Premier Eby, Don’t Drink with Apartheid!
End the Sale of Israeli Wines in British Columbia!
Since early 2008, the 60th anniversary of the Nakba, BC activists have carried out an ongoing campaign to end the sale of Israeli wines in BC liquor stores. The campaign has received widespread domestic and international support for the campaign from a range of human rights groups. The pillage of Palestinian property and resources are expressly forbidden in Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which also states that Israeli settlements where many Israeli wines are produced are illegal. The Canadian government has acknowledged the illegality of these settlements in official policy documents. Similarly, the federal NDP passed a resolution to end "all trade and economic cooperation with illegal settlements in Israel-Palestine."
Despite this, and in the face of irrefutable evidence of Israel's brutal genocide against the Palestinian people, the BC NDP have continued in the tradition of previous provincial governments, which have repeatedly dismissed the campaign with the argument that the sale of Israeli products which support apartheid was a matter of "consumer choice."
However, the provincial government under the leadership of the NDP has twice demonstrated during this period that they can at the snap of their fingers have any product they choose removed from the shelves in an instant. The first instance of this was on February 22nd, 2022, when NDP Premier John Horgan banned Russian products from BC liquor stores. The second came following Donald Trump's threat of imposing tariffs on Canadian products, when on February lst of this year, David Eby announced that top US selling brands - exclusively from 'red' states, despite the prevalence of California wines sold in BC - would also be removed from BC liquor stores.
In so doing, and in light of Eby's own refusal to stop support for illegal Israeli products, Eby has demonstrated his cynicism, hypocrisy, racism, and his callous disregard for human rights abuses continually being inflicted against Palestinians. His refusal to stand up for the people of Palestine is a conscious political decision, and proof that "consumer choice" is nothing more than a selectively applied fig leaf used to justify support for the Zionist apartheid regime.
Such double standards in regard to human rights and international law by Premier Eby and the BC NDP are deeply troubling. The Central Executive Committee of the Popular Democracy Movement therefore expresses its support for the ongoing campaign to boycott Israeli wines, and calls on Premier Eby and the provincial government to take immediate action to have these products removed from BC liquor stores.
Central Executive Committee
Popular Democracy Movement
