NDP Leader Lewis criticized for saying Jews ‘failed to do our part’ to stop Gaza war

OTTAWA – Critics are calling out NDP Leader Avi Lewis for suggesting online that he and his fellow Jews have “failed” to do their part to stop Israel’s violence in the Gaza Strip.

Lewis posted Sunday that he is marking the holiest day on the Jewish calendar, Yom Kippur, by reflecting on geopolitics.

“For Jewish people, the personal has always been political and the political always personal. This year I’m reflecting on the fact that we failed to do our part to stop an ongoing genocide committed in our name,” Lewis posted Sunday evening on the platform X.

Lewis’s post did not directly mention the war that started in October 2023, when Hamas killed 1,200 people in a gruesome surprise attack on Israel.

Since then, tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed by Israeli strikes that frequently hit civilian areas, and by Israeli policies that led to an international declaration of famine.

Liberal MPs Anthony Housefather and Ben Carr, who are Jewish, both pushed back on Lewis’s comments, saying it’s wrong to collectively hold Jews responsible for the actions of Israel.

When asked whether Lewis’s comment was antisemitic, Carr called it “naive.”

“That’s an irresponsible thing for a leader to say,” the Winnipeg MP said.

“It’s dangerous and it’s the type of narrative that is actually contributing to the type of threats that we’re seeing levied against the Jewish community.”

Housefather wrote on X that Lewis’s post was “despicable.”

Lewis made the post before a shooting on Sunday outside a synagogue in Belleville, Ont., while worshippers were inside to mark Yom Kippur.

His office said he plans to speak about the matter on Parliament Hill on Monday.

The federal government’s official definition of antisemitism cautions against holding Jews collectively accountable for Israel’s actions because it can fuel anti-Jewish hate.

Advocates have linked that notion of collective responsibility to multiple attacks on Jewish institutions, including Sunday’s attack in Belleville.

Lewis condemned that attack Monday.

“The shooting outside a synagogue in Belleville is deeply upsetting, and has traumatized a community that gathered to pray,” he wrote on the platform X.

“I am sending love and solidarity to the Jewish community in Belleville and across the country on this Yom Kippur, the most solemn and holiest day of the year.”

Some — including former Canadian ambassador to Israel Jon Allen — argue that major Jewish groups in Canada are creating the false impression that they support Israel’s actions against Palestinians by not calling out the Israeli government.

“By not calling out what’s happening in the West Bank and Gaza, there is a complicity of silence,” Allen told a Senate committee this past June, adding that he himself is Jewish.

“The failure sometimes, frankly, of the Jewish community” to speak out against Israeli government actions “makes people in Canada say, ‘Well, do they support everything Israel does? Do they support what happened in Gaza?’” he testified.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 21, 2026.

— With files from David Baxter