Whether he is talking about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or any other contentious issue, every elected official is entitled to his opinion. But does he have the right to make racist statements?
I asked myself this question when I read the disturbing statement from Hampstead Mayor Jeremy Levi, who called on Canada to close its doors to Palestinian refugees from the Gaza Strip trying to survive the horror.
“Given the recent behavior of the pro-Palestinian group, Canada should reconsider its immigration plan for Gazans. Their values seem incompatible with ours and I do not wish to welcome more hatred in our country,” he wrote on X on Wednesday.
I also don’t want more hatred in our society, no matter what form it takes. Whether we are talking about hatred of Jews or hatred of Palestinians, we are talking about the same hatred that must be fought.
But are we really fighting against hatred by making comments that sow hatred and dehumanize an entire people who are dying in Gaza?
Are such comments really compatible with the function of an elected official, required to represent with fairness and respect all the citizens of his municipality?
“I am scandalized that an elected official would make such an irresponsible speech!!! We must firmly combat anti-Semitism and racism,” reacted solidarity MP Ruba Ghazal on X, asking the mayor of Hampstead to do a “serious examination of conscience”.
Far from launching into such an examination, Jeremy Levi, visibly happy with the attention obtained by his declaration, instead added a layer.
PHOTO TAKEN FROM JEREMY LEVI’S FACEBOOK PAGE
Jeremy Levi, Mayor of Hampstead
In interview with The duty, the mayor denied having made racist remarks against the Palestinians. The town of Hampstead has a large Jewish community and many citizens there have lived in fear since the Hamas terrorist attacks on October 7, he explained. By asking to close the door to Palestinians in Gaza, he is not motivated by hatred, but by the desire to “protect his community”, he said1.
While it is undeniable that anti-Semitism exists in our society and that we should all be concerned about it, one racism does not excuse another, underlines Ruba Ghazal. “You do not protect your citizens by making inflammatory comments about Palestinians. »
Prime Minister François Legault simply reacted by saying that he “did not agree” with the words of the Montreal elected official, as if racism was an opinion like any other. He who is always quick to defend “Quebec values”, he did not see fit to point out here that racism or hostility towards a group in society are not part of them.
“What’s racist?” », asked the mayor of Hampstead in The duty.
What’s racist? Replace the word “Gazans” with “Jews” in the mayor’s speech and you will immediately see what is racist in such remarks which echo the darkest hours of history.
As the spokesperson for Independent Jewish Voices, Niall Clapham Ricardo, rightly noted, it is heartbreaking to see a Jewish person repeating speeches about Palestinians similar to those that one could read in the 1920s, 1930s or 1940 about immigrants in general, and Jews in particular, also perceived as “incompatible” with the host society.
“ [Nous] we must not open the country to foreigners, Canadian citizens of tomorrow, whose social ideas, morals and instincts would further undermine the foundations of Canadian nationality, already so deeply shaken,” we read in an editorial in the Duty from 1922.
In 1943, another editorial in the Duty warns readers against the “massive invasion” of European immigrants, Jews in particular, considered a “gigantic peaceful aggression, more formidable perhaps than an armed attack because it is more muted”. There is concern that a United Nations plan asks Canada to “give asylum to these masses of Hebrews, in the name of humanity […] “. Jews who, the editorialist fears, constitute a threat to the nation “with their proverbial fertility and their age-old solidarity2 “.
We will also remember, four years ago, the tragic history of the MS Saint Louis, this boat carrying Jewish passengers fleeing Nazi Germany who, after being refused entry to Canada, were sent back to Europe. Dropped by migration policies rooted in anti-Semitism, more than 250 perished in the Holocaust3.
Eighty-five years later, Gazans fleeing a predicted genocide also come up against a closed door from Ottawa, even if it is claimed to be open, at the risk of their lives. Four months after launching a program offering 1,000 temporary residence visas to Palestinians from Gaza with family in Canada, none have managed to set foot in the country. By the admission of the federal Minister of Immigration, Marc Miller, the program is a failure. How many, like Samar Alkhdour’s daughter, will still die while waiting for a green light from Ottawa which will not come4 ?
In such a context, for an elected official to stir up the worst ghosts of the past to ask Ottawa to close a door falsely open to men, women and children in search of peace, hope and dignity, is beyond comprehension.
1. Read the article from Duty
2. All quotes are taken from the book To each his own Jews: 60 editorials to understand the position of Le Devoir towards the Jews (1910-1947), Pierre Anctil, Septentrion, 2014.
3. Check out the MS history Saint Louis
4. Read “Watching Gazans Die”