Jonny Chard | Staff Writer
Featured image: Dimitri Lascaris, former shadow cabinet minister of the Green Party, visited Keele campus to discuss the party’s recent backing of BDS. | Jonny Chard
Former Green Party Justice Critic Dimitri Lascaris spoke to York students about the Green Party and his backing of the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions, or BDS, movement against Israel.
Lascaris, a high-profile lawyer in New York and Ontario, was behind the policy resolution put forward at the Green Party convention in August of this year, making them the first party in Canada to adopt an official BDS stance.
The party had previously refused to support one side of the conflict over another, contrary to their respective parties in the United States and the United Kingdom.
By adopting BDS in its official policy, Lascaris hopes that the Green Party may begin to influence other political parties in Canada to properly discuss foreign policy in the Middle East without omitting Israel, and to pass similar resolutions.
Omar Barghouti, co-founder of the BDS movement, thanked the Green Party for adopting their stance in a video sent from Palestine.
“The Green Party, by breaking this taboo, is reminding Canadians and many others that doing no harm is an ethical and moral obligation,” he said.
The BDS resolution received support with a majority of 58.5 per cent in its favour in the non-binding Bonser vote, which is used by the Green Party to prioritize motions proposed before the Party’s National Convention.
“The BDS resolution was [then] passed once at plenary by simple majority after being amended at a workshop during Convention,” explains Dan Palmer, press secretary of the Green Party of Canada.
Earlier this year, parliament voted to reject the BDS movement. This was supported by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who called for the condemnation of any individual or group that promoted it within Canada.
Lascaris denounced the Canadian government as being allegedly indifferent to Israel’s actions in Gaza, which reportedly created world-record-high unemployment levels of 47 per cent and saw the United Nations issue a report predicting it will be unlivable by 2020.
He pointed to the country’s obligation to challenge Israel’s alleged violations of UN Security Council resolutions and agreements made at the Fourth Geneva Convention.
Following its implementation, media outlets across Canada berated the party, but according to Lascaris, they did so to promote a narrative that negated the true sentiment behind the resolution.
“They wanted stories to be about the Green Party blowing itself up, supposedly, and not about the suffering of the Palestinian people,” he summarized.
Lascaris was ousted from his position in the Shadow Cabinet in September, after he authored an open letter rebuking Andrew Weaver, the B.C. Green Party leader, using his position as a member of the Shadow Cabinet.
He has, nevertheless, agreed to continue a dialogue with the Party and the resolution is due to be formally discussed again at the Green Party conference in early December.
The BDS movement, founded in 2005, advocates solidarity with Palestine in boycotting Israeli goods, services and academics, divesting from funding their military programme and implementing sanctions on the government due to restrictive and discriminatory laws against Palestinian people.
“Canada’s major political parties have unequivocally rejected BDS—a demonstration of the fact that BDS is at odds with the Canadian consensus and outside the genuine peace movement that emphasizes fairness and mutual responsibility,” says Anna Kissin, director of Hillel at York University.
“A policy that sincerely aims to support Palestinian self-determination would encourage both the Israelis and Palestinians to return to direct negotiations for peace and mutual recognition,” she argues.
