Canada’s New Democratic Party (NDP), a.k.a. Nouveau Parti Démocratique (NPD), on Sunday adopted a motion submitted by a “coalition of Palestinian and Jewish activists” to amend its platform to include a boycott of products made in the Jewish settlements of Judea and Samaria, as well as an arms embargo on Israel, The Palestine Chronicle reported (Canadian NDP Adopts Motion on Boycott of Jewish Settlement Products).
The Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates was beside itself with joy at the “overwhelming majority voting of the members of the General Conference of the New Democrats Party in Canada in favor of a resolution entitled ‘Justice and Peace for Israel and Palestine,'” and noted its appreciation for the “voting of 80% of the party’s general conference members in favor of the resolution.”
Leftist activist Dimitri Lascaris noted that “as of today, 2 parties in Canada’s Parliament, Canadian Greens, and NDP are calling for an arms embargo on Israel and a ban on the importation of products made in #Israel’s illegal settlements.”
And now for an interjection of some perspective: the NDP holds 24 out of the 338 seats of Canada’s national House of Commons (roughly 7%), and no seats in the Senate (precisely 0%). The Green Party of Canada (Parti vert du Canada), the other anti-Israel party, holds 3 out of 338 seats in the House and no seats in the Senate. So don’t expect major foreign policy changes any time soon.
As to the arms embargo on Israel: in 2019, the extent of Canada’s military exports to the Jewish State was $13,744,727.53 – give or take a Canadian quarter. At the same time, in 2019, Israel was at the top of the list of twelve non-US countries that utilized export permits for military goods and technology – 401 permits, 17.5% of the total number of permits issued.
On settlements products, however, Canada’s Food Inspection Agency has been “carefully reviewing” a 2019 federal court decision that wine made in Judea and Samaria cannot be labeled as “products of Israel” because such labeling is “false, misleading and deceptive.” The court’s decision was part of a three-year legal dispute over bottles made in the Psagot and Shiloh wineries. Following the ruling, Canada’s Food Inspection Agency is expected to come up with a new label for settlement wines. “Historic Biblical Land Wines” comes to mind.
Psychotherapist and life coach Hammam Farah tweeted on Sunday: “The Palestine solidarity movement just scored a long-overdue victory in Canada! The NDP just voted to boycott illegal Israeli settlements and impose a ban on weapons sales with Israel! CONGRATULATIONS to my amazing team who worked so hard on this! We cry and celebrate now.”
Good to know.
The Palestinian Chronicle cited a 2017 poll done by EKOS Research that confirmed that “in the context of Israel’s ongoing human rights violations, 78% of Canadians believed that the Palestinian call for a boycott is reasonable.”
That number was higher among respondents who identified as NDP supporters – more than 90%.