BDS activists (file)
BDS activists (file)Wikimedia Commons

The Green Party of Quebec has formally endorsed the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against Israel, the Canadian Jewish News reported.

The Green Party Council voted on October 16 on a resolution to express support for boycotts and sanctions against what it refers to as "organs" of the State of Israel, organizations that do business in Israel, and Israeli cultural and academic institutions, that it accuses of being “engaged in and complicit in the violation of Palestinians’ human rights.”

The resolution made three exceptions to its support for a comprehensive boycott of all things Israeli. It specifically excludes the fields of medicine, clean energy, and computer technology. The resolution states that the Green Party “supports and promotes the global success of Israel’s green technology companies.”

The Green Party says that it will support BDS against Israel until Israel ends it 'occupation' of Judea and Samaria and “enters into good faith negotiations” with the Palestinian Arabs in order to create “viable, contiguous and truly independent Palestinian state.”

The Green Party also plans to lobby the Canadian government to ban the import of Israeli good produced beyond the so-called 'green line' of 1949 and will work to create a database of Canadian organizations doing business in Judea and Samaria.

Jewish leaders in Quebec dismissed the Green Party's resolution as bluster.

David Ouellette, the associate director of Quebec public affairs for the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), said that With less than one per cent of the popular vote in the 2014 Quebec election, the Green Party of Quebec is clearly a fringe party. Its adoption of BDS only confirms both its own irrelevance and the marginality of BDS in the province, where the rejection of BDS continues to be a matter of robust consensus among all major political parties.”