MONTREAL — Plans by gay and lesbian activists to bring at least 100 people to Montreal’s Aug. 16 Pride Parade to protest Israel’s “racist apartheid” policies is striking Quebec Jewish Congress (QJC) leadership as ironic – and prompting it to respond.

QJC president Adam Atlas noted that Israel is one of the world’s most gay-friendly countries and that Congress is working with local gay organizers to ensure that Israel “is celebrated as well” at the march.

“We would have thought the goal was to be inclusive, not exclusive,” Atlas said of plans to allow the “anti-apartheid” marchers.

“The idea is not to exclude people in the same way they were once excluded.”

The plans to muster support among pro-Israel march participants will serve to “at least in part, celebrate [Israel’s] virtues,” Atlas said.

In a show of solidarity, on Aug. 3, Congress representatives joined non-Jewish members of Montreal’s gay and lesbian community at a park in the city’s gay village to express joint outrage over a homophobic shooting rampage two days earlier at a Tel Aviv nightclub in which two gay teens died.

At the vigil, Rabbi Shachar Orenstein of the Spanish & Portuguese Synagogue represented Congress, and its human rights committee chair, Abby Shawn, noted the Jewish and gay communities’ common historic legacy of “hatred, victimization and persecution.”

At the same vigil, Montreal gay rights activist Michael Hendricks commended Israel for actively pursuing whoever is responsible for the rampage. March participants were reportedly also urged at the vigil to wear black to remember the gay Israeli victims. It was also suggested that the march be dedicated to the victims.

According to a news item in the July 30 issue of the Montreal Mirror, headlined “Queers come out against apartheid,” “anti-apartheid” protesters hope to mimic the success of a similar protest held at Toronto’s gay Pride Parade in June that was organized by Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (QAIA).

“A huge queer contingent in Toronto was successful… this past June,” the item said. “[T]he Montreal contingent will be made up of at least 100 people at the parade.”

It appears to be the first time that the annual parade in Montreal will contain overtly political content. In addition, one day before the parade, on Saturday, Aug. 15, a second annual “queer book fair” will include a “Queering Activism Against Apartheid Workshop” that will “give participants an introduction to Israel’s occupation of Palestine,” the Mirror reported.

Jordan Kerbel, the Toronto-based director of public affairs and communication for Canadian Jewish Congress, argued that QAIA didn’t control the message at Toronto’s Pride parade as much as the group might have liked.

He said more than 100 people marched alongside members of a Toronto Jewish gay and lesbian group, Kulanu, to demonstrate Israel’s open attitude toward gays and lesbians and as a gesture of solidarity. Among them was Congress CEO Bernie Farber.

“It’s just disappointing,” Atlas said of the Montreal plans. “We support free expression, but in a way that is inclusive.

“There is a marked similarity between Montreal and Tel Aviv in terms of the acceptance of the lesbian and gay communities,” he said. “Which is what makes it so ironic that gay and lesbians should be protesting against Israel.”