Anthony Housefather called himself “a proud Jew and Zionist” and said “I am not going anywhere.”
By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau condemned Wednesday a poster calling for a Jewish lawmaker in his party to leave the country.
The placard contained a picture of an Israeli flag with a swastika in the middle next to a quote from MP Anthony Housefather saying, “We helped build this country.”
Underneath it was a picture of the Nazi flag with the wording, “We built the Autobahn & much more.” It called the Liberal MP a neo-Nazi, said “Zionism = Terrorism,” and told him, “Get out of Canada.”
It had been hung on a lamp post in Montreal, in a district neighboring the heavily Jewish one that Housefather represents.
“Anthony, I’m angry that this happened to you,” Trudeau wrote in response to Housefather’s posting a picture of it on X. “It’s antisemitic, and it’s disgusting. Jewish Canadians indeed helped build this country and will always have a home here. We stand with you, and the entire community, against this hate.”
Housefather had defiantly written above the picture, “My family has been here since the 19th century and we have indeed helped build this country. I am not going anywhere. Sorry antisemites. You may not like what I have to say but I will keep saying it and I will keep being a proud Jew and a Zionist.”
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland echoed the prime minister, posting to the social media site, “Antisemitism is vile and unacceptable. Jewish Canadians are our friends, neighbours, and coworkers—and they deserve to live, work, and pray without fear or persecution.”
Fellow Liberal MP Marco Mendicino wrote even more forcefully, “This isn’t 1938. It’s 2024. I don’t give a shit what party you’re in (or not), the condemnation of this antisemitic garbage should be universal and deafening!”
Housefather has been a firm supporter of Israel in its war against Hamas.
He almost left the Liberal party in March after almost the whole faction voted in favor of a far-leftist party’s motion calling for an immediate ceasefire, supporting the case against Israel in the International Court of Justice that accuses it of committing genocide in the Gaza Strip, and demanding an end to arms sales to the Jewish state.
When speaking against it in Parliament, Housefather said that the nonbinding resolution was “clearly creating a false equivalency of the State of Israel and the terrorist organization Hamas.”
The way to “easily” end the war, he said, was for Hamas to “lay down its arms and surrender, and return the hostages, and stop using citizens of Gaza as human shields.”
He also reminded his colleagues that for years, Canada has only provided Israel with non-lethal weapons, and questioned why the government should stop helping its “friend and ally” from fighting back in “a time of war” against Hamas and Hezbollah as they continue their attacks, unabated.
After weeks of internal conflict, he decided to remain a member of the ruling faction, explaining his reasoning in a Canadian news podcast as, “If I leave, where are the pro-Israel voices in the Liberal Party?”
The Canadian prime minister condemned Hamas, which Canada designates as a terrorist organization, for its brutal invasion of Israel, but has also repeatedly criticized Israel for not doing enough to protect Gazan civilians and provide them with humanitarian aid.
Trudeau also instructed the country’s UN ambassador to vote in favor of a General Assembly resolution demanding a ceasefire in December that did not explicitly require Hamas to lay down its weapons, a move that Housefather also criticized at the time.