Hampstead Mayor Jeremy Levi, when confronted by Yves Engler.

Written by: Yves Engler

Is it too much to compare those taking to the street in support of Israel’s genocide to pro-German American protesters in the lead up to World War II?

In response to criticism of Jeremy Levi, a participant in this author's Canadian Foreign Policy Hour recently compared the social forces the Hampstead mayor represents to the pro-Nazi German American Bund. The initial reaction was that it seemed extreme, but the suburban Montreal mayor’s recent raving about his “bloodline” justifying Israel’s slaughter make it worth exploring.

Levi is an open racist who wants to kill more Palestinians. Adding to this evidence, this week Levi celebrated a Rebel News video showing Montreal police violently attacking Palestine solidarity protesters, stating “very happy to finally see the Montreal police dealing with these knucklehead pro-Hamas supporters in the only language they understand.” The mayor of the most Jewish municipality in Canada also intimated that white people want to emigrate from Canada because of non-white immigrants and called the death of the Iranian president and foreign minister “great news”. He added, “24 hours before the unjust execution of a Jewish individual in Iran, a righteous intervention occurs: God, in His infinite justice, strikes down the leader of Iran. This serves as a resounding testament to the sanctity of Jewish life and a powerful reminder that those who seek to harm the Jewish people will face divine retribution.”

Levi also called the “Nakba narrative a complete fabrication” and claimed Palestine doesn’t exist. “There has never been a country called Palestine”, he noted a week ago. “Israel has belonged to the Jewish nation for over 3,761 years and always will.” In another post last week Levi claimed his “bloodline” justified Israel killing and starving tens of thousands of children in Gaza. He wrote, “it’s fascinating to hear claims that today’s Jews are not the same as those from ancient times and supposedly have a different bloodline. Let me debunk that: I am a Kohen, a member of a tribe within the Jewish nation, directly descended from Aaron, the brother of Moses. We are the same Jews today as we were thousands of years ago.”

That is almost certainly untrue, as prominent Israeli historian Shlomo Sand details in The Invention of the Jewish People. Does Levi believe individuals expelled by the Romans 3,000 years ago ended up in eastern Europe and only had sexual relations with others also displaced from that far away area thousands of years earlier?

Even if this fantastical tale were true, Levi’s family members have been in Canada for 150 years and he’s the mayor of a Montreal suburb. Additionally, how does this justify conquering those in Palestine, let alone slaughtering and starving hundreds of thousands in Gaza today?

Unfortunately, Levi’s racist and genocidal politics are shared by many in Montreal’s Jewish community. Despite criticism of his recent anti-immigrant posts in La Presse, Le Devoir and the Montreal Gazette and the wide circulation of his December statement that he was okay with Israel killing 100,000 or more Palestinian children since “good needs to prevail over evil”, Levi was invited to speak at last week’s official Israel Independence Day rally that saw 3,000 support Israel’s holocaust in Gaza.

In a sign of the fanaticism of many among the Jewish establishment, the organizers snubbed ultra-Zionist Liberal MP Anthony Housefather. Even though he’s the most prominent Jewish Zionist politician in the city, Housefather was not invited to speak at the rally because some feel the Liberals haven’t been sufficiently aggressive in enabling Israel’s genocide. Alongside Levi, Israel’s Montreal consul general Paul Hirschson, Conservative Party deputy leader Melissa Lantsman and (by video) Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre spoke. Levi’s imperialist, Jewish supremacist, anti-Palestinian ideology has significant political legitimacy in right-wing circles.

In a similar vein the German American Bund’s anti-communist and antisemitic outlook had a political base in the 1930s. On February 20, 1939, the Bund drew 20,000 to a “Pro-American Rally” at Madison Square Garden in New York. Assisted by German officials, the German-American movement was bolstered by a coterie of racist, nativist forces.

The same dynamic is at play with Levi and the Jewish Zionist movement. They increasingly align with/assist the Canadian flag obsessed anti-Muslim far-right forces. Alongside a number of anti-immigrant posts, Levi recently posted a Rebel News clip with the outlet’s “Deport Hamas” dog whistle.

Maybe it was inevitable. As Israel faces military failure while committing genocide, the fascistic Zionist movement is bound to lash out and show its true face, despite the best efforts of 'Liberal Zionists' to obfuscate. Levi is a prominent example of how this can look.

Editor’s note: The Canada Files is the country's only news outlet focused on Canadian foreign policy. We've provided critical investigations & hard-hitting analysis on Canadian foreign policy since 2019, and need your support.

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Yves Engler is the author of 13 books. His latest book, available now, is "Canada's Long Fight Against Democracy”.

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