autres consommateurs au Canada et dans le monde pour vous informer que nous n’achèterons pas de produits Puma tant que votre entreprise n’aura pas mis fin à ses pratiques contraires à l’éthique, et tant que le logo de Puma restera affiché sur le site Web de l’Association israélienne de football. La première phrase de votre « Code de conduite » est : « Puma respecte les droits de la personne ». 

Nous appelons Puma à se montrer à la hauteur de cet engagement.

Cordialement,

BDS Vancouver-Coast Salish
Canada Palestine Association

Update – Puma responds, and we reply: Still Keeping Puma out of our Shopping Cart!


Appointing Irwin Cotler is the crown jewel in Canada’s anti-Palestinianism

by Marion Kawas

Pro-Palestine activists in Canada have been overloaded in the last few months with challenges surrounding the dangerous definition of Anti-Semitism promoted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Association IHRA.

First, Bill 168 in the Ontario legislature was set for committee hearings when the government hijacked the whole process by adopting the IHRA through an Order in Council. Then, just last week, the Trudeau government appointed none other than Irwin Cotler, a well-known pro-Israel advocate, as Canada’s Special Envoy for Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Anti-Semitism. Cotler will also head Canada’s delegation to the IHRA and will work to “advance the implementation of this definition across the country and its adoption internationally.”

Clearly all appeals to rational dialogue over the chilling effects of adopting the IHRA have fallen on deaf ears. Canada’s largest province and its federal government have drawn the proverbial line in the sand. And activists now need to step up and intensify all of their other campaigns, from #StoptheJNF to #FreePoliticalPrisoners to BDS, as the most effective response.

Many academics and activists, be they Jewish, Palestinian or concerned supporters, have written scholarly and lucid articles on why the IHRA definition is flawed and confusing. It is very likely that pro-Israel advocates know full well the contradictions in this definition and that it would probably never stand up to a legal challenge. But that’s not the point. The point is that they have succeeded in not only defining and confining the parameters of pro-Palestine discourse, but have also successfully appointed themselves as the arbiters of what will constitute acceptable criticism of Israeli policies.

Shimon Koffler Fogel, CEO of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs readily pointed out earlier this month that the IHRA definition notes that “criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic.” But who decides what criticism should be allowed or not? In Canada, it will now be Irwin Cotler, the man promoted by the Israeli media as “…one of the staunchest defenders that Israel has around the world”.

The man who PM Trudeau personally referenced when he publicly condemned the BDS movement. The man who sent his own submission to the International Criminal Court, arguing against an investigation into alleged Israeli war crimes in the occupied Palestinian territories. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz described him at the time this way: “Additional requests were submitted to the court by Irwin Cotler, a senior jurist and former justice minister of Canada who is considered very pro-Israel…”.

Surely, no-one with the slightest understanding of Middle East issues should expect Irwin Cotler to be anything other than anti-Palestinian and blatantly in favour of Israel in his new role. The Israeli media are abundantly clear on who he is and what he has stood for over the decades.

Last year, the Trump administration also appointed a Special Envoy to Combat Anti-Semitism, Elan Carr. Although Cotler and Carr come from vastly different backgrounds, both hold very similar views on what is considered “anti-Semitic behaviour”; both are intent in singling out the BDS movement and as Carr succinctly put it, consider “hostility to the State of Israel as the anti-Semitism of today”.

And then we have the infamous 11 accompanying IHRA examples. Woe to the less informed amongst us who tries to navigate what is acceptable or not. One example cites that “Holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel” is racist behaviour. I agree with that, but then what do we make of Israel’s Nation State law which openly declares that “The State of Israel is the nation state of the Jewish People”. How can most folks make sense of such contradictory declarations? They can’t and will probably end up concluding its better to say nothing and just avoid the issue altogether. Which seems to be the whole intent of the IHRA in the first place. If you can’t rationally convince most people that criticism of Israel is somehow anti-Semitic, then the next best thing is to just put a tight lid on the whole debate.

In fact, there are many examples of white supremacists that support Israel who consistently engage in anti-Jewish racism, but they are embraced by the current Israeli government. Why? Because it has become clear that is okay to be anti-Semitic as long as you’re pro-Israel. Which adds another dangerous layer to this whole affair, and seriously compromises the struggle against racism.

That struggle must also firmly acknowledge that Zionism is a form of racism, just as deadly as any other. For too long, progressive forces in Western countries have treated Zionism as a “lesser form” of racism, not as pernicious or aggressive. But this attitude is based mostly on an inherent bias against, and ignorance of, the lived experience of Palestinians; an attitude that has been exploited and manipulated for many years by both the Israel lobby and Western governments.

Adopting the IHRA definition is just one example of the attempts by those governments to shield Israel from criticism and divert attention from its war crimes, apartheid policies and racism against the Palestinian people. This process dehumanizes the Palestinian people by denying their existence, their culture and their narrative; it also criminalises any Palestinian for even talking about their memories and experiences. This amounts to institutional racism against a whole nation and its people.    

Activists in Canada need to re-assess strategy going forward. Trudeau’s appointment of Irwin Cotler is a turning point, a watershed moment, a blatant rebuke of any sense of a fair-handed approach by the Canadian government to the Palestinian cause. And it must be responded to for what it is, a slap in the face for all those who believe in peace with justice for Palestine.

(Photo from protest against Irwin Cotler’s Speech, Montreal, June 2019)

Another version of this article appeared in Mondoweiss.