Statement from CJLC on November 24, 2025
In response to the Ontario Federation of Labour’s decision to boycott Histadrut, Israel’s national labout federation, Kim Kazur of the Canadian Jewish Labour Committee issued the following statement:
The Canadian Jewish Labour Committee (CJLC) strongly condemns Resolution 21, passed at the 2025 Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) convention, which calls for severing ties with Histadrut, Israel’s national labour federation. This resolution represents yet another deeply troubling example of the public-sector labour movement in Canada promoting the antizionist hate movement that targets and isolates Jewish workers.
Histadrut is not a foreign corporation or a government body, it is a fellow labour institution representing Israeli workers of all backgrounds, including Jewish, Arab, Druze, Muslim, and Christian workers across numerous unions and cooperative associations. The OFL should be working to identify shared challenges, deepen solidarity, and protect workers. Instead, it continues to choose a path of division, rejection, and exclusion.
This resolution is especially disheartening given that neither the OFL nor the Canadian Labour Congress has issued any public statement acknowledging the thousands of unionized workers in northern Israel who were displaced from their jobs due to Hezbollah missile attacks launched out of Lebanon. They have not acknowledged the trauma and horror unleashed by the October 7, 2023 attacks on Israeli civilians and instead support actions that make Jewish union members in Ontario feel marginalized, unwelcome, and unprotected.
Boycotting a sister labour federation does nothing to improve wages, job security, or working conditions in Ontario. It does not advance peace. It does not advance labour rights. Instead, it advances a growing, institutionalized antizionist movement that increasingly results in the exclusion of Jewish workers from full participation in the labour movement. This resolution is not solidarity; it is discrimination masked in political language that fractures the labour movement locally and globally, spreads hostility toward Jewish workers, and undermines the principle of worker-to-worker solidarity.
The Canadian Jewish Labour Committee continues to advocate for the full inclusion, safety, and dignity of Jewish members in unions across Canada and continues to condemn systemic antisemitism wherever it appears—including within institutions that claim to speak on behalf of working people.
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About the Canadian Jewish Labour Committee
The Canadian Jewish Labour Committee (CJLC) is a grassroots organization dedicated to uniting Jewish workers, advancing inclusion in unions, and combating antisemitism within the Canadian Labour movement. Founded by Jewish union members and allies, the CJLC advocates for equity, respect, and meaningful representation by engaging with union leadership, sharing best practices, and standing up to discrimination.
