Canadian Union of Public Employees in crossfire with Israeli academics

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one of the most disputed and complicated conflicts in the modern world. It has many points of view and no one can actually determine who is right or wrong. On the one side there is Israel and on the other the rebellious Palestinian people, a young country against a nation without a land. Apart from the difficult ethical question the whole conflict has caused too much blood and victims to be viewed neutrally. It also has influenced on all the major countries like the U.S., Canada and major European countries, various organizations who are showing support to one of the sides of the conflict could easily be misunderstood and literally get into crossfire. One of the latest scandals regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is raging in Canada right now.

Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) a Canadian trade union serving the public sector recently got into a scandal for its call to boycott of Israeli Academics. CUPE has more than half a million members across Canada and represents workers in health care, education, municipalities, libraries, universities, social services, public utilities, transportation, emergency services and airlines. With over forty years of history this serious union still managed to became a target of a political scandal.

In 2006 the Ontario wing of CUPE voted unanimously to pass a resolution supporting the “international campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel until that state recognizes the Palestinian right to self-determination.” The reaction on the support of Palestine at that moment seemed to be immense and from some points of view this resolution was called historical. The Congress of South African Trade Unions supported CUPE, but mostly the resolution was blocked by the pro-Israeli organizations.

Recently in January 2009, CUPE's Ontario University Workers Coordinating Committee announced plans to introduce another resolution that would ban Israeli academics from speaking, teaching or researching at Ontario universities and the resolution passed the CUPE's University Workers Committee and will be on the agenda at CUPE Ontario's conference in May. The reaction to this event triggered a huge scandal and it is possible that lawsuits will follow. This time Janice Folk-Dawson, chairwoman of the university workers committee, stated that this resolution is a response to the ongoing conflict that became even more heated in the last few months and because weapons have been proved not to be a solutions CUPE is adding pressure from their side to bring some more attention to the situation. The organization was accused in Anti-Semitism by multiple Canadian Jewish Organizations and was not supported by Canadian government. What is even worse is that the labor code and the educational system might be influenced by this resolution and that won’t lead to anything good.

While everyone is busy punishing CUPE the main problem still lies unsolved. It is normally not to be indifferent to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but this scandal shows that when you choose sides in a political conflict you’ve got to be backed with more than just good intentions.

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