Israeli Consulate's New Montreal Home Worries the Neighbors

[mobes]

Israeli Consulate's New Montreal Home Worries the Neighbors

by Nissan Ratzlav-Katz

(IsraelNN.com) A Canadian lawyer who has offices across the hall from the new home of the Israeli consulate in Montreal wants better security for the whole building. Not receiving a positive reply to his demand, he sued the consulate and his landlord.

The residents of the Westmount Square office building have effectively become "human shields".

In the forthcoming December edition of The Lawyer's Weekly, a Canadian professional journal, it is reported that Attorney Robert Teitelbaum of Teitelbaum & Librati asked the court to award him and a notary with whom he shares office space monetary damages and to order the defendants to install adequate security measures.

Among the measures Teitelbaum is seeking are a dedicated elevator serving only the sixth floor, where the consulate is located, additional security cameras and a metal detector on the ground floor. He claimed that neither Israeli representatives nor his landlord answered his requests for added general security. According to real estate listings, buildings in the Westmount Square complex where the consulate is located have undefined 24-hour security.

In his petition to the court, Teitelbaum referred to the extensive security measures Israel installed to protect its consular offices, leaving the neighboring offices exposed to attack, as well as citing instances of attacks on Israeli targets worldwide. The residents of the Westmount Square office building have effectively become "human shields" for the Israeli consulate, he claimed. However, The Lawyer's Weekly reports, Quebec Superior Court Justice Guy Cournoyer recently granted Israel's motion to dismiss the suit due to international immunity laws. Justice Cournoyer is quoted as explaining, "Sovereign immunity is a principle of international law [that] has been incorporated into the Canadian domestic legal order...."

Teitelbaum is said to be appealing the decision. "I would think that they would want to give me the same protection that they have," he told the Canadian lawyers' journal.

Speaking with The Lawyer's Weekly, Attorney Barry Landy, representing Israel, said, "It would set a serious precedent if not only Israel, but any consulate, was obliged to start installing security measures for its neighbors. The Spaniards have their own terrorists, but I don't see anybody taking proceedings saying: 'We're adjacent to the Spanish and we want you to protect us.' So I think there is a certain amount of double standard going on there." The consulates of Spain and Brazil are located in Westmount Square.

Consulate Moves After Twenty-Two Years
The Israeli consulate in Montreal moved to the suburban Westmount location this past summer, giving up
The Westmount Square building is owned by Israelis.
offices it had occupied in the CIBC building in downtown Montreal since 1986. A spokesman for the Israeli consulate said that the Westmount Square offices offered more space for lower rent. An additional factor, which may or may not have played a role in the decision, is the fact that the Westmount Square building is owned by Israelis.

Anti-Israel activists from the radical Palestinian and Jewish Unity organization claimed that the move came as a result of their seven years of weekly protests across from the former location of the consular offices. For the past several years, a counter-demonstration in support of Israel has also been held at the same time and location. About two dozen people generally took part in the anti-Israel protests, with the same amount turning up to show their support for the Jewish state.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/128771