On June 28, Vancouver activists carried out another picket to promote the “Tell BC Govt to Pull Israeli Apartheid Wines” campaign. Hundreds of leaflets were distributed outside a BC liquor store and following that, the action moved to the office of MLA Melanie Mark. Several of her constituents were part of the picket and their concerns are being consistently sidelined by her office, despite her promise to meet with them.
Picketing and leafletting at Commercial Dr. liquor store.
Vancouver’s anti-apartheid stickering squad has also been active, visiting several stores in the month of June to bring home the message that profiting off Israeli apartheid is fundamentally wrong.
As Israeli forces are stepping up their brutality against Palestinians, activists in British Columbia are taking to the streets to show support for the Palestinian struggle. On April 23, there is an action in Surrey, BC to Stand for Palestine and to highlight Palestinian political prisoners.
And on April 16, an information picket to say “No to Israeli Apartheid Wines” was held at the BC Liquor Store on Commercial Drive, Vancouver. Hundreds of leaflets were distributed, signatures were collected, and then a delegation went to the office of MLA Melanie Mark to also deliver the message.
April 16 Picket: No to Israeli Apartheid Wines!
The campaign to “Tell BC Govt to Pull Israeli Apartheid Wines” has featured joint actions in Vancouver and Victoria over the last two months, and the letter initiative has garnered over 1300 signatures (both on-line and in person). Check out full details here.
Our “Friends of the Campaign” initiative highlights notable friends and allies who have endorsed our letter campaign to “Tell BC Govt to Pull Israeli Apartheid Wines!”. We appreciate the support of Roger Waters, Libby Davies, former and current Vancouver city councillors, IJV members, local artists, lawyer Dimitri Lascaris and professor Sunera Thobani amongst others. (The list of endorsers to date follows the text of the letter.)
Text of Letter To: BC Premier John Horgan BC Finance Minister Selina Robinson
I am writing to express my outrage at the refusal of BC government officials to remove Israeli apartheid wines from publicly owned liquor stores. Your recent action in quickly putting a “…halt to the importing and sale of Russian liquor products” clearly demonstrates that your government can take decisive action. However, your unwillingness to do the same for Israeli wines shows a hypocritical double standard that smacks of racism.
Human rights activists in BC have sustained an on-going campaign for 14 years to have Israeli wines removed from liquor store shelves, most of which are linked to the Israeli settlement enterprise. They have detailed that the wines in question are either from the Golan Heights Winery and its joint venture the Galil Winery; or from the Israeli Teperberg Winery, which proudly displays a map on its website showing vineyards in occupied Palestinian territory.
Israeli settlements are illegal under the Fourth Geneva Convention and international humanitarian law. They are part and parcel of the systematic targeting of the Palestinian people for dispossession, occupation and apartheid for over 73 years. Last year, the New Democratic Party NDP of Canada passed a resolution that committed in part to end “all trade and economic cooperation with illegal settlements in Israel-Palestine”. The Canadian government also acknowledges the illegality of Israeli settlements in its official policy.
Further, major international and Israeli human right groups, including Amnesty International, have determined that Israel is committing the crime of apartheid. Therefore, I demand that the BC government immediately de-shelve Israeli wines from our publicly owned liquor stores; I do not wish to be made complicit in supporting apartheid.
Anne Roberts (former Vancouver City Councillor) Dimitri Lascaris (Lawyer, journalist and activist) Earle Peach (Director, Solidarity Notes choir) Gurpreet Singh (Independent journalist and activist/Cofounder of Radical Desi, an online magazine that covers alternative politics) Jayce Salloum (Artist and curator) Jean Swanson (Vancouver City Councillor) John Soos (PhD, clinical psychology) Kevin Neish (Retired vocational instructor, Mavi Marmara survivor) Khaled Barakat (Palestinian-Canadian writer and activist) Khaled Loutfi Mouammar (Palestinian Christian denied the right to return to his homeland because he is a non-Jew/Served on the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada 1994-2005) Kimball Cariou (former editor of People’s Voice) Libby Davies Natalie Knight (Indigenous (Diné and Yurok) organizer and Chairperson of Friends of the Filipino People in Struggle) Noah Gotfrit (Musician, WCCARS member at large) Pat Howard (Retired Professor, Simon Fraser University) Rehab Nazzal (PhD, Artist and Lecturer, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver) Rev. Marianna Harris Rifat Audeh (Canadian award-winning filmmaker and human rights activist) Roger Waters (Musician) Sid Shniad (Founding member, Independent Jewish Voices Canada) Stephen Aberle (Member of Independent Jewish Voices – Canada) Sunera Thobani (Professor, University of British Columbia) Tim Louis (Lawyer and former Vancouver City Councillor)
Saturday, April 16 3-5 pm BC Liquor Store, 1520 Commercial Dr., Vancouver
Picket & Public Education Action Join us to hand out leaflets, get signatures on our action network letter, and outreach to promote the “Tell BC Govt to Pull Israeli Apartheid Wines” campaign. Major international and Israeli human right groups, including Amnesty International, have determined that Israel is committing the crime of apartheid. Yet the BC government insists to carry Israeli wines in publicly owned BC liquor stores, even though most are linked to the illegal Israeli settlement enterprise. https://actionnetwork.org/…/tell-bc-government-to-pull…
The campaign in British Columbia to Tell the BC Govt to Pull Israeli Apartheid Wines is gaining momentum. On March 26, activists were out on the streets in both Victoria and Vancouver to once again highlight the complicity of the BC government in Israeli war crimes. Both cities carried banners and signs calling on consumers to not support Israeli apartheid, and hundreds of flyers were handed out.
Further, over 800 concerned people have signed our action network letter that was started recently: the on-line version has collected 782 signatures so far and a further 47 signatures were collected when folks signed the letter in-person on March 26.
Friends of the Campaign
There is also a new “Friends of the Campaign” initiative, which will highlight notable friends and allies who have endorsed our letter campaign to “Tell BC Govt to Pull Israeli Apartheid Wines!”. Here is our initial list to date:
Anne Roberts (former Vancouver City Councillor) Dimitri Lascaris (Lawyer, journalist and activist) Earle Peach (Director, Solidarity Notes choir) Jayce Salloum (Artist and curator) Jean Swanson (Vancouver City Councillor) John Soos (PhD, clinical psychology) Kevin Neish (Retired vocational instructor, Mavi Marmara survivor) Khaled Barakat (Palestinian-Canadian writer and activist) Khaled Loutfi Mouammar (Palestinian Christian denied the right to return to his homeland because he is a non-Jew/Served on the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada 1994-2005) Kimball Cariou (former editor of People’s Voice) Libby Davies Natalie Knight (Indigenous (Diné and Yurok) organizer and Chairperson of Friends of the Filipino People in Struggle) Noah Gotfrit (Musician, WCCARS member at large) Rehab Nazzal (PhD, Artist and Lecturer, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver) Rev. Marianna Harris Rifat Audeh (Canadian award-winning filmmaker and human rights activist) Roger Waters (Musician) Sid Shniad (Founding member, Independent Jewish Voices Canada) Stephen Aberle (Member of Independent Jewish Voices – Canada) Sunera Thobani (Professor, University of British Columbia) Tim Louis (Lawyer and former Vancouver City Councillor)
