Anthony Housefather
Brave opposition to a shameful motion
On March 18, 2024, Canada’s House of Commons voted to pass a truly shameful motion on the current Israel-Hamas War. It was brought forward by Jagmeet Singh’s NDP.
Though the majority of his party’s MPs voted in favour of the amended motion, Liberal MP Anthony Housefather (Mount Royal), not only voted against it, but spoke out forcefully against what the Canadian Government was doing.
The motion passed 204 - 117, with only the Conservative caucus, three Liberal MPs (Housefather, Marco Mendicino, and Ben Carr), and Kevin Vuong (Independent), voting against it.
We thank all those who voted against the motion, and especially MP Housefather for his courage to stand up against his party and government, and to speak out in defence of not only his people, but also the truth.
Below is the video of his speech, and the full text.
Mr Speaker, I am a Canadian, I am a Jew, and I am a Zionist.
I am proud to have been born in this country. I am proud that my family came here in the 19th century and helped build this country. My family members fought in World War I and World War II. We are part of Canada and lucky to be so.
I've represented Canada in swimming internationally. I've represented Canada as a parliamentarian, and there's no place in the world I want to be other than in Canada.
The Jewish community of which I am part is a religious community that has existed for thousands of years. But we're also a people. And since we've been here in 1760, have helped build this country. We got enormous opportunities, more than we've received anywhere else in history. But we've also, in academia, in law, in medicine, in physics, and science, and sports, and journalism, we have helped build this country.
And 95% of Canadian Jews are Zionists. Zionism means we believe that we have a right to have one Jewish State in our ancestral homeland. Jews are indigenous to Israel, and we have had a history where Jews have faced persecution in every country in the world. We were expelled from England in 1290. We were expelled from Spain and Portugal in the 1490s. We faced the Crusades where people were killed, we were put in ghettos throughout Europe. We faced the Holocaust. Jews were expelled from Arab lands in the ‘40s, ‘50s, ‘60s, and ‘70s, and we needed one place where every Jew in the world knew if things went wrong in their country, that they could go. And that is Israel, and that's what Zionism means.
So when I get horrible - horrible - threats and emails, saying I'm a dirty Zionist instead of a dirty Jew - that's what Zionism means. So at all these demonstrations around the country outside of synagogues, and outside of Jewish schools, and outside of Jewish community centers where people are screaming about how horrible Zionists are - well I am a Zionist and I'm not embarrassed or ashamed of being a Zionist.
And Canadian Jews should not have to live through what we're living through right now. My community is terrified. We are being intimidated over and over by people protesting outside of Jewish buildings. Canadian Jews have no control over what happens in the State of Israel, yet for some reason Jewish buildings across this country are being targeted. In my own riding, at the Jewish Community offices, where the Jewish public library and the Holocaust Museum are located, demonstrators went on private property, surrounded the building, blocked access to the building and blocked anyone from leaving for over three hours. This is happening all over the place, and the demonstrators, while they are perfectly allowed and right to demonstrate wherever they want, they cannot go on private property and they can't block other people from exercising their right to free speech. If I can't enter a building because I can't hear a speaker, and they block me and they yell at me and they scream at me and stop me from going in, well then their rights are infringing on my rights, and police need to step in and act as police, and all leaders across this country need to tell them to do so because this is not fair anymore.
It is too much.
And Jewish Canadians just don't deserve this. On campuses across this country Jewish students have told me horrible stories from British Columbia to Newfoundland about being intimidated on campus, about walking into dormitories, and having anti-Israel slogans through the walls. They walk into a building and they're asked, “Are you a Zionist or not?” And if they're a Zionist, supposedly they're not allowed into their dorm.
This is not Canada. This is not the country that I know and love, and nobody should be forced to feel this way, which is then how I get to this motion: because the Jewish community right now is demoralized and intimidated.
This motion creates one winner and one loser. Most Canadian Muslims will vastly support this motion. And they're feeling lots of pain right now in watching the events that are happening in Gaza. But Canadian Jews, if this motion is adopted, will feel tremendous pain because the way this motion is constructed, it is clearly creating a false equivalency of the State of Israel and the terrorist organization Hamas. And in the event that we want this war to end, Hamas can easily lay down arms and surrender and return the hostages and stop using citizens of Gaza as human shields.
And essentially, while I appreciate my colleagues in the NDP, this motion as some other colleagues have said, rewards Hamas. We for generations in Canada, under successive Liberal and Conservative governments, have said that the way to recognize a Palestinian state which we all want, living in peace side-by-side with Israel, and in dignity, and offering dignity to both peoples, should come when the two states - the two parties - negotiate their borders and the Palestinians elect a government to govern that territory.
The West Bank is governed by Fatah, which has been in power without an election for 20 years. Mr. Abbas was elected in 2004. And on the other side, in Gaza, you have a terrorist organization, Hamas, that has not held elections since 2007, and is recognized by Canada as being a terrorist organization.
So, Hamas launched the deadliest attack on Israel, the deadliest pogrom against Jews since the Holocaust, and we're changing our foreign policy to reward Hamas and say, “Good for you terrorists! You attacked a sovereign state, killed lots of people, including babies and women and everyone else, and raped and pillaged, and brought people back as hostages, who have now been there for almost five months, and yeah let's recognize that state that we've never recognized before.”
What a great idea for other places in the world where terrorism ferments. Who would love this? Iran. Iran would love this, because Iran is the people in the Middle East that are fermenting terrorism everywhere, whether it's Hezbollah in the North, or Hamas in the South, they are supporting this and they are loving every minute as the world tears itself apart to criticize Israel instead of focusing on Iran and its regime.
And when you talk about arms sales, Mr. Speaker, let's first recognize that the American government supplies billions of dollars of arms to Israel. Canada, and the Canadian Government, don't sell arms to Israel directly. We have provided for many years only non-lethal weapons, because nobody's applied for lethal weapon permits. These non-lethal weapons are going to a friend and ally, Israel, at a time of war.
Imagine what the world would look like if all the countries in the world - which I presume is the principle of the motion - say we will not ship arms or even non-lethal weapons to Israel, while Hamas and Hezbollah will continue to get their weapons from Iran, through Egypt, and through Lebanon. So Israel, while it has missiles launched at it from Hezbollah in the North, and Hamas in the South, will be unable to fight back, and be bereft of weapons. That, Mr. Speaker, is a false equivalency that we're now making between Hamas - a terrorist organization - and Israel. And I don't think that this motion goes toward furthering anything toward peace. In fact it's doing the opposite: its telling our friend and ally that they're being treated in a different way than a terrorist organization, which is benefiting from weapons being shipped to it.
I had the opportunity, with the Member from Calgary Nose Hill, and the Member from Eglington-Lawrence, and the member from Thornhill, and and the Member for Winnipeg (I wish I could remember the name of the riding) Charleswood - St. James - Assiniboia - Headingley, to visit Israel.
We saw the wreck of the destruction of Hamas. We visited a kibbutz where we saw buildings burned, and people who had been burned to death in their safe rooms. We saw blood splattered all over the place, houses ransacked. We heard from people who had been terrorized. And you have to understand, Mr. Speaker, Israel feels that if they don't destroy the terrorist group Hamas, there will be another pogrom that kills more Israelis tomorrow, or the next week, or the next month.
So I understand how horrible it is to see the situation in Gaza. I understand how the world looks at it with revulsion to see people dying. But, we also have to understand that a democratic nation has been on many occasions attacked, wars started against it, and now, all sides in Israel feel they need to fight back.
And so, Mr. Speaker, I stand with Israel, our democratic ally, our friend.
And we, when a time of war is when you look at countries and you say, “Do you stand with our ally or not?”
Mr. Speaker, Canada should be standing with Israel.
Canada should be defending the right of Israel to fight back against a terrorist organization, and we should not be passing motions that make the terrorist organization equivalent to a democratic state.
Thank you.