Green Party Membership Backs Resolution on Palestine by Overwhelming Majority

The Green Party membership has ratified a resolution supporting Palestinian human rights by a 90 per cent approval vote.

Nine out of ten, that's fairly conclusive even if it does stick in the craw of Elizabeth May or the BC party leader, Andrew Weaver.

The GPC has struggled with its Israel/Palestine policy for over 6 months. An initial motion, calling for the party to support the international movement to boycott Israel (called BDS Movement for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) over its violation of human rights and occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, was submitted to the Party’s regular convention in August 2016. Leading up to the convention, the motion had been severely criticized by Israel lobby groups who labelled it “anti-Semitic”. Their bitter attack on the Green Party and on its leader Elizabeth May, contributed to May’s disavowal of the motion, which she opposed at the convention.

Nonetheless, to the dismay of GPC leadership, the motion passed handily in convention. A shaken Elizabeth May even threatened to resign. In order to avoid a disaster, the party quickly decided to hold a special convention 5 months later to review the decision.

In the preparation for the special convention, a consensus resolutionwas worked out between May’s group and Dimitri Lascaris the de facto leader of those seeking a stronger GPC statement on Palestinian human rights.

The consensus resolution avoided any explicit link to the contentious BDS movement, but endorsed its objectives and supported the idea of bringing pressure on Israel through a boycott of consumer products. The new resolution actually went further than the August motion because it not only called for an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories, but also called for equality for the 1.5 million Palestinian citizens of Israel and supported the right of return for the over 5 million Palestinian refugees. It also urges the International Criminal Court to investigate alleged Israeli war crimes.