According to CJN News, the measure calls on the Canadian government to “condemn any and all attempts by Canadian organizations, groups or individuals to promote the BDS movement, both here at home and overseas”.
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Anthony Housefather, Liberal MP for the Montreal riding of Mount Royal, said Liberal MPs were free to vote as they saw fit on the motion.
The motion was overwhelmingly passed Monday afternoon by 229 to 51 margin, receiving broad support from the Liberal government.
“In recent years, we have seen some of our trading partners engage in a number of politically motivated, misguided commercial boycotts and sanctions against Israel”, they said. “Most American Jews and legislators don’t understand that their support for Israel is being abused to promote an agenda that is anathema to their long-held view”.
The BDS movement, launched over a decade ago, is a cultural and consumer boycott that aims to put economic and political pressure on Israel to adhere to global law and end illegal settlements on Palestinian territory and respect the human rights of Palestinians.
Palestinians stand next to their national flag and on the rubble of the demolished house of Raid Halil, who killed two Israelis in a stabbing attack in Tel Aviv in November, that was demolished by Israeli bulldozers, in the West Bank village of Dura, near Hebron, Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016.
At its core, the vote on the anti-BDS motion would go against the spirit of Freedom of Speech, a right enshrined in Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The states of Tennessee, New York, and Pennsylvania have all passed resolutions condemning BDS, while Illinois, Indiana, and SC have gone even further.
Those provisions “are not about Israeli settlements” but “discouraging politically-motivated commercial actions aimed at delegitimizing Israel and pressuring Israel into unilateral concessions outside the bounds of direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations”, the six said in statement. That vote was eventually vetoed by the student body’s president and vice president.
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Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is likely to continue former Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s close ties with Israel. “The BDS movement is a fringe movement and is outside genuine peace efforts”. It is supported by the United Church of Canada as well as a major Quebec-based labor union, Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN). IL passed a bill that prohibits state pension funds from including in their portfolios companies that participate in the BDS movement.
