{"id":264144,"date":"2026-08-25T14:10:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T14:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/264144\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T14:10:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T14:10:10","slug":"montreal-council-rejects-bid-to-cut-citys-ties-with-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/264144\/","title":{"rendered":"Montreal council rejects bid to cut city\u2019s ties with Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The amended motion instead affirmed\u00a0the council\u2019s \u201csolidarity with the Palestinian people\u201d and civilian victims<\/a> of Middle Eastern conflicts, as well as its commitment to international law, and called on both the national and Quebec provincial governments to show \u201cgreater leadership\u201d towards peace through diplomacy and sanctions against those responsible for violations of international human rights law.<\/p>\n

The amendments, adopted along party lines and supported by the\u00a0Ensemble Montr\u00e9al majority, also added extra focus on diversity and inclusion in Montreal.<\/p>\n

The motion was proposed in June by Projet Montr\u00e9al, a progressive\u00a0political party which forms the official opposition on the council.<\/p>\n

That version\u00a0called on the city council to \u201crecognise and denounce the apartheid regime in Palestine and the genocide<\/a> being perpetrated there, and affirm solidarity with Palestinians and other civilian victims of hostilities in the Middle East\u201d.<\/p>\n

It also\u00a0called for the council to suspend all institutional ties with Israel\u2019s government, primarily by\u00a0not inviting representatives of the state to official events held at City Hall \u201cuntil Israel returns to its internationally recognised borders, ceases its violations of the rights of the Palestinian people, and ends its violations of international law\u201d.<\/p>\n

Projet Montr\u00e9al referenced apartheid-era South Africa<\/a>\u00a0as justification for the motion.<\/p>\n

But the\u00a0motion also recognised the international condemnation which followed the October 7 attacks and emphasised that Jewish and Israeli people\u00a0in Montreal must not be held responsible for the actions of the state of Israel and pointed out the troubling rise in antisemitism.<\/p>\n

It explicitly denounced antisemitism, Islamophobia, racism, and all forms of hate.<\/p>\n

As they arrived for the debate, councillors were met by protesters at City Hall, carrying Palestinian flags and chanting \u201cfree Palestine.\u201d<\/p>\n

And the Quebec Artists\u2019 Anti-Apartheid Club, made up of over 700 artists, cultural figures and culture-focused organisations, expressed their \u201cfull support for the motion of solidarity with the Palestinian people,\u201d and urged Montreal\u2019s elected officials to vote in favour of the motion.<\/p>\n

Their appeal referenced the actions of\u00a0former Mayor Jean Dor\u00e9, who, in 1987, refused to award municipal contracts to companies that benefited from the apartheid regime in South Africa.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, B\u2019nai Brith Canada called on Montreal City Council to reject the motion, calling it \u201cdivisive\u201d, \u201cdishonest\u201d and \u201cone-sided\u201d; said the terms \u201capartheid: and \u201cgenocide\u201d\u00a0were \u201cexplosive falsehoods\u201d, \u201ccalculated lies\u201d and \u201cextreme characterisations\u201d; and criticised the comparison of Israel to apartheid South Africa<\/a>, calling it \u201cdeceitful and inflammatory\u201d.<\/p>\n

Likewise, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) criticised Projet Montr\u00e9al for focusing on Israel rather than \u201clocal issues that matter\u201d such as the economy, homelessness, rent prices, infrastructure and safety, and accused the party of \u201csowing division\u201d and \u201cimporting a foreign conflict into municipal politics\u201d.<\/p>\n

CIJA noted recent attacks – both verbal and physical – on Jewish Montrealers, arson attacks on synagogues, and the mock-hanging of effigies of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and National Security Minister\u00a0Itamar Ben-Gvir at a pro-Palestinian rally, calling Montreal\u2019s current climate \u201ctoxic\u201d and claiming the proposed motion \u201conly adds fuel to the fire.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nathalie Goulet, the Projet Montr\u00e9al councillor who originally proposed the motion, said after the debate: \u201cWe are extremely disappointed with the amendments.<\/p>\n

\u201c[The motion] is very watered down, which is typical. But we didn\u2019t want to withdraw our motion. We left a mark, in essence. That was important.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The amended motion instead affirmed\u00a0the council\u2019s \u201csolidarity with the Palestinian people\u201d and civilian victims of Middle Eastern conflicts,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":264145,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[33],"tags":[43936,949,37],"class_list":["post-264144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-boycotts","tag-canada","tag-israel"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/117156552716063366","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264144\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}