You'll get an earful if you oppose Israel

Toronto Sun December 15, 2006 You'll get an earful if you oppose Israel By Sid Ryan

I think I know what the messages on Jimmy Carter's voice mail sound like. Last month, the former U.S. president released his book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid. And I bet he's getting an earful.

Last spring, 900 delegates to the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Ontario convention overwhelmingly passed a resolution expressing support forthe global campaign against Israeli apartheid. At the time, Resolution 50 was met by fierce and vitriolic opposition fromthe usual suspects over at the National Post and from within Jewish organizations such as B'nai Brith and the Canadian Jewish Congress. Both of these organizations ran campaigns and petitions against me and my union. I was attacked personally in some quarters as being a Nazi sympathizer and anti-Semite. At least one website was calling for my death and even went so far as to describe how this murder should be carried out by "hanging Ryanfrom a lamp post." One sick individual posted to the website he was searching through the Canadian Tire catalogue looking for the apparatus bywhich I should be hanged. In addition, my office staff were bombarded with more death threats and comments so vile and threatening they could not be printed in a dailynewspaper. Resolution 50 supported an international boycott and divestment campaign against Israel because of its apartheid policies towards the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.

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