NDP remains pro-Zionist in too many ways

“Pro-Palestinian activist Yves Engler barred from running for NDP leadership”, noted the Canadian Press. The headline should have added “once again”.

At the NDP’s recent leadership debate in Montreal there wasn’t a single question about the Canadian-backed slaughter in Gaza. And none of candidate on the debate stage raised the subject. Heather McPherson talked about making “protest cookies”, mentioning multiple types of events she brings them to. She didn’t mention anti-genocide or pro-Palestinian protests.

If I had been allowed to participate in the debate Gaza would have been mentioned. In fact, I’d have tried to detail our campaign’s (widely promoted) 10-point plan to end Canada’s complicity in Israeli crimes, including revoking charitable status of groups funding ethnic cleansing, abolishing the anti-Palestinian terrorism list and prosecuting Canadians who fought in Gaza under the War Crimes Act.

But the NDP didn’t allow me in the debate and have now formally blocked me from participating in the leadership race. The NDP’s three-person vetting committee has listened to pro-genocide groups by rejecting my candidacy. A slew of anti-Palestinian forces demanded the party block members from being allowed to select me in the leadership race. Three weeks after I launched my campaign B’nai Brith put out a statement claiming I denied the Rwandan genocide. Then in mid-September Zionists forces got my launch events in Toronto and Waterloo cancelled. They tried unsuccessfully to shut down more recent events in Sarnia, Burnaby and elsewhere.

Unfortunately, the NDP has listened to anti-Palestinian voices and once again excluded a candidate opposing Canada’s support for a lawless apartheid state. Over the past 15 years the NDP has blocked/undercut/removed dozens, probably over a hundred, candidates because they stood up for Palestinian rights.

Sarah Jama is the best-known example. Paul Manly, who went on to win the Nanaimo seat for the Green Party, is another well-known example. Morgan Wheeldon and Rana Zaman’s cases also received some attention. Most examples did not. During this year’s federal election retired professor Peter Eglin, whose wife is a city councillor who recently ran for the NDP provincially, was blocked from running in favour of an individual from outside of the city. Party officials said it was because they didn’t have the resources to go through his voluminous writings over the years but Eglin believes it was at least partly due to his longstanding support for Palestinians.

After I interrupted Jagmeet Singh demanding he apologize for the expulsion of Zaman in Halifax during the 2019 NDP election race, I wrote “Zaman is not the only candidate the NDP blocked from running at least partly because they support Palestinian rights. A number of individuals who signed the open letter calling on the NDP to withdraw from CIIG [Canada-Israel Interparliamentary Group] had their bids sabotaged. Robbie Mahood and Barry Weisleder were formally disallowed while Saron Gebresellassi and Sid Ryan’s bids to run in the upcoming election were subverted. Christeen Elizabeth who didn’t sign the open letter but supports the Palestinian led boycott movement was also blocked. The recent decisions to block pro-Palestinian candidates follow on the heels of the NDP stopping as many as eight individuals from running or contesting nominations to be candidates in 2015 for defending Palestinian rights.”

Someone should do a doctoral thesis on all the individuals the NDP has blocked from running largely because of their opposition to Israeli crimes.

Conversely, it’s unclear if the party has ever rejected a candidate for promoting Zionism. In fact, until recently NDP MPs were openly members of the Canada-Israel Interparliamentary Group. Led by Anthony Housefather, CIIG lobbies for apartheid and genocide.

The NDP failed to respond to two widely endorsed public letters calling on the party to withdraw from CIIG. In 2018 Jagmeet Singh explicitly rejected “A call for the NDP to withdraw from the Canada-Israel Interparliamentary Group”. That public letter was endorsed by 200 well-known musicians, academics, trade unionists and NDP members, including Roger Waters, Noam Chomsky, Richard Falk, Maher Arar, Amir Khadir, Jim Manly and Linda McQuaig as well as 15 organizations. In response to a follow up September 2022 call to withdraw from CIIG signed by 40 groups and 200 prominent musicians, authors and NDP members the party remained silent.

As public revulsion at Israel’s horrors in Gaza has grown, NDP support for Zionism has diminished. But the party continues to display significant deference to pro-genocide forces.

Shame on the NDP. Free Palestine!

Please email the Federal Council to demand they “reject Zionist lobby” and allow me to run.