or What’s Wrong with Resolution I1
Let me speak personally for a moment:
This feels very much like the dawn of a day that my grandparents hinted could happen (“even in Canada”, they said). I had a taste of it in Paris in 2002 when I taught there, and it was the main reason that I couldn’t make Paris my home.
And maybe I should just be surprised that this day took this long to come to my world in Canada. But I think that it’s the kind of day that a sane person can’t ever pretend didn’t happen, afterwards.
Because there are days when you lose innocence by learning about new enemies. And then there are days when you lose innocence by seeing old friends…
…in a new light.
I have been an OPSEU/SEFPO member for almost twenty years, and an activist for pretty much the same amount of time. I’ve spent thousands of hours — at least a thousand of them purely unpaid labour — working for the Union and its members, including as Local President, bargaining team co-chair, guest speaker, blogger, podcaster, provincial committee member, and (for the last two years) Chair of the CAAT-Academic division, representing approximately 16,000 Partial-Load and full-time faculty at Ontario’s 24 public colleges.
Hell, I even bought a flag for my first OPSEU strike, in 2006.
And now, OPSEU/SEFPO Convention delegates are scheduled to vote on Resolution I1. This Resolution demonizes Israel among all nations. It commits OPSEU/SEFPO to actively participating in a concerted attack upon Israel.
If it passes with the support of the majority of voting delegates, I will be unable to in good conscience maintain my role as Chair of CAAT-Academic division, and I will resign that role within 72 hours of the end of Convention.
It was my conscience that got me into unionism in the first place, and my conscience prevents me from continuing to volunteer my time and talents to any organization that actively affirms policies and positions that target the only Jewish country, and that aim to silence Jews who believe in fundamental tenets of Judaism, including that country’s right to exist.
With that said, let us now continue down our merry path of the three Resolutions that target Israel and no other country on Earth that OPSEU/SEFPO delegates are being asked to vote on…
Resolution I1 would officially commit OPSEU/SEFPO to active participation in “the international campaign of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions” against Israel.
Not Russia, not China, not North Korea, Iran, Venezuela, Syria or any of the other state human rights abusers in the world. Only the Jewish country stands accused. And only against the Jewish one would OPSEU/SEFPO actively engage.
And let’s have a quick reminder that, of all the countries in the Middle East, Israel has the greatest protections for LGBT rights, for women’s rights, and for labour rights. (Not that a Union would care about such things.) And citizens of all races there have full protection under the law, including the right to vote, to hold seats in Parliament, and the right to sit on the Supreme Court (which an Arab currently does).
All of which confuses me just a little bit when Resolution I1 refers — in its Whereas clauses — to “apartheid in Israel”. To be clear, there is definitely segregation between Israel and the Palestinians in the West Bank or the Gaza Strip, but (again, to be clear) those Palestinians aren’t Israeli citizens. (Israel — like most countries — doesn’t allow non-citizens to vote).
And the segregation isn’t racial (remember, Israeli Arabs have full rights, and all Arabs living in the territory that became the State of Israel in 1948 were offered citizenship over 40 years ago).
A second “Whereas” clause grounds this Resolution in “the Union’s commitment” in Section 29.9.3 of the Constitution “to dismantling anti-Black racism, anti-Indigenous racism and all forms of racism and discrimination”. I can only interpret this to mean that Zionism (i.e., the belief in a right for any Jewish state to exist in the Bible lands) is racist, and therefore in violation of the Union’s Constitution.
(Again, let’s be clear about how this resolution would have the obvious effect, if not the intent, of driving mainstream Jews away from our Union — I would just be the latest; hardly the first, hardly the last.)
And let’s just follow that reasoning through for a moment: If OPSEU/SEFPO somehow were to define support for a Jewish state (in a land where Jews have lived continuously for 3,500 years) as discriminatory, well, then the Union’s Statement of Respect says, “Harassment and discrimination will not be tolerated at Union functions”. So… Jews would be permitted to attend Union functions, but only if they are forbidden from speaking in support of Israel?
But let me point out a couple of things that you might not realize by reading Resolution I1 (on p.31 of the Convention’s Resolutions Booklet). And if you’re just hearing this for the first time, you might want to ask why that is:
1. It would make OPSEU/SEFPO an active participant in an International Conflict
There are basically three ways of actively participating in an international conflict between two combatants:
- Taking actions designed to help one side
- Taking actions designed to hurt one side
- Playing a mediating role to effect negotiations between the two sides
This resolution accomplishes the second: In commits OPSEU/SEFPO to actively participating in an international effort to attack Israel and weaken it financially, through boycott and divestiture.
This is the opposite of neutrality: It is picking a side and fighting for it. It is about participating in a coordinated attack on Israel.
If you are a delegate, please consider whether your members truly wish for their Union to take an active role in the Mideast conflict by attacking Israel. Because if this Resolution passes, there’s a chance that you’ll need to explain to your members exactly how that happened.
2. OPSEU/SEFPO Would Voluntarily Hand Over Control of its Own Expenditures and Investments to an Unknown Coordinating Group
Here’s where we need to focus on the actual language of the resolution. The following is what would be put into action if a majority of delegates vote in favour of Resolution I1 (emphasis mine):
Therefore be it resolved that effective immediately, OPSEU/SEFPO will actively support the international campaign of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) to demand an immediate ceasefire and that the state of Israel end the siege of Gaza and occupation in the West Bank, and dismantle the apartheid wall and Israeli settlements in the West Bank, and fully comply with international law, including United Nation Resolution 194, which calls for the right of return of Palestinian refugees.
Now, let’s be clear that this Resolution does not commit OPSEU/SEFPO to boycotting Israel; it commits OPSEU/SEFPO to actively supporting a coordinated campaign against Israel. What’s the difference? The campaign is a well-established one that is directed by The Palestinian BDS National Committee. That committee tells participating organizations which companies and agencies to boycott in any given week.
By way of contrast, when OPSEU/SEFPO decided to ban Coca-Cola at events and properties, Convention delegates made a decision to ban a particular company’s products. In this case, however, OPSEU/SEFPO delegates are being asked to make a decision to hand control to The Palestinian BDS National Committee, to determine what companies we should boycott in any given week.
In case you think I’m kidding, please feel free to check out the movement’s handy “Know What to Boycott” page (or, even more remarkable, the Canadian BDS Coalition’s boycott list). And understand that this is where OPSEU/SEFPO would henceforth take its marching orders if delegates commit the Union to active participation.
(And, as a fun game, check out that list of companies to boycott, and consider how many of them deserve to be boycotted for the sin of… employing Palestinians.)
But hey, if OPSEU/SEFPO is going to outsource its international policy to the National Union of Public and General Employees–in which it has a minority voice–then maybe we might as well outsource our policy on expenditures to The Palestinian BDS National Committee, in which we have no voice whatsoever.
3. The Boycott Extends Far Beyond Goods
So, let me speculate about some possible sample outcomes that I don’t think are too fantastic, if this Resolution is passed. None of these would happen tomorrow, but there’s a non-zero chance that any of them could happen in the future:
- OPSEU/SEFPO would be unable to provide direct deposit a member’s strike pay, because the member’s account is in a boycotted bank
- The Union is forced to look for different suppliers of branded goods because the current supplier cannot guarantee that all of the goods (and the parts therein) are manufactured outside of Israel
- OPSSU pensions are impacted because OPSEU/SEFPO is restricted from investing in certain funds
- Union Locals are prohibited from giving out Indigo gift cards as prizes
- New vehicle purchases at Head Office [cough] must exclude vehicles from boycotted auto manufacturers
- A mandated boycott of Pepsi leads OPSEU/SEFPO to reconsider its pre-existing boycott of Coca-Cola
- Stevie Wonder‘s music is banned from future OPSEU/SEFPO events. (I couldn’t make that one up if I tried.)
But more important, and maybe more terrifying to me, is the academic boycott that is a significant component of the BDS campaign, which:
…urges a boycott and work for the cancellation of all forms of cooperation with Israeli academic institutions, including events, activities, agreements, or projects with them. . . . Specifically, the following activities are in violation . . . :
— Academic projects or activities organized or sponsored by Israel, complicit Israeli institutions or Israel lobby groups.
— Research and development projects with complicit Israeli academic institutions, the Israeli government or complicit corporations
— International academic activities receiving funding from Israel, its lobby groups or universities
— Speeches (including debates) at international venues by Israeli state officials or representatives of complicit academic institutions
— Schemes involving international students or academics enrolling at a complicit Israeli institution
— Awards given to Israeli state officials or complicit Israeli institutions or their representatives
— Normalization projects
— Membership of Israeli associations in world bodies
— Publishing in or refereeing articles for journals based at complicit Israeli universities
— Providing advice, review or referee services to Israeli universities
In other words, by actively supporting this BDS campaign, OPSEU/SEFPO would be committing itself to ostracizing any academics associated with Israel. This is a shocking attack on principles of academic freedom — the very principles that this Union’s members fought for years (culminating in a five-week strike) to bring into the Collective Agreement for College faculty.
4. It Has No End-Date
Feel free to reread the Resolution above and tell me when it ceases to be in effect.
Not when the war against Hamas is over; not when the Netanyahu government leaves office; not when a wall comes down; not if the West Bank and Gaza Strip become a country.
This campaign will end when Israel ends, because bringing about Israel’s end is the goal.
Fortunately, you don’t need to be subjected to my analysis of the Resolution’s reference to UN Resolution 194 to explain this — we can simply turn to the words of the BDS campaign’s co-founder, Omar Barghouti:
The two-state solution for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is really dead. Good riddance! But someone has to issue an official death certificate before the rotting corpse is given a proper burial and we can all move on and explore the more just, moral and therefore enduring alternative for peaceful coexistence between Jews and Arabs in Mandate Palestine: the one-state solution…
The current phase has all the emblematic properties of what may be considered the final chapter of the Zionist project. We are witnessing the rapid demise of Zionism, and nothing can be done to save it, for Zionism is intent on killing itself. I, for one, support euthanasia.
I suspect that most OPSEU/SEFPO members support a two-state solution — the hope of a free and independent Palestinian state living peacefully beside a free and independent Jewish state of Israel. I suspect that most delegates support that idea as well. It is curious, then, that the submitting bodies of Resolution I1 are asking delegates at this Convention to commit their Union to participating in an economic campaign that was designed to prevent that from happening.
Conclusion
If passed, this Resolution could harm OPSEU/SEFPO’s members, restrict its investments, disadvantage its employees, inconvenience its Locals, undermine its avowed principles of academic freedom, and compel it to turn its back on workers in another country.
And this Resolution is asking OPSEU/SEFPO to do these things for one reason: In order to become an active participant in a conflict in the Middle East, by committing to injuring Israel economically and socially, in the manner that outside groups dictate.
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