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Russians’ Negative Views About Israel Are Unprecedented in Modern Times
Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with then-Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi during a meeting in Moscow, Russia, Dec. 7, 2023. Photo: Sputnik/Sergei Bobylev/Pool via REUTERS
A year has passed since the beginning of the war that Israel, with the support of its allies, primarily the United States, has been waging against the “Axis of Evil” — an anti-Western alliance consisting of Iran, its satellites (Syria, Iraq), and terrorist proxies that have effectively taken control of their respective regions, such as Hezbollah and Hamas.
As the conflict escalates, the issue of international support for Israel’s actions has become increasingly pressing.
Of particular concern to Jerusalem, naturally, is the stance of Western countries, especially Israel’s allies, most notably the United States and several key European nations.
As the fighting intensifies, the diplomatic rhetoric of these governments has increasingly emphasized the “humanitarian dimension” of the conflict, largely driven by the growing trends in local public opinion, which are not always favorable to the Jewish State. However, a closer look reveals that the sympathies of some segments of the public in democratic countries towards the Palestinian Arabs do not, in most cases, translate into support for the radical Islamist terrorist groups in the Middle East. The primary diplomatic message from Washington and the majority of its NATO partners remains steadfast support for Israel’s right to self-defense.
Another perspective is that of the so-called “Global South,” a diverse and loosely organized conglomerate of developing and moderately developed countries from the Third World and, to some extent, the former Second World. The majority of these nations tend to hold either moderately pro-Palestinian views regarding the current Middle Eastern conflict or, more commonly, remain neutral. However, this does not prevent both groups from almost automatically voting in favor of anti-Israel resolutions at the UN, in line with the traditions of the still residual “Non-Aligned Movement.” The approach of regimes vying for leadership of the “Global South” looks fundamentally different. Competing for this status, they attempt, to varying degrees, to challenge the global economic and political dominance of the so-called “Global West,” typically associated with the US-led bloc of “old” and “old-new” democracies of both the New and Old Worlds.
The discussion is generally about Russia, China, and, to a lesser extent, India. While Delhi, whose relations with Jerusalem have reached a state of strategic partnership in recent years, maintains a largely neutral position in the conflict between Israel and Iran, as well as its Arab proxies, Moscow and Beijing have taken sides — and it’s clearly not Israel’s side.
China’s support for Iran remains largely moral, and Tehran has little chance of dragging Beijing into a direct confrontation with Israel. However, Russia’s support for its current closest partner in the region — Iran — is significantly more tangible, despite some differences between them. This includes direct solidarity from Moscow with Tehran’s Arab satellites, including Hamas and Hezbollah.
All of this significantly distinguishes the current situation from Moscow’s previous strategy of balancing and mediating between nearly all parties involved in the Middle East conflict, which was intended to position itself as an “impartial mediator.”
Factors of Views of Israel in the Russians Public Discourse
Over the course of 12 months of Israel’s war with Iranian proxies, the Russian leadership’s propaganda and diplomatic efforts in support of these regimes and groups, often loosely and not always convincingly framed as “solidarity with the Palestinians,” have become quite significant. On the flip side of this trend, there has been a series of anti-Israel moves, featuring elements bordering on antisemitism.
Unsurprisingly, the reaction of Russian society, which is highly susceptible to official propaganda — particularly pro-Kremlin television (which, according to polls, remains the main source of information for Russians) — and “patriotic” Telegram channels, has also shifted.
Public sentiment among Russians, who were generally quite favorable toward Israel in the past, changed almost instantly. This is notable given that, according to public opinion monitoring conducted by the reputable Levada Center since 1988, Israel has historically been viewed positively in Russia. The country’s economically established, younger, and better-educated citizens, as well as residents of Moscow, have been the most likely to show interest in and sympathy toward Israel.
Twenty years ago, in 2004, over two-thirds of respondents in a Levada Center poll reported very positive or somewhat positive attitudes toward Israel, while fewer than one-fifth of those surveyed held the opposite view. One possible factor contributing to such favorable sentiments was the emerging public partnership between Jerusalem and Moscow in the fight against terrorist groups. This included Russia’s willingness — expressed by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during a visit to Israel — to learn from Israel’s experience following the Beslan school tragedy in North Ossetia, where an attack by armed Islamists killed over 350 people, half of them children.
However, by 2006, the proportion of those with positive views of Israel had dropped by about half, while the share of those holding negative opinions increased from less than 20% to over 30%.
A March 2006 poll appears to have captured a surge in public frustration, likely driven by the sharp and widely discussed response from official Jerusalem to Moscow’s refusal to classify Hezbollah and Hamas as terrorist organizations. This frustration was compounded by the high-level reception of a Hamas delegation in the same month (and again a year later), led by Khaled Mashal, the head of the group’s political bureau and one of Israel’s most bitter enemies. Additionally, the Hamas delegation’s meeting with Patriarch Alexy II, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, was seen by many as not just political but also religious legitimization of the radical Islamist group.
These negative sentiments among the Russian public regarding Israel were, at the very least, not softened during the 34-day Second Lebanon War in July–August 2006, when the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched an operation against Hezbollah, the pro-Iranian Shia terrorist group controlling southern and eastern Lebanon.
The rise in Russian-Israeli relations began in the second half of the 2000s, as Russia reestablished itself as a significant player in the Middle East. Moscow recognized that, unlike the Soviet Union, modern Russia could not rely solely on its ties to the Arab world and sought greater understanding with Israel as well. This approach was positively received by Israel’s leadership at the time. The shift toward a close partnership with Russia was considered one of the foreign policy priorities of Benjamin Netanyahu’s second government (2009–2013). Netanyahu viewed his personal relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin as a valuable political asset.
Most of the second decade of the 21st century indeed saw a significant revitalization of Russian-Israeli relations, including rapid growth in mutual trade, as well as increased cooperation in economic, technological, scientific, cultural, and humanitarian sectors — although the scale of this cooperation lagged behind the real potential of both countries. Political dialogue at the highest levels was also very active. While these political and diplomatic contacts were “more symbolic than practical,” as noted by prominent Russian political analyst Fyodor Lukyanov, this symbolism reflected an unusual situation where “Russia’s relations with Israel were better than with almost the entire Arab world. Apart from the Iran issue, there were few significant points of differences between Moscow and Tel Aviv [sic]. Meanwhile, Russia’s cooling relations with most Arab regimes were tied to its support for Syria.”
This positive portrayal of Russian-Israeli relations in both federal and regional Russian media was paralleled by a gradual improvement in Russian public opinion toward Israel. By 2010, according to Levada Center data, favorable attitudes toward Israel had peaked at 70%. However, over the next decade, this support steadily declined. A notable exception was a sharp drop in 2014, likely in response to the Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) anti-terror operation in Gaza, Protective Edge. Nonetheless, this dip was short-lived, and thanks to the relatively balanced position taken by Russian authorities during the conflict, public sympathies for Israel rebounded to around 60%. This level of support remained fairly stable over the following four years.
The 2015–2017 agreements on the “deconfliction” of Russian and Israeli interests in Syria, as well as numerous meetings — around two dozen – between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Benjamin Netanyahu, likely played a key role in the development of their relations. Netanyahu, who valued his warm personal relationship with Putin as a crucial factor in bilateral cooperation and a significant resource for both his foreign and domestic policies, met with Putin roughly twice as often as he met with US presidents during the same period. However, even at that time, it was clear that this was more of a tactical partnership, based on overlapping interests and mutually agreed-upon “rules of the game.” As a result, there were lingering concerns that if the political landscape changed, so would the interests.
The first signal that these fears were well-founded came with the incident in the skies over Syria on September 23, 2018. During this incident, one of the dozens of missiles fired by Syrian air defense batteries equipped with Russian S-200 systems shot down a Russian IL-20 electronic intelligence aircraft. The Russian side quickly blamed the Israeli Air Force, which had been conducting an operation to destroy Iranian equipment intended for the production of precision missiles in Syria. According to Israeli and foreign media, by the time the Syrian forces began their “indiscriminate firing,” the Israeli F-16s had already completed their mission and were back in Israeli airspace.
Despite this, the Russian Ministry of Defense — and to a lesser extent, the Kremlin—blamed Israel without substantiation. However, both Jerusalem and Moscow soon moved to de-escalate the diplomatic conflict, clearly showing a desire to maintain their coordination mechanism in Syria. It was harder to ignore the “patriotic” campaigns in many Russian media outlets, including federal TV channels, where numerous public figures competed in making harsh anti-Israel statements, some of which bordered on or crossed into antisemitism. Although this media campaign was quickly wound down—likely due to guidance from relevant authorities—it became evident that the reintroduction of Soviet-era anti-Israel and antisemitic clichés into Russia’s legitimate public discourse was a real possibility, should such narratives be required by the government.
The impact of this political atmosphere on the Russian public was quickly evident. The once-positive attitude of Russians toward Israel began to sharply decline, while negative sentiment toward the Jewish State increased in parallel. For example, compared to 2018, when 60% of surveyed Russians still had a “very positive” or “mostly positive” view of Israel, and less than one-fifth held an opposing view, by 2020 Israel’s positive rating had dropped by 10%, while negative perceptions rose by 50%.
This trend accelerated dramatically after the start of the war in Ukraine in February 2022, and even more so with the onset of Israel’s war with the Iranian bloc in October 2023. Although Israel, unlike NATO member states that provided Ukraine with security guarantees, did not directly align itself with the Western coalition opposing Russia, official Jerusalem condemned the Russian invasion, offered significant humanitarian and material aid to Ukraine, provided diplomatic and political support, and supplied the Ukrainian Armed Forces with some types of defensive and non-lethal equipment. Despite attempts to maintain a sense of “business as usual,” this approach caused notable irritation within the Russian leadership. Consequently, public support for Israel among Russians dropped to 35%, a historic low, nearly matching the share of those holding a negative view of Israel for the first time in Levada Center’s years of polling.
By September 2024, 51% of Russians expressed a negative attitude toward Israel, marking a 34 percentage point increase from 2018. Meanwhile, positive sentiment toward Israel fell by 32 percentage points, reaching just 27%.
Since the collapse of the USSR, Russian-Israeli relations have experienced both highs and lows, but the current situation, where the number of Russians with a negative view of Israel nearly doubles the number of its supporters, is unprecedented in the post-Soviet era.
It seems reasonable to assume that the opinions and sentiments of Russians, at least regarding the subject of this text, are largely — if not entirely — a reflection of the foreign policy vision of the Russian political establishment, shaped by the tools it controls to influence public consciousness. In other words, we are witnessing a phenomenon that, until recently, appeared to be a relic of the distant past.
Prof. Vladimir (Ze’ev) Khanin lectures in Political Studies at Bar-Ilan University and is Academic Chairman of the Institute for Euro-Asian Jewish Studies in Herzliya, Israel. A version of this article was originally published by The BESA Center.
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Obituary: Stanley Diamond, 91, was a Montreal businessman-turned-genealogist whose research changed lives
Stanley Mark Diamond founded Jewish Records Indexing – Poland, the world’s largest special interest genealogy group. JRI – Poland was a “second act” in his life, combining his passion for Jewish continuity with his expertise as a Montreal business leader with a Harvard MBA.
Diamond died in Montreal on Dec.18. He was 91.
JRI – Poland grew over 30 years to approximately 170 volunteers on six continents around the world and amassed a database that now has 6.4 million records reflecting the lives of Polish Jews since the 1500s.
“Stanley had a two-fold superpower,” acting JRI – Poland executive director Robinn Magid says. “He was able to care about people and draw things out of them, but also to contribute and help. They go hand in handz but are not often found in the same person.”
In 1991, Diamond’s nephew was diagnosed as a carrier of beta thalassemia, and he created a family tree to alert relatives about their probability of having the gene. At the time, he was doing consulting work after selling his decorative ceiling business, Intalite, in 1986.
He began attending genealogy conferences and realized that the largest group of Jewish genealogists were Jews who traced their roots to the current or former country of Poland. In 1995, he partnered with two technology experts who had the skills to develop a website that could also incorporate archival information. Several months later, Diamond travelled to Poland with a colleague and persuaded the Polish State Archives to allow JRI – Poland to index his family’s ancestral town’s records. Just four months later, he returned to Poland with a printout of 40,000 entries, to the astonishment of the archives’ director, who then understood the value of the project.
Diamond hoped JRI – Poland would help people capture the essence of their ancestors. In addition to preserving their names, he wanted families to learn about their lives and about their values.
“JRI – Poland specializes in solving puzzles,” says Magid.
While some of these puzzles solve simple questions about basic family history, others are much more complex. The group has helped save lives by sharing information on hereditary health conditions. They have been able to repair damage caused by the Holocaust, connecting and reconnecting fragmented families who lost each other or did not know they even existed. They have assisted people who wanted to prove that they were Jewish and were entitled to an Orthodox Jewish wedding.
The group also assists Jews at risk. “Three years ago, when Putin invaded Ukraine, we saw an upswing in people writing us from Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, Poland and other places saying they needed to prove their Polish-Jewish heritage,” says Magid. “In the past we’ve had people from Venezuela and from various South American countries like Argentina. They are in countries that have gone through turmoil and feel at risk. They are either trying to prove their halachic Jewish heritage and move to Israel, or they are trying to prove their Polish-Jewish heritage to get a Polish passport and move to the European Union. These are the people who Stanley personally helped.”
Diamond also provided his research expertise for the television series Finding your Roots and Who Do You Think You Are?, and in 2016 located documentation for the Guinness organization that verified that Israeli Holocaust survivor Yisrael Kristal was the world’s oldest living man at age 112.
Diamond was born in Montreal to Harry and Annie Diamond. He attended West Hill High School and McGill, and graduated from Harvard Business School in 1958. He was an exceptional baseball player, playing in a semi-pro league. He met his wife, Ruth Peerlkamp, at a party, and they were married for 59 years.
“Stanley Diamond’s first passion was for his family, but that soon spread to your families,” daughter Jessika said in her eulogy. “He loved doing for others, advising other genealogists, teaching, speaking out on the importance of genetic testing, reuniting families separated in the Holocaust, finding lost heirs and potential bone marrow matches.”
In 2021, Yad Vashem granted JRI – Poland third-party access to their Pages of Testimony. Diamond advocated for the organization to support amateur genealogists who could provide hard data, and they agreed for the first time.
“He was passionate about his work and personally devoted to helping anyone who asked for assistance,” his daughter Rachel said. “He was president of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Montreal, and he was honored by the governor general of Canada with the Meritorious Service Medal. He considered it to be the crowning achievement of his second career. He had a huge footprint that will be felt for a very long time.”
“It’s hard to imagine doing our jobs without Stanley Diamond advocating and referring and providing knowledge in the background of what we do for people,” said Janice Rosen, director of the Alex Dworkin Canadian Jewish Archives. “He was the go-to person in so many ways. The European side, the Canadian side. He was so determined to ferret out information to help people. He was involved in so many aspects of genealogy which grew out of his need to know about his own genetic background, and he made the whole world benefit from it.”
“We say people were lifetime learners. But more importantly, he was a lifetime contributor. And I don’t think we say that about many people,” said Magid. “He wanted to make a difference because he could envision something and get the right people to do it. And that is unique. He understood that we are part of a chain of continuity of the Jewish people.”
Diamond is survived by his wife, Ruth, daughters Paula, Rachel and Jessika, and his grandchildren.
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Dutch Court Blasted for ‘Woefully Insufficient’ Sentencing of Men Who Attacked Israeli Soccer Fans in Amsterdam
Israeli soccer fans under assault, near Amsterdam Central station, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Nov. 8, 2024, in this still image obtained from a social media video. X/iAnnet/via REUTERS
A district court in Amsterdam sentenced five men on Tuesday for participating in violent attacks against Israeli soccer fans in the Dutch city last month, imposing punishments that were roundly criticized as inadequate by many pro-Israel supporters.
The five suspects were sentenced to community service and up to six months in jail for violent public assault, which included kicking fans of the Israeli soccer team Maccabi Tel Aviv before and after the team’s match against their Dutch rivals Ajax and inciting the premeditated and coordinated violence that took place on Nov. 7.
A man identified as Sefa O was given the longest sentence — six months in prison for public violence against several people, minus the time he has already been held in custody. Prosecutors argued that he had a “leading role” in the violence that ensued. In court earlier this month, images were shown of a man identified as Sefa O kicking a person on the ground, chasing fans of Maccabi Tel Aviv in the streets of Amsterdam, and punching people in the head and the body.
A man identified as Umutcan A was sentenced to one month in jail, and Rachid O, who shared messages in the Whatsapp group chat that incited the violence, was sentenced to 10 weeks in jail. Karavan S was given one month for the same offense. Nineteen-year-old Lucas D — the only one of the five men to appear in court for the sentencing on Tuesday — was tried under juvenile law and ordered to complete 100 hours of community service, minus his pre-trial detention. The young man helped incite violence by participating in chat conversations that called for people to gather and attack Maccabi Tel Aviv fans, according to the court, which added that he also sent discriminatory messages in the chat group.
The five men were given sentences that were much less than what prosecutors demanded. The court defended its ruling by saying that community service is typically ordered for such crimes and for first time criminal offenders, which some of the suspects are, but “given the seriousness of the facts and the context in which they took place, the court is of the opinion that a prison sentence is the only appropriate punishment.” However, many have argued that the sentencing is not severe enough.
“Seriously Amsterdam? 6 months maximum prison, while excusing their pogromist actions? Shame on you,” Arsen Ostrovsky, a leading human rights attorney and CEO of The International Legal Forum, said in a post on X. “No wonder Jew-hatred and Islamic extremism is out of control in the Netherlands!”
Tal-Or Cohen, the founder and CEO of CyberWell, a technology company that monitors antisemitism and Holocaust denial on social media, called the sentencing on Tuesday “a shameful slap on the wrist and CYA [cover your ass] by Dutch authorities.”
“One of the leaders of the Amsterdam pogrom ‘possessed illegal fireworks with the power of a hand grenade,’ – But according to Dutch prosecutors no need to pursue charges for terrorism,” she noted, citing a Dutch report about the violence. “What if the leaders of the ‘Jew-Hunt’ brought their grenade to a Christmas market in Amsterdam?”
The Center for Information and Documentation on Israel (CIDI) described the severity of the sentencing as “disappointing” on its website. In a post on X, it further called the punishment “regrettable” since it was much less than what prosecutors had hoped for. “Nevertheless,” the group said, “it is good that prison sentences were imposed and that community service alone was not enough.”
“This shows that the legal order is also shocked. There was no justification for the actions of that night,” the CIDI added. “With this verdict, we as a society draw a clear line that this is not acceptable and that we do not accept this violence. We hope that other suspects will soon be arrested and that prosecutions can be initiated with the same speed.”
Others on X called the sentencing “woefully insufficient,” a “joke,” and a “disgrace.”
“This was an opportunity to show that antisemitism comes with a price. A 6 month jail sentence does not serve as a deterrent,” said one social media user.
After a soccer match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Ajax on the night of Nov. 7, Israeli soccer fans were attacked in the streets by assailants who physically assaulted them, ran them over by cars, chased them with knives and sticks, and forced them to say “Free Palestine” to avoid further harm. Chief prosecutor René de Beukelaer said “several dozen” people were attacked. The violence continued into the early hours of Nov. 8 and five Maccabi Tel Aviv fans were hospitalized for injuries sustained during the attack that has been described as a “pogrom.” Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema called the attackers “antisemitic hit-and-run squads” who went “Jew hunting.”
Seven people appeared in court earlier this month in connection to the violence, but two of the cases have been delayed. The defense in one case requested a later date, to have more time to prepare evidence, and the second case, involving a Palestinian refugee accused of “attempted manslaughter,” is pushed back as the court awaits the results of a psychiatric evaluation, according to AFP. A total of 62 people were arrested on the day of the soccer match in relation to the violence, but most were released shortly afterward, the news outlet noted. Dutch police have already identified at least 45 suspects and are trying to identify more.
The prosecutor previously said that the violence last month “had little to do” with soccer. “In this case, there was no evidence of … a terrorist intent and the violence was not motivated by antisemitic sentiment,” he claimed. “The violence was influenced by the situation in Gaza, not by antisemitism.”
More than 47 people who were attacked during the violence in Amsterdam have obtained legal counsel from The Lawfare Project, which is helping the victims review legal options after also assisting them in securing local counsel in Amsterdam.
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Outremont MP Rachel Bendayan makes history as first Sephardi woman to join federal cabinet
Outremont MP Rachel Bendayan is Canada’s new minister of official languages and associate minister of public safety, following a Dec. 20 cabinet shuffle by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
The 44-year-old lawyer was first elected in a 2019 byelection to fill the seat vacated by Thomas Mulcair, who represented Outremont for more than a decade, including as the leader of the federal NDP. Bendayan was twice re-elected in the riding, which has seen the NDP’s popularity rise over the last year. The seat is now considered a toss-up between the NDP and Liberals, according to 338 Canada poll projections.
Canada’s first Sephardi woman appointed to cabinet is also the former parliamentary secretary to former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland, who stunned the nation by resigning last week.
She is a strong advocate for federal gun control measures and has a background in international trade law. She is one of two new cabinet members from Quebec, alongside Minister of National Revenue Élisabeth Brière, who represents Sherbrooke.
After her swearing-in ceremony on Friday, Bendayan spoke about the third shooting of a Toronto Jewish school just hours earlier and Wednesday’s firebombing of Beth Tikvah synagogue in Montreal. She also noted Jewish schools in her own riding were shot at “not once, twice, but three times” since October 2023.
She used the opportunity to reveal a new federal summit on antisemitism, which The CJN reported on Dec. 20.
“I think everybody is aware that hate-motivated crime in particular is on the rise since 2019, police reporting that hate crimes have more than doubled, that there is a significant increase in hate crimes committed against the Muslim community, and, strikingly, antisemitic hate crimes have almost tripled in that same time period.
“As a result, and in order to ensure that we stem this violence, I’ll be convening along with the minister of justice, our counterparts provincially and territorially, also municipally as well as police authorities,” she said, announcing a national forum on combatting antisemitism. “We are going to be working all together in order to address this heinous and intolerable rise in hate crimes in Canada.”
Reactions range from silence to skepticism
When asked by The CJN, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs and the Communauté Sépharade Unifiée de Québec had no comment about Bendayan’s appointment.
The president of the Canadian Sephardi Federation, Avraham Elarar, told The CJN that Bendayan’s appointment is “not a bad thing for the community, but I wish she had done more for the community at large, regardless of whether she is Sephardi, but as a member of the Liberal Party…. I like her, but where was she? Unfortunately, I didn’t see her much during the tumultuous 14 months that we have just gone through.”
(Bendayan was absent from Parliament for about six months following a debilitating concussion in January 2024.)
Nevertheless, Elarar told The CJN, the move can seem “a desperate attempt by Justin Trudeau to cater to the Jewish community. Canada has had similar experiences as democracies like France and Britain, where every time a leader proclaims itself against Israel in any way, it becomes open season on Jews in their countries. Unfortunately, Trudeau fell into the same trap…. Antisemitic acts in Canada are some of the most virulent we’ve seen in Western countries,” he says.
“It takes courage, of course, and just because Bendayan is a Jewish MP does not mean it was her burden alone to fight antisemitism, but the ethical obligations as a human, as a Canadian regardless of affiliation, should have enticed her.”
In the hot seat in Quebec
For her part, Bendayan fended off questions about Trudeau’s future and election talk, stressing the importance of looking at political crises in Germany, France and instability across the world, including in the United States, where Donald Trump will be sworn in as president in January. She noted, “It is important for us to be a stable country here in Canada. It is important for us to defend Canadian interests. I don’t intend to waste any time on partisan politics.”
Indeed, Bendayan got her first taste of the delicate ministerial portfolio she now commands, when asked the question posed by Quebec journalists to every politician working on any language file, if “French in Quebec is in decline, yes or no?”
“Quebec has a very important role,” she replied. “It is the province that must first and foremost be francophone in order to ensure that the linguistic duality that we have here in Canada is protected and maintained.”
Pressed again for a “yes or no” answer, Bendayan replied, “I think my role as minister of official languages is to make sure that we maintain bilingualism, to make sure that the English-speaking minority in Quebec is protected and that the French-speaking minority outside Quebec is protected, so that bilingualism is protected everywhere across the country and that we maintain the linguistic duality that we have and that we are so proud of.”
She was immediately pilloried by nationalists and language hawks before she backtracked, telling reporters shortly after that it’s “true that French is in decline in Quebec.” Quebec’s French Language Minister Jean-François Roberge called Bendayan’s initial response irresponsible. “The decline of French in Quebec and Canada is a fact proven by Statistics Canada figures,” he posted on social media. “The new Minister of Official Languages must absolutely recognize this, because it is her responsibility to reverse this decline.”
According to StatsCan, Quebec’s overall population grew 4.1 percent between 2016 and 2021 (to 8,501,833) while the number of those whose mother tongue is French grew by less than 1.2 percent, comprising 74.9 percent of the population. Moreover, the number of Quebecers who most often spoke French at home was outpaced by those speaking English. Nationwide, French was the first official language spoken by more than 7.8 million Canadians in 2021, up from 7.7 million in 2016, a 1.6-percent hike that lagged far behind Canada’s population growth (5.2 percent).
Bloc Québécois leader Yves-François Blanchet and Quebec’s sole NDP MP Alexandre Boulerice also took her to task. Boulerice posted, minutes after her appointment, “When you come to appointing Rachel Bendayan as (minister of) official languages, you’ve reached the bottom of the barrel.”
Outremont is a diverse riding encompassing the borough of Outremont, parts of Côte des Neiges-Notre Dame de Grâce borough and Mile End, and is home to the city’s largest Haredi Jewish community, an older Greek community and new immigrants. The riding is majority French-speaking, and about 12 percent Jewish.
Known as a long-time Liberal activist and Trudeau loyalist, Bendayan joins fellow Montreal cabinet members Marc Miller, Mélanie Joly, Steve Guilbeault and Soraya Martinez. As new official languages minister, she succeeds Randy Boissonnault, who resigned from cabinet in November over controversies surrounding his business activities and claims to Indigenous heritage.
Bendayan’s predecessor-turned-pundit, Thomas Mulcair, described her the day before her appointment as a solid lawyer and backbencher. The former NDP leader told CTV, “She’s well respected and, since Oct. 7, the Trudeau-Joly team has been under a lot of criticism from that [Jewish] community. The Liberals are expecting to lose Anthony Housefather’s riding to the Conservatives on the island of Montreal, so she would be a way of sending a positive signal.”
Bendayan “is young, she’s strong, and I like her,” added Elarar. “But an associate minister means nothing. As for language issues, she’s going to have her hands very full…. I’m also realistic to know that this government will not last, and the government that will replace it will continue the tradition of Stephen Harper, who was tremendously supportive of Israel and the Jewish community.”
Housefather has been elected three times in Mount Royal—which was, until recently, one of Canada’s safest Liberal ridings, which previously elected Irwin Cotler, Sheila Finestone and Pierre Elliott Trudeau. Housefather has publicly called on Trudeau to resign, saying his remaining in place is a liability for Liberal members of Parliament across the country. While the riding has been inching closer towards the Conservatives, and their candidate, Neil Oberman, over the last year, polling aggregate 338 Canada shows Housefather’s fortunes rising over the last two weeks, amid the turmoil of the Trudeau government and his calls for the leader to step down.
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