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In speaking with media outlets over the weekend, May was clear that she’d step down as leader if the right successor came along. Whatever thoughts about her post-leadership future may have been percolating in May’s brain (aided by the Wi-Fi energy passing through it, no doubt), they must stand in sharper relief in the aftermath of the convention. In explicit defiance of her wishes, the party has set itself on a new, damaging course, which she will be expected to defend. Who needs that?

The Green party has become the first Canadian federal party to endorse the Boycott, Divest and Sanction movement against Israel

Specifically, the party voted to endorse the odious BDS movement. BDS stands for Boycott, Divest and Sanction. The target, of course, is the State of Israel, which BDS backers hope will face the same kind of economic, political and moral isolation that South Africa endured during the waning days of apartheid. There are varying degrees of commitment to the BDS cause. Some adherents would be satisfied boycotting military technology, government conferences and commercial products manufactured on contested land. Others are more ideologically pure in their Israel hatred, and want the isolation to be total, extended to cultural and academic ties, as well. Many — too many — are simply rebranded anti-Semites, cloaking their hatred of Jews and the Jewish state under the more palatable euphemisms of economic leverage and political persuasion.

Whatever the flavour of BDS in question, the Green party has now signed up, at least in principle. The party has become the first Canadian federal party to endorse the movement, although 42 New Democrats voted against a motion in February condemning the BDS, which passed by an overwhelming vote. Green members adopted a resolution that read, in part, that the Green party “supports the use of divestment, boycott and sanctions … that are targeted to those sectors of Israel’s economy and society which profit from the ongoing occupation of” Palestinian territory.