Jonathan Kay: The Canadian Union of Postal Workers "has no plans to block mail to and from Israel AS OF YET."

I was going to comment but nothing I could say accurately expressed my thoughts on reading this piece.

Jonathan Kay

This just in: The Canadian Union of Postal Workers "has no plans to block mail to and from Israel as of yet." Thats a direct quote (with my emphasis added) from the unions national president. The line appears in a letter sent to the National Post today in response to my column about CUPWs loopy foreign-policy pronouncements. The letter, which will appear in tomorrows print edition of the National Post appears in whole below.

p.s. In regard to Mr. Lemelins line "Why does [Kay] direct questions about the internal workings of CUPW to everyone except the union itself?" I should say that I did call CUPWs media-inquiries line prior to the publication of my article. I left a message and never got a call-back.

Re: Jonathan Kay asks: Now that CUPW is boycotting Israel, will Canada Post deliver mail to the Israeli embassy? April 28.
If Jonathan Kay admits "I'm no labour expert", why does he direct questions about the internal workings of CUPW to everyone except the union itself? If he had bothered to ask us, we would have supplied a pretty simple answer: Unlike the Israeli government's treatment of Palestinian mail, CUPW has no plans to block mail to and from Israel as of yet. Our concern is that the policies of the Government of Israel are unjust and violate international law; therefore we will be encouraging our members to boycott Israeli made products. We are taking this position because over 170 Palestinian political parties, unions and other organizations have called for a global campaign similar to the one applied to South Africa in their apartheid era. These measures will continue until the Israeli government recognizes the right of Palestinian people to self-determination, puts an end to military assaults, hydrocide and other acts of violence that take the lives of innocent people, and until Israel fully complies with international law, including a raft of UN resolutions. It's time to push for a fair and just settlement so that both Palestinians and Israelis can live in peace.

Sincerely,

Denis Lemelin
National President, CUPW

James Morton
1100 - 5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
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