Category: BDS Hub

Stay connected and informed to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign.

Mark Int’l Day of Solidarity/Boycott Israeli Wines Picket Nov. 26

Great photos from our picket/instore flash action: #BoycottIsraeliWines #NoIHRA

Join local groups in Vancouver to mark the annual International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People with a picket to “Tell the BC NDP Govt to Pull Israeli Apartheid Wines”.
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.
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.
More info: https://cpavancouver.org/boycottisraeliwines-campaign/
Cosponsors for this event include BDS Vancouver-Coast Salish, Canada Palestine Association, ILPS Canada, Independent Jewish Voices Vancouver, Samidoun Vancouver 

This event is taking place on the unceded and occupied territories of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) peoples. The organizers stand in full solidarity and support of Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination and with the ongoing movements to defend land, water and Indigenous peoples from plunder and settler colonialism.

FB Event Page: Boycott Israeli Wines/Mark Int’l Day of Solidarity with Palestinians | Facebook

March for Palestine, Oct. 29

Update: Photo Gallery from the Event

Message at opening rally on Canadian complicity by CPA chair
March on Commercial Drive, Vancouver

Oct. 29, 12 noon Commercial Skytrain Station: Join us as we march in solidarity on this International day of action for the Right of Return and Liberation! We’ll be meeting at the Commercial Skytrain Station to Grandview Park.

The march is an internationally coordinated action by the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement and coincides with their march on the European Parliament in Brussels.

The Palestinian liberation movement is a Palestinian, Arab and international movement, with a history of a century of struggle fighting back against imperialism, Zionism and reactionary forces. Today, as the Palestinian people and their resistance continue to struggle for return and liberation, the colonial occupation is continuing its extrajudicial killings and massacres, siege on Gaza, mass imprisonment, home demolition, settlement construction and overall assaults on Palestine. 
Facebook Event: The March for Return and Liberation! | Facebook

David Eby & BC NDP’s Failure on Israeli Apartheid Wines

Four years ago this month, the Boycott Israeli Wines campaign held a picket at the MLA office of BC Attorney General David Eby. At the time, his mandate included the BC Liquor Distribution Branch, which has been flaunting international law and Palestinians rights for over a decade by stocking Israeli apartheid wines linked to the illegal settlement enterprise.

And our delegation inside his office.

The picket also delivered a copy of the letter signed by 26 organiztions to Eby’s office, emphasizing our concerns with the BC NDP government’s policy. Eby finally sent a brief written response but refused to meet with our campaign representatives in person, saying “my schedule does not allow me to meet with you at this time.” Although he was finally obliged to meet with a small group of his own constituents on the issue, no action of any sort was forthcoming, not from Eby nor from the minister who inherited the BCLDB portfolio, Finance Minister Selina Robinson.

Recently, NDP leader Jagmeet Singh reiterated his party’s commitment to “end all trade and economic cooperation with illegal settlements in Israel-Palestine”, based on the resolution already passed at their 2021 convention. As noted in our April 19, 2021 letter to BC Minister Selina Robinson:
“The sale of wines from illegal Israeli settlements in BC and Canadian liquor stores has been an ongoing travesty for over a decade; there is no better place for the NDP to implement its new policy (and for)… action to finally be taken on this issue.“

But despite stonewalling us for years with lame excuses, the BC NDP government joined other provinces in just 2 days in putting a “…halt to the importing and sale of Russian liquor products from our BC Liquor Stores and provincial liquor distribution centres”. Just two days! And supposedly all in the name of standing with those “who want to live in peace and against those who commit deplorable and illegal acts of aggression.” (Except when it comes to Palestinians of course). So it can be done and done quickly. It just depends on who you are and what political agenda is being served.

So we call on the BC NDP government to stop their crass hypocrisy and respond to the concerns of multiple individuals and organizations regarding the stocking of Israeli apartheid wines. We refuse to be made complicit in Israeli war crimes; your lack of any significant action on this issue puts your government and party’s credibility and ethics into question!

Boycotting Israeli Products has a long history in Vancouver

In the late 1980s, Canada Palestine Association launched their first targeted consumer boycott of Achva Halva bars. Previous calls to boycott Israel had been more general and this campaign was to be the first of many consumer boycott initiatives. The campaign met with some success as several small businesses in the popular Commercial Drive area agreed to no longer carry the Halva bars, produced in an illegal Israeli settlement “industrial zone”. Famous Foods on Kingsway, however, insisted on stocking the product, despite repeated attempts to engage with them.

At that time, the bars were made in the Barkan settlement. According to Who Profits, the factory was moved to the Ariel settlement in 2017, and the company is no longer open about where the products are manufactured. In the late 1980s, as you can see in the pictures from one of our members, Achva was not shy in showing that their bars were the result of war crimes “pillaging”.

Ahdut Factory for Tehina Halva and Sweets (Ahdut – Achva) – whoprofits

Achva Factory, Ariel (via Who Profits)