The Montreal City Council is set to debate a
controversial motion Monday calling on the Canadian city to
suspend all institutional ties with the Israeli government.
Avi Lewis, a leading Jewish Canadian politician and head of
the progressive New Democratic Party, says it’s a
reflection of widespread outrage among Canadians over
Israel’s actions across the Middle East.
Pro-Israel
forces “are on the defensive now,” says Lewis. “They
still capture most of the political class and the mainstream
media, but among the majority of people, we want to see our
government step up and take a clear moral position against
apartheid, against genocide and against the killing of
civilians.”
Transcript
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form.
ANJALI KAMAT: Before we
end, Avi Lewis, I want to go back to you, and I wanted to
ask you about this other news from Canada. The Montreal City
Council is set to debate a controversial motion calling on
the city to suspend institutional ties with the Israeli
government. Your response to this?
AVI
LEWIS: Well, I think I’ve been knocking doors in
a series of by-elections that the prime minister has called,
in Toronto, in Montreal, in Vancouver. And I’ve been
talking to a lot of Canadians at their doorsteps in the past
few weeks over this summer. And I have to say that the
ongoing genocide in Gaza is a pressing moral issue for, I
believe, a supermajority of Canadians. I have only come
across a couple of people who take a pro-Israel position at
the doorstep, knocking doors in all of our major cities for
weeks now. And the vast majority of people are shocked and
appalled by the activities of the state of Israel, dragging
the United States into attacking Iran in another endless,
incredibly damaging war, spiking oil prices and punishing
people around the world with higher inflation and higher
cost of living, which is already out of control, and the
sheer trauma of witnessing — and Democracy Now! has
done a better job than most media outlets in the entire
world in documenting the ongoing murder of Palestinians in
the West Bank, in Gaza, what is effectively an invasion now
of southern Lebanon. People are upset and traumatized by the
impunity and the violence visited by Israel on many
different civilian populations now in the Middle East. And
people in Canada are appalled and want to see their
governments, at every level, do something.
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We’ve
seen a big battle in Canada, as you have in the United
States, where the pro-Israel forces, like AIPAC or CIJA here
in Canada, the parallel pro-Israel lobby group, are on the
defensive now. They are — they still capture most of the
political class and the mainstream media, but among the
majority of people, we want to see our government step up
and take a clear moral position against apartheid, against
genocide and against the killing of civilians. And you see
these debates breaking out at the city council level, in
educational institutions, and at the national level in
Canada. And the tide has turned definitively, and Canadians
want to see their governments and their elected officials
stand up on the right side of history. It’s an ongoing
battle, and the forces against us, the conventional
narratives are still very much in place in the political
class and in the corridors of power. But the people of
Canada know which side is in the light and which side is in
the horror of these massive crimes against humanity. And I
think the Montreal City Council debate is one of many that
you’re going to continue to see. It is not going to stop,
because Canadians are outraged by this
impunity.
ANJALI KAMAT: Avi Lewis,
thank you so much, leader of Canada’s New Democratic
Party. Thank you also to Lori Wallach, director of the
Rethink Trade program at the American Economic Liberties
Project.
Coming up, we go to Florida to speak with
Angie Nixon on her upset win in Florida’s Democratic
Senate primary.
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