06 June , 2006
Israel's ambassador to Canada has strongly condemned a move by the Ontario branch of the country's largest public employee trade union to join an international campaign against Israel's policies toward the Palestinians. National Jewish groups and prominent Jewish politicians have also criticized the move by delegates at the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), who at their convention end of May voted to support a campaign calling for sanctions and disinvestment from Israel until it recognizes the Palestinians' "right to self-determination". The Ontario branch represents nearly half of the 450,000 CUPE members across Canada, who are mainly employed in health care, education, social services, universities and transportation.
The campaign to boycott Israel started last year, spearheaded by the Jerusalem-based Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center, and has been supported by a growing number of groups around the world, including many North American churches and 20 Quebec organizations. Britain's largest college teachers' union voted last week to consider boycotting Israeli academics over what members termed "Apartheid" policies and discrimination against Palestinians. The movement has outraged Jewish leaders, who say the strategy is anti-Semitic and fails to recognize Israel's right to defend itself against terrorist attacks by Palestinian extremists. "Many – including members of CUPE – are questioning why CUPE is so unwisely injecting itself, its good name and the goodwill of its members in such a partisan and openly hostile manner into Middle East politics," Israeli Ambassador Alan Baker wrote in an editorial in the "National Post" on Friday.
