Liberal MP Anthony Housefather has criticized a defamatory poster accusing him of being a “neo-Nazi.” The poster, which was attached to a lamp post in Montreal, equates Zionism with “terrorism,” and calls for Mr. Housefather to “get out of Canada.”
“My family has been here since the 19th century and we have indeed helped build this country. I am not going anywhere,” the Liberal MP said on social media on July 2 alongside a picture of the poster.
“Sorry antisemites. You may not like what I have to say, but I will keep saying it and I will keep being a proud Jew and a Zionist.”
Mr. Housefather said his team has reported this incident to the police. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Following the Oct. 7 terrorist attack by Hamas against Israel and the subsequent war against the terrorist group, there has been a rise in anti-Semitic incidents across the West. B'nai Brith Canada’s annual report found there were 5,791 incidents of anti-Semitism in 2023, which was a 109 percent increase from 2022.
In December 2023, the RCMP arrested a teenager in Ottawa who was allegedly planning a terrorist attack against the Jewish community. Reacting to the news on social media, Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe said that there had been a “rise in anti-semitism in Ottawa in recent weeks.”
Mr. Housefather has helped initiate a parliamentary committee study about anti-Semitism on Canadian campuses. The move came in response to incidents of anti-Jewish slogans being chanted on university campuses, and several pro-Palestinian encampments appearing on campuses in Canada and the United States.
Back in March, Mr. Housefather announced he was “reflecting” on his future with the Liberal Party after a heavily amended NDP motion on Palestinian statehood passed in the House of Commons. Mr. Housefather was one of three Liberal MPs who voted against the March 19 motion, which called for progress towards a two-state solution instead of the recognition of a Palestinian state.
On April 5, Mr. Housefather announced he would remain in the party as an MP, despite the adoption of the motion having “angered me as much as they angered most of the Jewish Canadians that I have communicated with.” The MP said he still believed the best place for him to be was in caucus, where he could advocate for the “centrist classical Liberal Party that I believe in.”
