We are calling on other groups and institutions to
endorse this campaign so please forward the
following to any interested organizations.
Endorsements with group name
(and website if available) should
be sent by April 30/08 to
info@cpavancouver.org
More background info can be obtained at
www.cpavancouver.org
Thanks,
Hanna Kawas
Chairperson, Canada Palestine Association
DON’T DRINK WITH APARTHEID –
BOYCOTT ISRAELI WINES
Picket Sunday, May 4, 4:30 pm,
Four Seasons Hotel, Vancouver
As we approach the 60th anniversary of the
Palestinian Nakba, the Israeli government has
announced its plans to “rebrand” its 60 years of
dispossession and ethnic cleansing.
Here in British Columbia, the focus of this
“rebranding” is the promotion of wines under an
Israeli label in B.C. liquor stores, which are now
carrying products from the Galil Mountain Winery,
the Golan Heights Winery and the Dalton Winery.
http://www.jewishindependent
The Golan Heights Winery (of which the Galil Winery is
a joint venture) produces wines from grapes grown on
occupied Arab land, and many of their wineries are
located on occupied Syrian land in the Golan Heights.
All of this is in direct contravention of the
Fourth Geneva Convention and stated
Canadian policy
http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca
Nonetheless, successive Canadian governments
have given Israel preferential trading status under
the Canada Israel Free Trade Agreement,
an agreement that financially enables the
Israeli government’s oppressive policies and
does not even attempt to distinguish products
that are from illegal Israeli settlements.
And BC liquor stores, when questioned as to
their shameful actions, replied they “…offer
products from around the world on a commercial
demand basis.”
On May 4, 2008, an Israeli wines festival will be held
at the Four Seasons Hotel, hosted by the Israeli
Government’s Economic Mission to Canada.
We say 60 years of “rebranding” is enough,
60 years of dispossession, exile and the destruction
of a whole nation are enough. Join us in a mass picket
on May 4 at 4:30 pm outside the Four Seasons Hotel
to send this message to the Israeli government, and to
our local and national politicians. As the South African
campaigners said many years ago outside BC liquor stores,
then as now, DON’T DRINK WITH APARTHEID!!