Wherein the Green Party of Canada Clamours for BDS

WHEREAS the JNF practices discrimination against non-Jews in Israel through its bylaws which prohibit the lease or sale of its lands to non-Jews;
WHEREAS the JNF is complicit in the continued dispossession of Palestinians from their lands by creating forests and parks on this land in the name of ‘environmentalism’;
WHEREAS the JNF’s ‘Ayalon Canada Park’ sits in occupied Palestinian territory, covering up the lands of the depopulated and demolished Palestinian villages of Yalu, Imwas and Beit Nuba;
WHEREAS Israel’s Attorney General and the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights have charged the JNF with practicing institutional discrimination against non-Jewish citizens of Israel;
WHEREAS “the CRA is aware that the JNF’s activities contravene Canadian public policy;”
WHEREAS many civil society groups across Canada, including Jewish groups, have called for an end to JNF charitable status;     

BE IT RESOLVED that the Green Party of Canada calls on the Canada Revenue Agency to revoke the charitable status of the Jewish National Fund for contravening public policy against discrimination and for its failure to comply with international human rights law.

The Green Party of Canada is primarily an environmental group just as its counterparts internationally are; their focus is on the environment and the green movement that has captured the concern of nations across the world as the symptoms of Climate Change become more evident through the frightening instances of hugely unusual weather systems wreaking havoc throughout the globe, threatening agriculture and the very existence of small island states through gradually rising ocean levels.

Canada's Green Party, with one elected parliamentarian sitting in the House of Commons, its leader, Elizabeth May, has seen fit to entertain a few resolutions at their upcoming national convention; resolutions approved and endorsed by its leadership, including Elizabeth May. One might think that if one nation's rump party is so dedicated to environmental stewardship, the issues brought up of more historical and complex political dimensions pertaining to another nation entirely would be of scant concern.

On the other  hand, there are countries of the world whose cultural habits add to environmental degradation, through the unstable harvesting of forests leading to desertification, or those countries addicted to burning coal which sends vast amounts of carbonized materials into the air, and other countries where the demand for rare animal parts in traditional medicines threaten the existence of vulnerable animal species. But no, as is typical in so many other instances, the Green Party has busied itself in a riff on the usual Boycott/Divestment frenzy of the State of Israel.

There will be a host of resolutions debated at the convention and two of them relate to foreign policy, not environmentalism. The two targeting Israel only, condemn it for being an 'occupying force' oppressing Palestinians. Resolution number one calls on boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israelis, a blacklist for scientists, academics, politicians, unions, etc. The second resolution focuses on canvassing Revenue Canada to revoke the charitable status of the Jewish National Fund of Canada.

This is a reputable charity whose work is entirely that of environmental preservation, an occupation that has been ongoing for a century in Israel, supported by donations from abroad. Their work represents a hundred years of planting trees in a desertified geography which had been abandoned to bleak uselessness. The environmental protection undertaken in Israel benefits everyone in the region with the building and management of water reservoirs, parks and green spaces that provide haven for birds and animals.

Even while Green Party leader Elizabeth May has agreed with the observation that the resolutions are rife with false allegations, she is complicit with them. In deference, perhaps, to the element within her political party who view Israel through the lens of anti-Semitism. The environmental projects taking place in Israel benefit everyone irrespective of ethnicity, culture or religion. For a Canadian political party to take such an incendiary stance on another country is extraordinary.

It is reflective in substance with the declaration made by one of its former candidates for election who stated her opinion that the Holocaust represents "the biggest and most pernicious and persistent lie in all of history ... there were no gas chambers". Iranian ayatollahs would be proud of this woman's historical ignorance. And the assured vehemence of her moral abandonment.