March 8 2020
The Trump plan for Palestine explicitly gives a further green light to continued Israeli war crimes and settler colonization. Trump devised this plan with Israel with one aim–to further cement Israeli apartheid rule over Palestinians. The Canadian BDS Coalition calls on people across the country to speak out against the recent Trump plan for Palestine. It is no deal of the century, it is the steal of century at best.
The Canadian BDS Coalition supports the BDS National Committee (BNC) when it says this plan “ is the final nail in the coffin of the moribund ‘peace process’, making #BDS the most effective response.”
The Canadian BDS Coalition calls for ending international complicity through measures of accountability. This include bringing Israeli officials to trial at the ICC.
The Canadian BDS Coalition calls Canada to hold Israel accountable through the grassroots driven movement for Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS). For the Canadian government or others to condemn BDS is to show complicity with war crimes, and blantant disregard for Canada’s own domestic law as well as accountability under international law.
The Canadian BDS Coalition calls on the Canadian government to show accountability through both international and domestic law. Specifically:
Domestic Law: Canadian sanctions laws implement United Nations Security Council (UNSC) sanctions regimes under the United Nations Act, as well as Canadian autonomous sanctions regimes under the Special Economic Measures Act. Under the Special Economic Measures Act, sanctions are required when gross and systematic human rights violations have been committed in a foreign state. This so so-called “deal of the century” provides a signal for impunity to the continued war crimes and human rights violations against the Palestinian people, and so the Canadian BDS Coalition calls on the Canadian government to put economic sanctions and an military embargo to hold Israel accountable for its systemic human right violations.
International Law: Under Article 1 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, all high signatories in which Canada is one are required to take actions to ensure that violations of the Fourth Geneva Convention do not occur under any circumstance. Thus, the Canadian BDS Coalition calls for Canada to make a clear statement in regard to its accountability under Article 1 related to the the war crimes committee by Israel The Coalition calls on the government of Canada to what ever is required including putting in place the provisions under the Special Economic Measures Act in this regard, including sanctions and military embargo until at least illegal settlements are removed from occupied Palestine and the Syrian Golan, and until the apartheid Nation Law and other racist Basic Law is revoked, and until the right of return is realized.
The Canadian BDS Coalition calls on civil society to stand against this impunity to the continued war crimes and human rights violations against the Palestinian people. Thus, the Canadian BDS Coalition calls on all people of conscience and the international community at large to respond to these plans by intensifying campaigns for Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions. This includes a clear call to the Canadian government that sanctions be put in place as required under our own domestic law and our international law accountability related to the gross systemic human rights and international law violations by the Israeli government.