Following a wave of public condemnation , Montreal Pride has announced that it will no longer ban two Jewish groups from marching in its annual parade next Sunday and has issued an apology to Quebec’s Jewish community. The festival’s rapid reversal of the ban, which was announced last week, is a welcome development — but this incident should never have occurred in the first place.

In a statement last Wednesday, the festival broke its longstanding neutrality on the Israel-Palestinian conflict, declaring its “opposition to genocide” and “solidarity with the Palestinian people.” By extension, the festival organizers “made the decision to deny participation in the Pride Parade to organizations spreading hateful discourse” in order to preserve “the emotional and physical safety of our comm

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