The CAW’s “Balanced” Resolution on the Middle
East
On August
17, the Eighth Constitutional Convention of the Canadian Auto Workers in Vancouver passed an emergency resolution on the crisis in
the Middle East.The resolution was passed at a time when not only
was the Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem and the West Bank continuing, but
an all-out assault by Israel
on the people and infrastructure of Lebanon was underway.Yet unlike resolutions passed by CUPE-Ontario
and CUPW, which clearly expressed their opposition to the crimes Israel is
committing in the region, the CAW resolution was intended to take a more
“balanced” approach. (See sidebar for the full text of the resolution.)
The
resolution is underpinned by a number of assumptions which are worth examining.From the very preamble, which talks about the
humanitarian crisis facing Lebanese, Palestinian and Israeli citizens, the CAW
resolution is based on the notion of equivalency:equivalency of responsibility for the crisis
in the Middle East (including the invasion of Lebanon) and equivalency of
suffering because of this crisis.
The
problem with the CAW resolution is that there is no equivalency between an
occupier and the occupied or an aggressor nation and the country it
invades.How can Hezbollah, an
organization that includes a military wing of guerilla fighters, be compared to
the Israeli state, which has one of the largest armies in the world?Even the Hezbollah kidnapping of two IDF
soldiers – the pretext Israel
used to launch its invasion of Lebanon
– was a military attack.Israel’s response was to launch massive air
strikes against the people of Lebanon,
systematically targeting the country’s civilian population and
infrastructure.Within the first two
weeks of launching the assault on Lebanon,
Israel
had destroyed oil refineries, hospitals, electrical plants, schools, bridges,
and even a UN command post.The numbers
of civilian casualties also tell the story – Hezbollah’s attacks on Israel resulted
in the death of less than 40 civilians, with over 100 soldiers killed.Israel’s
attacks on Lebanon
killed over 1,000 Lebanese civilians, with less than a couple of hundred
Hezbollah fighters killed.No other
conclusion can be drawn than that Israel was deliberately targeting
civilians while Hezbollah largely confined itself to military targets.
The
CAW has long portrayed itself as a champion of social justice issues in Canada and
around the world. Its so-called "balanced" resolution on the Middle East passed on August 17 is in clear contradiction
with this image.