Oxfam Responds to the ScarJo Defection

The British-based outfit wants you to know that it's exquisitely "even-handed" when it come to the Israel-Palestinian situation, and that its sole issue with Israeli factories in the West Bank that employ hundreds of Palestinians, who work happily alongside hundred of Israelis, is that it's a cosmic wrong for Israel to build these facilities in contravention of "international law." Here's how an Oxfam mucky-muck puts it in a letter in the National Post:

Oxfam does not, and has never, supported a boycott of trade with Israel. Nor do we support the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement, or promote its objectives.

Oxfam funds Israeli and Palestinian civil society organizations that work to reduce poverty and address injustice through a rights-based approach. 

Oxfam opposes trade with Israeli settlements in the West Bank because these settlements are illegal under international law. We believe these settlements exacerbate the injustice and poverty that Oxfam addresses in its ongoing programs. 

We also support the right of consumers to know the origin of the products they purchase. Oxfam therefore urges the Israeli government to ensure distinct labeling of Israeli products and settlement products so that consumers may clearly differentiate between the two.

Oxfam hopes to see a just and lasting settlement between Israelis and Palestinians, and calls for a comprehensive negotiated solution based on international law. 

We support the two-state solution and condemn violence against civilians on both sides of the conflict.
Robert Fox, executive director, Oxfam Canada, Ottawa.

To translate from the Oxfam lingo (which requires some reading between the lines): It supports the internationalista's  plan for Israel to withdraw to its pre-1967 borders, ones which would weaken it to such an extent that it would become well nigh impossible to maintain an effective defense. In other words, an "international" plan to compel Israel to kill itself for the sake of "justice" (ha!) for Palestinians.

If Oxfamers were really intent on improving conditions for Palestinians and raising them out of poverty, they would call for more--not fewer--Israeli companies like SodaStream. But since this is really about an inherent animus to Israel which, dammit, continues to thrive while failing to live up to the impossible "social justice" standards set for it by the likes of Oxfam and others, Oxfam must pretend to be for that chimerical two-state solution which they insist is the only just, right and proper way ahead.

How I wish these lefty charities, intoxicated by their own good intentions and sense of virtuousness, would butt out and go "fix something" somewhere else.

Update: Join Oxfam Canada's "Cuban Revolution Cycle" :

This cycling expedition begins in the Cuban capital of Havana and ends by the Caribbean Sea in Trinidad some 350kms later. Most of the cars on the road are large American Chevys and Buicks from before the revolution, and buildings have remained untouched for more than half a century. You can't help but be touched by the friendliness and pride that the Cubans feel for their country. 

Outside of Havana, there are very few vehicles on the road and as Cuba has a strong biking culture, you will fit right in. You will pass villages separated by colourful fruit orchards, sugar plantations and tree-lined avenues. You will also see the monument to Che Guevara as you pass through Santa Clara. 

You will cycle through Cienfuegos, which sits in a bay facing the Caribbean Sea and has attracted pirates through the ages, and continue to the magnificent Sierra del Escambray before finally reaching Trinidad. 

You can spend your final evening dining and salsa dancing before returning to Havana.

And the fact that Cuba is run by a dictatorship and remains one of the world's big-time "human rights" violators, jailing journalists and others who dare to defy the dictatorship and detail its short-comings: that's no biggie to the Oxfam poverty fighters.

The reason, of course. Oxfam lefties looove that revolution and its poster corpse, Che Guevara. So instead of tut-tutting the way "human rights" are trampled in the land, they grab their bikes, genuflect before a Che memorial and salsa dance the night away in Havana.

Nothing hypocritical about that, right?

Furthermore, one can't help but think that if Cuba was fortunate to be run by Israelis, the place would be thriving, and these Oxfam pity/let's-feel-virtuous tours would become a thing of the past.

Update: NGO Monitor has an excellent run down of Oxfam's history of butting into the Israel-Palestinian situation, and invariably doing dirt to Israel and siding with the Palestinians. All of which makes Robert Fox's contention that Oxfam hopes to see "a just and lasting settlement" for both sides sound more than a little ingenuous.

Update: Jason Kenney tells Brian Lilley that he wants to buy a SodaStream machine and that Oxfam has lost him as a donor.