Two years ago, on July 27, 2014, BC Premier Christy Clark issued an outrageous and biased statement at the height of the Israeli bombardment of Gaza claiming - "I’m proud that British Columbia can be counted as a friend of Israel". And today, BC liquor stores, which report to the provincial "Minister of Small Business and Red Tape Reduction", are dragging BC into further complicity with human rights violations by still handling Israeli wines. Many stores are carrying wines from the occupied Golan Heights; the Galil Winery, for example, is majority owned (67%) by the Golan Heights Winery, which produces wines from grapes grown on stolen Arab land. Some outlets have also added several other wines sourced from the occupied West Bank, specifically the illegal Gush Etzion settlement bloc around Jerusalem.

One in particular is called Efrat Judean Hills Kosher and is produced by the Teperberg Winery. This brand declares openly on its website that “Teperberg’s vineyards are spread around several growing regions in the Judean Hills, Upper Galilee, Gush Etzion….”.  All of this is in direct contravention of the Fourth Geneva Convention and “stated” (but never implemented) Canadian policy. More information on Israeli wineries can be found in the exhaustive study done by Who Profits (whoprofits.org) entitled “Forbidden Fruit: Israeli Wine Industry and Occupation.”

Help us send the message to the BC Liquor Distribution Branch and the entire BC Government that supporting occupation and Israeli war crimes is unethical. Lets show that we stand with the Palestinian-led BDS movement and refuse to be silenced or censored. As the South African campaigners said many years ago outside BC liquor stores, then as now, DON’T DRINK WITH APARTHEID!  (More background info and links at www.cpavancouver.org )