Boycott-Israel group makes point against city
During the October 2015 federal election campaign the city took down several hundred placards showing a dead Palestinian child and promoting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel. Now the city has to pay the movement $12,500, far short of the amount they asked for, but justified given that Elections Canada had given permission for the placard.
Shlomo 13:53 on 2018-12-16 Permalink
BDS is not about legitimate criticism of Israeli domestic or foreign policy; it’s a dog whistle for anti-Semites and their useful idiots.
EB 17:15 on 2018-12-16 Permalink
BDS is a civil society movement which seeks to end Israel’s violations of Palestinian human rights and international law through non-violent means. It is 100% legitimate.
Furthermore, BDS has proven effective, even in the face of widespread efforts at suppression by Israel and it’s apologists.
Equating BDS to antisemitism is a baseless smear, the same empty accusation that has been leveled for decades at anyone who speaks out in favor of Palestinian rights.
Ephraim 19:24 on 2018-12-16 Permalink
Israelis aren’t unified, just as Canadians aren’t unified. Not to mention that 21% of the population is Arab (including Druze, but not Circassians, who are Muslim, but not Arabs.) It also focuses attention on a problem while doing nothing about even worse problems, like Syria and Yemen. It doesn’t hold everyone to the same standard… for example, besides Northern Ireland, Polynesia, the Falklands and even the Marianas, there is Western Sahara, Ukraine, Crimea and many many more. If it’s not about antisemitism, what are these people doing for these other occupied territories? Many of which are in much worse position… children are needlessly dying in Yemen and Syria and yet the amount of money spend on UNRWA would pay to resettle almost every Syrian refugee in about 2 years. The Palestinian problem is a problem that isn’t looking for a solution… because we manage worldwide to solve most refugee problems within a few years… not drag on for 70 years…. I’m the child of child refugees who resettled in Canada after WWII. Are you also not buying British products, until the Northern Irish problem is solved? Spanish products until Ceuta is returned?
Shlomo 19:45 on 2018-12-16 Permalink
+1 What Ephraim said.
If Israel is so bad, why is 1 of every 5 Israelis an Arab Israeli (most of whom are Muslim) with full citizenship?
People need to stop buying into the Pallywood narrative and being Hamas’s dupes.
Hamza 01:42 on 2018-12-17 Permalink
How about history and money as a reason. ‘if Israel is so bad why is 1 of every 5 Israelis an Arab’ … So the second-class citizen law is imaginary? Why should a people who have had a continuous presence in the region since the dawn of recorded history give it up?
This is the same racist rhetoric that’s been coming out of Zionist circles for decades – ‘the Palestinians are not real, and if they were, they’re all terrorists and oh yah you’re anti-Semitic too.’
Ephraim 09:13 on 2018-12-17 Permalink
Hamza, there are Jews who have been there since the dawn of recorded history (and beyond) as well, continuously. As I said, it’s a problem that isn’t really looking for a solution… if it was, it would have been solved. If you need proof of that, nothing proves it faster than the fact that so many were resettled and then remade into refugees by the other Arab countries.
Let’s solve the worse problems that want a solution…. Syria, Yemen, Crimea, Kurds. Places where our money will actually do something, help people. (And frankly, let’s use UNRWA’s money to help people, rather than create an entire welfare state.)
Chris 12:24 on 2018-12-17 Permalink
Lot of fallacious arguments here.
“BDS is not about legitimate criticism of Israeli domestic or foreign policy; it’s a dog whistle for anti-Semites and their useful idiots” -> Some BDS supports are certainly bigots, it does not follow that all are.
“focuses attention on a problem while doing nothing about even worse problems” -> multiple problems can be tackled at once. Many speak out against Saudi Arabia for example.
“If it’s not about antisemitism, what are these people doing for these other occupied territories” -> People are free to chose which of the world’s many problems to tackle. If someone mostly works on environmental issues, it doesn’t make them pro-Saudi for example.
“If Israel is so bad, why is 1 of every 5 Israelis an Arab Israeli (most of whom are Muslim) with full citizenship?” -> Doing one good thing does not mean they (Israel) do no bad things.
“a problem that isn’t really looking for a solution… if it was, it would have been solved” textbook non-sequitur.
There is lots of blame to go around in that part of the world, on all sides.
Religion of course plays a major role (there are other factors of course). The sooner people realize Islam and Judaism are but ancient faerie tales, and look to the future instead, the better off we’ll be.
Michael Black 14:26 on 2018-12-17 Permalink
Except you can’t erase identity when that identity is/was used to exclude people.
Israel exists because Jewish people have long been treated badly by others, and of course, immediately before Israel became a country, the Holocaust happened. Others tried to erase them, so that reinforced their identity.
You can’t now turn around and tell them “it doesn’t matter”. There are probably lots of people who didn’t think it mattered much, excapt when those outside forces decided being Jewish was bad, decided they needed to stand with other Jewish people. You don’t have to be religious to be Jewish.
The history of Israel is much more complicated than a religious conflict, so giving up religion would not stop what’s going on.
Michael
Chris 11:23 on 2018-12-18 Permalink
Michael, as I said, there are other factors besides religion. I claim only that religion is a big *part* of the problem, and should be tackled as *part* of the solution.
Hamas is an an acronym of Ḥarakat al-Muqāwamah al-ʾIslāmiyyah Islamic Resistance Movement. The I in ISIL/ISIS stands for Islam. It’s not me saying they are religiously motivated, they say so themselves. It’s foremost in their very name. Sure, it’s not their sole motivation (human behaviour is always complex), but many (not saying you) pretend that religion is not a major factor, when it very much is!