Avi Lewis, (left) celebrates his victory at NDP leadership convention with NDP Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew. Lewis’ victory reflects a continuation of the slow transition in the NDP from its historic pro-Israel position to one challenging the Zionist narrative. It has alarmed the Israel lobby. Read more.
On Sunday March 29th, the NDP elected Avi Lewis as its new leader. The election of Lewis caps a decades long evolution of the federal NDP away from Zionism and from support for Israel. Lewis has lots of experience and an impressive CV, which even the National Post had to recognize in its article on him after his election.
Historically, NDP leaders have expressed mixed views on Zionism and Israel. The Canadian Jewish News notes that David Lewis (the grandfather of Avi Lewis) “was a secular, Russian-born Jew with roots in the socialist Bundist movement, which opposed the Zionist ideal of a Jewish homeland in Palestine.” Tommy Douglas, on the other hand, was an ardent Zionist, comparing Israel to “a light set upon a hill – the light of democracy in a night of darkness.” The NDP and the Israeli Labour parties were both members of the “Socialist International”, a world wide organization of mostly social democratic parties.
The NDP position reflected a mix of support for Israel and concern for Palestinian rights, but gradually moving in the direction of the latter.
The NDP finally broke with Israel’s Labour party and the Socialist International in 2005 over a motion at the NDP convention calling for a boycott of Israel and for sanctions similar to those imposed on apartheid South Africa.
For the last two decades, the NDP has officially supported a “liberal zionist” position – calling for support for an Israeli state alongside a Palestinian one. But it has gone back and forth on its emphasis on Palestinian rights. Thomas Mulcair, for example was more pro-Israel than his immediate predecessor Jack Layton, while Mulcair’s successor, Jagmeet Singh, was seen as more balanced in approach.
The NDP federal caucus in Ottawa has often included a mix of both pro-Palestinian members like Libby Davies, and pro-Israel members like Randall Garrison, who was a member of the Canada-Israel Parliamentary committee.
Avi Lewis election reflects a continuing evolution away from ambivalence about Israel, toward a principled critique of it.
He has used terms like “genocide” and “apartheid” to describe Israel’s treatment of Palestinians, and has advocated for an arms embargo on Israel. Lewis has also criticized the IHRA definition of antisemitism, labeling B’nai Brith as a “hard-right Zionist outfit. Lewis made Palestine a key element of his campaign, using his victory speech to oppose Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the illegal US-Israeli war on Iran.
The lobby is uncomfortable – but doesn’t know what to do about it
The pro-Palestinian evolution of the NDP and the election of Lewis appears to be of particular concern to the pro-Israel lobby, not only because of Lewis’ forthright criticisms of Israel, but also because, as a Jew, it is more difficult to accuse him of antisemitism.
Instead, CIJA has accused the NDP itself of antisemitism!! “Today, the New Democratic Party elected Avi Lewis as its leader. We are left with a deep sense of sadness“, said CIJA in its statement after his election. “NDP spaces are becoming unsafe for Jewish and all Canadians with mainstream views.”
That would strike most as a bit over the top – and also not accurate.
A more thoughtful view is that the NDP is reflecting the shifting views of “mainstream Canadians”. Over the last four decades, sympathy for the Palestinians has quadrupled, while sympathy for the Israelis has dropped in half. Currently, more than twice as many Canadians sympathise with the Palestinians than with the Israelis. So Avi Lewis and the NDP seem to be more aligned with Canadian views than CIJA – which may explain the latter’s frantic response.
As a mainstream political party, however, the NDP’s membership reflects different orientations toward the Israel/Palestine issue. Lewis will have to manage a debate inside his party, as well as outside it. But he has tapped into the rising public sympathy for the Palesinians, and it will be hard to tag him with “antisemitism”.
Canada Talks Israel Palestine is the weekly newsletter of the Ottawa Forum on Israel/Palestine (OFIP). It aims to promote a serious discussion about Canada’s response to the Israel/Palestine issue. Readers with different points of view are invited to make comment. To get on our regular mailing list or for more information write: ofip.chair@gmail.com
Canada Talks Israel/Palestine 
For itself but also in light of that initiative by that Montreal Jewish gal – not going to hunt for her name.
This is one of the sources I might have suggested to you/her for what i feel is good coverage/commentary. Very much on side for an independent Palestine and anti current Israelis policy but most certinly not anti-semitic, or blind to Hamas etc.
Time to go pack!!
Joan
The CIJA says it supports a negotiated two-state solution but what action has it taken to support this claim? It has remained silent about the genocide in Gaza, and the colonization of the West Bank by Jewish settlers which has been ongoing for decades. It refuses to speak out against the occupation in Palestine, the Golan Heights and now seems happy that Israel is occupying southern Lebanon.
Further to yours about the Avi lead popular NDP u-turns, I do believe it should be added, almost at begin of Avi’s acceptance speech he literally said “Tony, you have made sure that we never forget the importance of changing our undemocratic first-past-the-post system”.
Though Avi never clarified in the detail what he meant, if we take him at his word this too has to be a u-turn in NDP policy from Mixed Member Plurality (MMP) in that MMP does not get rid of the single-x-mark ballot which in the detail is what FPTP is all about but enshrines it even more deeply and solidly as two FPTP ballot choices; ongoing single-x-mark for the local district elections as we currently have in Canada and the lipstick on a pig party proportional fix which in MMP countries to is a single-x-mark election in the face of more than two parties on the ballot.
That is instead of one single-x-mark FPTP election, MMP countries ballots, such as Germanys and NZ are really two single-x-mark elections. How can two FPTP elections be credibly described as getting rid of FPTP?
Even if you cant read German the attached picture of a German ballot makes this abundantly clear. (please advise how to do this or update from the email attachment I will try and send)
Last and not least, with Avi being very clear about ending the genocide in Gaza, did not the word Zionism also cross his lips as one further detail representing a u-turn from his father and grand-father’s politics as then practiced within the NDP?
But agreed he made zero mention that Avi’s fore bearers dumped the Waffle movement from the NDP, which if that would not have happened, the renewed NDP that Avi is championing would in large measure have been with us during the last several elections!