Canadian Jewish groups have expressed their disappointment in Canada voting for a pro-Palestinian resolution at the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday.
The nonbinding resolution that passed with 163 countries in favor, five against and 10 abstentions supported the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination.
The United States, Israel, Marshall Islands, Micronesia and Nauru voted against the resolution.
“In its Explanation of Vote (EOV), Canada detailed the many shortcomings of this resolution and the unfair targeting of Israel, yet Canada then proceeded to vote in favour of the text,” observed B’nai Brith Canada CEO Michael Mostyn in a statement. “That decision is not only contradictory; it flies in the face of Canada’s principled opposition to other resolutions in the unbalanced Question of Palestine basket of resolutions that are tabled annually at the U.N. General Assembly. We must ask ourselves: Does support for this resolution bring us any closer to a durable and sustaining peace?”
In a statement, Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Center president and CEO Michael Levitt said “we are dismayed by Canada’s decision to undermine its longstanding policy of rejecting one-sided and prejudicial anti-Israel resolutions at the U.N. By supporting this resolution, Canada is providing ammunition to those who seek to delegitimize and demonize the State of Israel, which ultimately sets back the prospects for peace in the region.”
Shimon Koffler Fogel, president and CEO of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs said in a statement that “the government of Canada has now doubled down on its incomprehensible support for a resolution that simply expands the anti-Israel narrative within the United Nations system—an aberration in the voting pattern established and reaffirmed by successive Canadian governments for almost two decades until the liberal government changed its vote last year.”
He continued: “Notwithstanding other praiseworthy initiatives, including the Security Infrastructure Program and the renewal and expansion of the Canada-Israel Free Trade Agreement, this vote will undermine the Jewish community’s confidence in this government—its willingness to stand by its principles as they relate to Israel, as well as its relationship with the Jewish community here in Canada.”
