On Monday, 12th of December, the Coalition for Just Peace in Palestine (CJPP) in Montreal held a press conference to launch its Campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against the Occupation and Israeli Apartheid and for the respect of international law.
Responding to the Palestinian call to Isolate Israel, the CJPP had worked for months to prepare a comprehensive BDS campaign to be initiated all over Quebec. The Campaign is currently promoted by a large range of social and political forces in the Canadian province. At the press conference, not only Palestine solidarity activists, but also the Womenâs Federation of Quebec, Artists for Peace, union leaders and representatives of progressive political forces and initiatives showed their support for the Campaign.
To enhance the effectiveness of popular campaigning, the CJPP has decided to focus initial work on two products: Caterpillar and Israeli Wines. Joining the global actions against Caterpillar, the Quebecoise activists provide informational material and call upon the Canadian population to protest the companies involved with Caterpillar and to boycott Caterpillar products.
The call against Israeli wines has been chosen in response to the Occupation Ministry of Industry and Commerce that has announced its plans to double its wine exports over the next five years. The CJPP intends to make these plans fail and to end all support that goes to the Occupation through the purchase of Israeli goods.
The activists in Quebec will enlarge their targets beyond these initial campaigns in the months to come. The well-planned campaign is calling on international solidarity groups and networks to publicly state their support for the initiative and inform the group of their actions at info@cjpp.org.
With Quebec joining in the movement to Isolate Apartheid Israel, the momentum for boycott, divestment and sanctions is further growing. The pressure which people all over the world can put today on their governments, institutions and companies to stop support to the Occupation is by far not enough to bring about effective change. Yet, the growth in initiatives, their outreach to different sectors in society and the political planning supporting the campaigns can not be underestimated.