Canada’s Green Party votes to support BDS movement

Canada’s Green Party votes to support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel.

At its convention in Ottawa over the weekend, party members endorse the BDS movement despite the party leader’s opposition to the measure.

The Green Party “supports a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict and we continue to advocate for good-faith negotiations,” party president Ken Melamed says after Sunday’s vote.

“This support is intended to further advocate to that end. Our members, like many Canadians, will continue to search for ways to support both sides while acknowledging the complexity of the various security, economic, and religious concerns,” Melamed adds.

Green Party of Canada leader Elizabeth May says she is “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.”

The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs condemns the party’s decision as “outrageous…the BDS movement, which seeks to censor and blacklist Israelis, is fundamentally discriminatory and utterly at odds with Canadian values.”

— JTA