Canada's largest labor union on Thursday rejected the movement to boycott Israel in a move that was welcomed by Canadian Jewish organizations.
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The Canadian Union of Public Employees, with 700,000 members across the country, voted against a measure to officially endorse the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against the Jewish state.
CUPE members voted by an overwhelming margin of 32% for and 68% against the BDS measure at the organization's biennial national convention held online this year.
Resolution No. 70 called for CUPE to "support the Palestinian people's right to self-determination and their demands to end Israel's military occupation and colonization."
B'nai Brith Canada on Friday congratulated union members for voting against the measure.
CUPE has heeded the wise words of Tommy Douglas, Canada's greatest labour icon: "The main enmity against Israel is that she has been an affront to those nations who do not treat their people and their workers as well as Israel has treated hers."
— B'nai Brith Canada (@bnaibrithcanada) November 26, 2021
"B'nai Brith Canada applauds members of Canada's largest labor union CUPE for voting against the antisemitic Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement on Thursday. CUPE members should be praised for standing up to the lies and intimidation of the BDS movement," said Michael Mostyn, chief executive officer of B'nai Brith Canada.
"The passage of this motion would have inflicted great harm not only on Jewish and Israeli members of CUPE, but on all workers who benefit from trade between Canada and Israel," Mostyn added.
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The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs also reacted to the vote, saying that the members "chose peace over division."
"BDS is an anti-Zionist, antisemitic movement that calls for the demonization and delegitimization of Israel and denies the Jewish people the universal right of self-determination," CIJA said. "It does not stand for Palestinian rights."
i24NEWS contributed to this report.
