Yet another disappearing act on the Engage site

It appears (or should that be disappears?) that Dr Hirsh has had a bit of a change of heart over a Canadian trade union's "solidarity" resolution. He ran a headline, Canada's Carpenters Union opts for solidarity with Israel and Palestine, not smears or boycotts for a piece on how a Canadian trade union has passed a resolution in support of Israel. The Engage post was based on this report from Market Watch:

Canada's Carpenters' Union, meeting at the 7th Biennial Canada Council of Carpenters Convention in Victoria, has voted in favour of a new resolution that will have a profound effect on organized labour around the world. With a membership of more than 60,000, the Council unanimously adopted a resolution denouncing the characterization by a limited number of other Canadian unions of Israel as an apartheid state. The resolution calls for greater understanding of the plight of Israeli citizens, who face continual waves of attacks and threats from the vast majority of their neighbours.

"Unlike many neighbouring countries, Israel has an active trade union movement that participates freely in Israeli society," explained Ucal Powell, President of the Carpenters' District Council of Ontario. "Supporting a boycott or sanctions against Israel risks reinforcing terrorist groups and does little to encourage the wellbeing of workers in the region."

The resolution, believed to be the first from a union in defence of Israel, was developed in consultation with various groups, including Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center, a respected Canadian-based NGO that takes its name from the famed Holocaust survivor and international justice pioneer Simon Wiesenthal.

"The road to lasting peace can only be paved on a foundation of tolerance and security, which is impossible to achieve given the current terrorist activities of Hamas and Hezbollah," said Avi Benlolo, president of Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center. "Resolutions such as this one are needed to counter the animosity toward Israel which is inherent in recent union activity - a situation which encourages further threats and violence from terrorist groups in the region. Our organization and its more than 25,000 members wholeheartedly support the Carpenters' resolution and believe it will resonate with Canadians and other labour advocates."

The leadership of the Carpenters' Union and local community leaders in attendance at the convention are hopeful this new perspective will encourage other unions to issue similar resolutions.

Here's a screen grab of the original post from google cache:



Unfortunately for Dr Hirsh, a chap called johng read the linked article and apparently "asked how the union was showing solidarity with the Palestinians". A quick read of the article shows that it mentions neither Palestine nor Palestinians. It only mentions, indeed praises and expresses sympathy with, Israel and Israelis.

Well Dr Hirsh appears (or disappears) to have agreed with johng because without any acknowledgement of johng's question or acknowledgement of any change, the headline now reads, Canada's Carpenters' Union opposes smears and boycotts against Israel. Questions arising out of this have to be, how did this "professional sociologist" manage to run away with the idea that a resolution against a boycott of Israel, denouncing the apartheid tag, amounted to solidarity with Palestine? Another would be, what is it with Dr Hirsh that he can't own up to getting things wrong? The Engage site has a lot of form for this sort of thing. We all know the Wildean cliche about losing parents. You know, losing one is unfortunate, two looks like carelessness. Well Dr Hirsh has lost so many posts, headlines, paragraphs, etc, we can't just put it down to mere misfortune nor just carelessness. And as johng found out, we can't ask Dr Hirsh what's up either.

I should point out that google cache itself disappears after a while but not for the same reason that Engage posts disappear.