Open letters and statements to the public from the Canada Palestine Association.
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.
New Article in Mondoweiss: Fearmongering and intimidation by Canada’s pro-Israel lobby – Mondoweiss
(Over 85 Canadian and international organizations have endorsed this statement, as well as numerous individuals including Roger Waters. Join with them and send your own letter to Canadian officials here.)
Today, we are witnessing an intensified campaign by the pro-Israel lobby in Canada to smear Palestinian activists and their supporters.… Read more
Every year, B’nai Brith Canada releases its “Audit of AntiSemitic Incidents”. This report is then heavily marketed to multiple levels of government and often shows up in arguments for adopting certain policies, like the regressive IHRA definition and flawed online hate legislation.
The 2021 report hit a new low in attempting to conflate legitimate pro-Palestinian protest with actual vile acts of hatred against Jews.… Read more
Send your letter here: Tell BC Government to pull Israeli Apartheid Wines Now! – Action Network
We have been campaigning for years to have illegal Israeli settlement wines pulled off the shelves of publicly owned liquor stores in British Columbia. Successive governments, including the current NDP one, have either ignored or rebuffed our demands to even investigate this situation. We have been told it’s a matter of “consumer choice” or under “federal jurisdiction”.… Read more
On Feb. 11, B’nai Brith Canada issued a statement declaring that Canada had rejected the new Amnesty Int’l report. The statement noted the following: “We are aware of the recent Amnesty Report. Canada rejects the view that Israel’s actions constitute apartheid,” said a spokesperson for Global Affairs Canada.
Canadian Jewish News CJN also carried the story and elaborated: “James Wanki, spokesperson for Global Affairs Canada, dismissed the report’s claim in a brief statement Feb.… Read more
The Day of Action to Boycott Israeli Wines, Don’t Drink with Apartheid on Feb. 5 featured pickets in two major BC cities as well as solidarity selfies from other parts of Canada. This was just the latest round of protests in a campaign that has been ongoing since 2008, and has been “punching above its weight” since its inception.
Since Israeli wines first came on the shelves in BC’s publicly-owned liquor stores, dedicated local activists have carried the Boycott Israeli Wines, Don’t Drink with Apartheid theme forward.… Read more
The following open letter was sent today to Heather McPherson, NDP Foreign Affairs Critic and cc’d to NDP leader Jagmeet Singh and BC Premier John Horgan.
Dear Ms. McPherson:
On December 22, 2021, you issued a statement marking the fifth anniversary of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334. As you correctly noted in your statement, that resolution is “binding under international law”, and called for “States to distinguish between the territory of the State of Israel and the territories occupied since 1967”. … Read more
2021 was a busy year for both Canada Palestine Association and BDS Vancouver, as the solidarity movement with Palestine grew in both depth and reach. The diverse base of support and unity for Palestinian rights was evidenced by the thousands of people who took to the streets in Vancouver in May/June to demand accountability from Israel and an end to Canadian complicity in Israeli war crimes.… Read more
BC Government: Stop Profiting off Israeli War Crimes
The British Columbia Liquor Distribution Branch is complicit in violations of Palestinian human rights. Despite calls from multiple local organizations for a boycott of Israeli wines, many produced in occupied Palestinian and Syrian territories in the West Bank and the Golan Heights, they continue to be sold in publicly owned BC Liquor Stores.… Read more
We, in the Canada Palestine Association, denounce the British Columbia (B.C.) and Canadian governments for their colonial violence and their callous disregard of indigenous rights. This past week, additional RCMP troops arrived in unceded Wet’suwet’en territory and have since engaged in violent raids on indigenous land defenders; we demand the immediate release of all those arrested, which included journalists and elders. We know that the struggles of the indigenous people of this land and the indigenous people of Palestine have always been against the supremacist settler colonialist project.… Read more
