Canada officially recognized a Palestinian state Sunday ahead of the United Nations General Assembly, where several other nations are expected to do the same.
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s office announced the declaration as Carney travelled to New York to attend the UN meetings.
The controversial move is aimed at increasing pressure on efforts to broker peace in the deadly Israel-Hamas conflict, which has destabilized the Middle East and increased tensions globally.
Canada and other countries officially recognizing Palestine this week, including France and Britain, also say it’s meant to keep alive the possibility of a two-state solution to the conflict at a time when it’s been called into question.
Carney will join several other international leaders at an event Monday focused on a two-state solution and Palestinian statehood.
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Israel and its chief international ally the United States have strongly opposed recognizing Palestinian statehood while the conflict continues to rage, and as Hamas still holds hostages in Gaza. Both countries, as well as some Jewish groups, say the move undermines peace efforts.
Carney first announced its decision in July, yet he did not publicly address the official announcement Sunday.
A senior government official said Canada’s recognition of Palestine is being done “to formally and explicitly affirm the continuity of its existence under international laws and to remove any question that a state of Palestine should exist.”
The government notes that 147 of the 193 member states of the UN already recognize a Palestinian state, meaning Canada is joining “the vast majority of the international community.”
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand, who is also travelling to New York and will address the UNGA, said Friday that recognizing Palestinian statehood won’t mean an immediate normalization of diplomatic ties or upgrading the Palestinian Authority’s delegation in Ottawa to a full embassy.
“Recognition is binary. You either recognize or you do not,” Anand told reporters in Mexico City. “Normalization is a process, and the process of normalization involves increases in diplomatic relationships. It involves opening embassies.”
The government has said the rhetoric of certain Israeli government officials, the Israeli military campaign in Gaza and its policies targeting the Palestinian territories it occupies, including expanded settlements in the West Bank — coupled with Hamas violence — are “eroding” the possibility of a two-state solution.
Canada’s recognition of Palestine was contingent on the Palestinian Authority, the governing body over parts of the West Bank, undertake “concrete and meaningful reforms,” including new elections.
Ottawa has also underscored that Hamas, which controls Gaza, can play no role in the governance of a future Palestinian state, which itself must be demilitarized under a future two-state solution.
The U.S. State Department last month blocked visas for the Palestinian delegation, including Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, denying their ability to travel to New York for the UNGA. Abbas was expected to address the UNGA, as he has done several times, and attend Monday’s event.
The UN has Palestinian representatives, but they are limited in their powers within the General Assembly and do not have the status of full member states.
The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs has criticized Canada for recognizing Palestinian statehood before the conflict is resolved.
“A Palestinian state should only come at the end of a process that would include making sure that Hamas is not empowering Gaza, it is not armed, and Israelis and Palestinians negotiate themselves,” CIJA vice-president and general counsel Richard Marceu told Global News in an interview.
“Having it done this way is not going to bring peace. It’s performative and it sends the wrong signal, because Hamas and its supporters see it as encouragement to continue in the very tragic way that they started” on Oct. 7, 2023, he added.
— With files from the Canadian Press
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