Green Party of Canada leader Elizabeth May has condemned her party's decision to vote in support of the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
The party voted on the resolution at its convention in Ottawa over the weekend, despite May's opposition to the measure.
The resolution states that the Green Party “supports the use of divestment, boycott and sanctions that are targeted to those sectors of Israel’s economy and society which profit from the ongoing occupation of the Occupied Palestinian Territories.”
It also states that the Green Party “will support such a form of BDS until such time as Israel implements a permanent ban on further settlement construction in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and enters into good faith negotiations with representatives of the Palestinian people for the purpose of establishing a viable, contiguous and truly sovereign Palestinian state.”
Quoted by JTA on Monday, May said she was "disappointed that the membership has adopted a policy in favor of a movement that I believe to be polarizing, ineffective, and unhelpful in the quest for peace and security for the peoples of the Middle East. As is the right of any member, I will continue to express personal opposition to BDS."
The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) condemned the party's decision as "outrageous.... [T]he BDS movement, which seeks to censor and blacklist Israelis, is fundamentally discriminatory and utterly at odds with Canadian values."
Party members also voted to adopt a resolution that calls on the Canada Revenue Agency to revoke the charitable status of any organization that violates Canadian or international human rights law, noted JTA.
As originally worded, the resolution asked the party to pursue the revocation of the charitable status of the Jewish National Fund (JNF) ostensibly because the JNF discriminates by selling and leasing land in Israel only to Jews.
CIJA said in its statement it was "pleased" that May was "instrumental" in amending the resolution to remove specific references to the JNF, and said she was right to oppose the "toxic" BDS vote.
It should be noted that the Canadian parliament in February approved by a large majority a draft resolution rejecting and condemning the BDS movement.
229 MPs from both the opposition Conservatives and the ruling Liberal party voted in favor of the resolution. 51 MPs voted against it.