The motion called on the city to<\/a> \u201crecognize and denounce the apartheid regime in Palestine and the genocide being perpetrated there.\u201d\u00a0It also called on the city to show solidarity with Palestinians and other civilian victims in the Middle East.\u00a0<\/p>\nMore concretely, it urged the city to suspend institutional ties with Israel\u2019s government, including by not inviting representatives of the state to official events held at city hall.<\/p>\n
The motion was filed two weeks ago and scheduled to be heard Monday.<\/p>\n
Projet Montr\u00e9al, however, denounced that it only learned that morning that Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada wanted to present a separate declaration before council about \u201ccivil peace, intercultural dialogue, and social cohesion.\u201d<\/p>\n
Martinez Ferrada, for her part, accused the opposition of not consulting the administration on the pro-Palestinian motion.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would have been more unifying to work on a motion of this importance with the entire city council and civil society to arrive at a position that was far more unified and inclusive than the one presented to us today,\u201d the mayor said. <\/p>\n
After a brief debate, the administration instead pushed the issue to the next council meeting in August. The city council does not sit in July.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Since being elected in November, Martinez Ferrada has faced repeated questions from the public about the Israel-Hamas war at nearly every city council meeting or Ville-Marie borough council meeting, where she serves as borough mayor.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The mayor has expressed sympathy for those affected by the conflict, but has maintained she is focused on municipal issues and does not feel Montreal should become involved in international conflicts.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The opposition argued Monday that people have been pressing the city to take a stance on the conflict since the outset of the war, noting the city has often spoken out against other conflicts abroad.<\/p>\n
Ahead of the council meeting, pro-Palestinian protesters gathered outside city hall to push the administration to act.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe federal government doesn\u2019t seem to listen to us,\u201d one person said. \u201cWe have governments of proximity here with the municipal government, and the city should listen to its citizens, at least.\u201d<\/p>\n
Martinez Ferrada also faced questions about the issue during question period, and was accused of putting forward her own declaration to avoid debating the pro-Palestinian motion.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She said she hopes the opposition and administration will be able to work on the matter before the next council meeting. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis conflict can\u2019t continue dividing populations, and dividing people here in Montreal,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
When the city council refused to take further questions on the issue\u200a \u2014\u200a because only three questions can be asked about the same topic \u200a\u2014\u200a chants of \u201cFree Palestine!\u201d erupted in the building\u2019s main hall.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Confrontations and shouting matches then ensued between pro-Palestinian supporters and others, forcing security to intervene.<\/p>\n
The Gazette\u2019s Abby McLaughlin contributed to this report.\u00a0<\/p>\n
jfeith@postmedia.com<\/a><\/p>\n\t\tEditor\u2019s Picks\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A motion seeking to have Montreal cut institutional ties with Israel, which was supposed to be presented at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":739541,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194292],"tags":[49,48,2619,2338],"class_list":["post-739540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-israel-hamas-war","tag-montreal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=739540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/739541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=739540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=739540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=739540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}