Projet Montréal, the official opposition at City Hall, has issued a statement affirming its “solidarity with the Palestinian people,” and demanding the City of Montreal administration “suspend its institutional ties with the government of Israel.”

This comes just days after Prime Minister Mark Carney addressed Canadians about the rise in antisemitism and what his administration plans to do about it.

On that same day, at the CDN-NDG borough council meeting, a woman in keffiyeh approached the mic with a similarly-worded request.

The Projet Montréal statement, put forth by Ahuntsic city councillor Nathalie Goulet and seconded by official opposition leader Ericka Alneus, will be tabled in the next city council meeting. (June 15)

The Suburban has reached out to the City of Montreal for comment. Mayor Soraya Matinez Ferrada’s team has indicated that she will wait until the motion is tabled at the June 15 City Council meeting.

But Eta Yudin, Senior Vice President of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) has responded, calling on Projet Montréal to reconsider before it moves forward with tabling this motion.

“While millions of Montrealers worry about drinking water shortages this summer, and face very real local issues like the explosion of homelessness, Projet Montréal’s priority would therefore be to import a foreign conflict into our streets,” Yudin says. “The party would demonstrate once again that it is more concerned with appeasing a fringe of radical activists than with looking after the people of Montreal.”

Yudin points out that Projet Montréal did recently speak out against antisemitism in Montreal, stating the party has a zero-tolerance policy on the issue. If it moves forward with the present motion, Yudin cautioned, “the party would further discredit itself in the eyes of Montrealers. It would allow extremist groups — who relentlessly seek to import a foreign conflict and who have spent weeks masking their faces to intimidate our elected officials across various City bodies — to dictate the local political agenda. Filling potholes: no. Erasing Jews from Montreal’s public life: yes. Is this really what Projet Montréal wants?”

The city’s primary responsibility, Yudin added, is to “ensure the well-being and safety of all Montrealers.”