Quebec Mayor in Trouble Over Israel Remarks
A Jewish group is demanding the resignation of a Quebec mayor who said Israel shouldn’t exist.
Stephane Gendron said Israel is an apartheid state and expressed hope for its demise, in remarks made Dec. 27 on a daily television show he hosts, . He said “products being made in Israel, on land stolen from Palestinians, who are kept walled in by an apartheid regime where they are cut off…it’s very serious.”
“And a country like that does not deserve to exist,” said Gendron, the mayor of Huntingdon, Quebec, a small town southwest of Montreal.
Members of the Jewish Defense League picketed in front of Huntingdon’s city hall Jan. 26, demanding Gendron step down as mayor or be fired. JDL Canada spokesman Meir Weinstein said about 20 people protested and the group intends to keep up the pressure for Gendron to step down.
The mayor’s remarks were “dangerous, inflammatory and un-Canadian,” Weinstein told Canadian Press.
The day after he made his inflammatory remarks, Gendron said he was sorry if he offended anyone. Reading from a statement, he said Jews have a right to form a state. However, he said he also has the right to denounce Israeli government policies concerning Palestinians, which doesn’t make him an anti-Semite.
He said he doesn’t want to talk about the issue anymore.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
