"It is a deplorable and offensive step of trying to isolate and vilify Israel."
By JPOST.COM STAFFfence88(photo credit: )
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) on Thursday labeled as "deplorable and offensive" a call by the Ontario branch of Canada's largest labor unions for a full range of anti-Israel boycott activity.
At its annual meeting on May 28, the Ontario chapter of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) unanimously passed a resolution to "support the international campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions" against Israel. The vote almost directly coincided with the passage on May 29 of an anti-Israel boycott resolution by an academic union in Britain.
"Once again, a labor union has voted to take the deplorable and offensive step of attempting to isolate and vilify the State of Israel while taking a strongly one-sided view of the conflict," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director. "While full of propagandistic hyperbole, the union's resolution makes no effort to reflect current realities on the ground in the region. There is no mention of Israel's unilateral redeployment from Gaza and proposed action in the West Bank, nor is there any recognition of the challenges posed by the terrorist group Hamas' reign over the Palestinian Authority and its refusal to recognize Israel's right to exist or to renounce terror."
The CUPE, Canada's largest union, voted on Saturday to throw its support behind an international boycott of Israel, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported Thursday.
The union decried the Israel's security barrier, calling it an "apartheid wall" and arguing that international jurisprudence forbids such measures.
Representatives of over 200,000 employees voted to join the movement condemning Israeli policy in the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a movement that has been gaining steam since July 2005.
Katherine Nastovski, chair of the CUPE's international solidarity committee, said that political and economic boycott on the part of the international community had brought and end to apartheid in South Africa, and said that the union would continue to work for Palestinian rights, including the right of return.
