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CUPE Ontario Votes in Support of Israeli Boycott Campaign, Jewish Leaders Outraged |
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Written by Wire Services/Staff
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Monday, 29 May 2006 |
In the wake of CUPE Ontario's decision on Saturday to support an international campaign that is boycotting Israel over its treatment of Palestinians, officials at the Toronto-based Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre for Holocaust Studies are expressing outrage that Ontario's largest public sector union has voted to support an international campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel.
Delegates to the Canadian Union of Public Employees Ontario convention in Ottawa voted overwhelmingly Saturday to support the campaign until it sees Israel recognizing the Palestinians' right to self-determination. The Ontario group represents more than 200,000 workers.
Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center's National Affairs Director Leo Adler said on Monday that the 40,000 Canadian member-strong human rights organization has requested a meeting with CUPE Ontario President Sid Ryan "to rationally discuss and resolve the union's outrageous position on Israel."
Said Adler, "CUPE Ontario has been sadly deluded. To pass a resolution that equates Israeli policies with apartheid-era South Africa is a slap in the face to Arab and other non-Jewish Israelis, as well as the thousands of Jews who were compelled to leave their homes in Africa and the Middle East." Adler went on to say that CUPE's support of the international boycott against Israel "is to turn a blind eye to the very same concerns and fate that Canadians are combating in Afghanistan and here at home."
The global campaign against Israel began in July of 2005 has been supported by at least 170 organizations around the world including numerous religious organizations throughout North America.
Ryan who was re-elected during the same Ottawa convention insists that the campaign is "not an attack on Jewish people" but an objection to Israel's policies on Palestinians. |
