A BOYCOTT BETWEEN OLD FRIENDS

South African-inspired justice movement puts

a strain on Canada’s relationship with Israel
by Joey Grihalva

I n the Dheisheh refugee camp in Palestine a young organizer poses a question

to a group of teenagers, “Why don’t you boycott Israeli products?”
“Why do I need to boycott Israeli products?” they reply. “They’re better
than Palestinian products and all the Arab countries are buying them.”
Areej Ja’fari, the organizer, considers this an example of internalized
colonialism. She says it is how refugees willingly buy products from Israeli-owned
factories that sit on occupied land that once belonged to their family, effectively
preventing them from returning to their land.
“Just bringing water to your house is a struggle in Palestine, so you can
imagine the struggle not to buy water from an Israeli source, because most
Palestinians buy water from Israel,” says Ja’fari.
In conjunction with the Palestine Freedom Project Ja’fari helped organize
the first Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) in Palestine in March 2010. The series of
events marked the fifth anniversary of the Palestinian Civil Society Call for
Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against what they allege to be Israeli
apartheid.
The movement is constantly under attack for its use of the controversial
word “apartheid” and for drawing comparisons to South Africa. The label is based
on what many groups and international organizations believe to be an entrenched
system of racial discrimination by the Israeli government and some of its people
against its Arab citizens, including the construction of an illegal—according to
international law—wall, built on occupied Palestinian territory and the continued
support for and expansion of Israeli colonies in the Palestinian West Bank
(including East Jerusalem), the Gaza Strip and the Syrian Golan Heights.
While the BDS movement has gained momentum in the Middle East,
Europe and Africa, here in Canada it remains a tough sell, like Ja’fari’s appeal in

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the refugee camp. This has much to do with the fact that Canada has been one of
Israel’s strongest supporters. The Harper administration is arguably the biggest
booster of Israel in recent memory. The Prime Minister has pledged that as long
as he remains in power, Canada will “take a stand with Israel, whatever the cost.”
The Canadian BDS movement got started one year after the initial call
from various sectors of Palestinian civil society. The first international BDS
conference in Canada took place in Toronto in 2006. A number of actions were
planned at this meeting, including demonstrations in support of a boycott of
Israeli wines sold in Québec liquor stores. The turnout was modest but signaled
the beginning of a grassroots effort to draw attention to the plight of the
Palestinian people under Israeli occupation.
Since these early attempts to garner public support behind the Palestinian
cause the Canadian government has entrenched itself further in Israel’s corner.
The two enjoy multiple free trade agreements and border security cooperation.
Canada repeatedly votes in Israel’s favor at the United Nations. In addition,
hundreds of millions of dollars in tax-deductible donations are sent from
Canadian citizens to Israel each year.
Yves Engler, a freelance journalist and the author of Canada and Israel:
Building Apartheid, reports that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service
(CSIS) has a “budding relationship” with Mossad, Israel’s Institute for
Intelligence and Special Operations. He alleges there are also growing ties
between Canadian and Israeli private security companies.
“The BDS movement faces a hundred years of pro-Zionist, pro-Israeli
political culture in this country, and that’s a lot to fight against,” says Engler, who
worries about the growing trend of labeling anyone critical of Israel as an “anti-
Semite.”
In early November the Canadian Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Anti-
Semitism joined like-minded parliamentary bodies at a conference in Ottawa.
Prime Minister Harper and then-opposition leader Michael Ignatieff of the
Liberal Party were both in attendance at the event. The key players in this
political body—which holds no actual authority from parliament—are Minister of
Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Jason Kenney and Irwin Cotler, a

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lawyer and the former president of the Canadian Jewish Congress. The
conference focused on how to combat what they call “new anti-Semitism,”
defined as speech that encourages the destruction of the Jewish state of Israel.
“These people (Cotler and Kenney) have the objective of criminalizing
speech that is critical of Israel, with the maximus goal of criminalizing the term
‘Israeli apartheid,’” says Engler. Though he does not think they will be successful
in passing that kind of legislation, Engler feels they are creating a McCarthy-like
climate designed to frighten the intellectual sectors of society.
“They are trying to scare heads of unions, professors and anyone who has a
voice in the media to stay away from discussing Palestinian rights,” says Engler.
Though the BDS movement faces many challenges they are encouraged by
small successes. In February the Canadian government chose not to partake in
the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development annual tourism
conference in Jerusalem. Their delegation sent an official letter to the Palestinian
Liberation Organization stating that they do not recognize Israel’s sovereignty
over East Jerusalem.
Stefan Christoff, an organizer, artist and journalist based in Montréal,
recently returned from a trip in the Middle East as the coordinator of a Québec
delegation to the World Education Forum. Israeli authorities would not grant
Christoff entry because of his political views. Not to be discouraged, he met with
activists and artists in Jordan and Palestine. He spread the word about BDS
actions in Canada, including the international BDS conference that took place in
Montréal in October 2010 and spoke of the declaration against Israeli apartheid
that was signed by five hundred artists in Montréal in 2009.
“The resolution of support for the BDS campaign by the Canadian Union
of Postal Workers, which was the first national union in Canada to support the
BDS call…speaks to a growing interest from major progressive institutions to
address this appeal by Palestinian civil society,” says Christoff.
Some Zionist scholars believe the BDS movement hurts the Palestinian
cause by creating more tension with aggressive anti-Israel rhetoric. In an article
published in the Montréal Gazette in the lead up to the BDS conference, McGill
professor Gil Troy criticized the Université du Québec à Montréal for allowing

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their campus to be “used as a forum for demagogy and dishonesty.” Troy claims
the BDS movement has an “exterminationist agenda,” referring to the destruction
of Israel. An e-mail and a couple of calls to Troy’s office yielded no response.
Mostafa Henaway, an activist with Tadamon!, a Montréal-based collective
of social justice organizers and media activists, disagrees with Troy’s analysis of
the BDS movement.
“This is a false argument because if you look at the actual demands of the
boycott you see they are just talking about basic human rights. They are not calls
for a political solution and certainly not for the destruction of Israel or for the
punishment of the Israeli people, but simply equality for the Palestinians,” he
says.
Henaway believes it is important to remember that the BDS movement in
Canada takes its cue from Palestine, specifically the Boycott National Committee.
This is echoed by Christoff, who adds that they are working hand-in-hand with a
lot of Israeli activists and progressives who are on the ground and are directly
involved in the boycott movement.
Actions around the globe have caught the attention of Israeli leaders.
They say the BDS movement represents the “de-legitimizers of Israel” and that it
poses “a strategic threat that could turn into an existential threat.” Politicians in
Jerusalem are going so far as to draft legislation that would make it against the
law for Israeli citizens to publicly support the BDS call.
Whether or not the Netanyahu government can pass such un-democratic
legislation, they cannot erase the inaugural Israeli Apartheid Week that took
place in Israel earlier this year, an inspiring showing of solidarity from behind the
Gaza Wall.
“The Israeli government is threatened by the fact that the movement is
starting to take hold," says Engler.

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