‘An enormous amount of work’ still needed after pledge to recognize Palestinian statehood: McPherson
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s announcement about a pending Canadian recognition of Palestinian statehood offers a “glimmer of hope,” but is too late in coming, says NDP MP Heather McPherson.
The July 30 announcement that Canada will formally recognize Palestinian statehood at the United Nations General Assembly in September is drawing divided reactions even amid those who say it’s “welcome,” with others concerned it would serve to reward Hamas terrorism.
“I think it’s too late,” said McPherson (Edmonton Strathcona, Alta.), her party’s foreign affairs critic. “I don’t understand why it couldn’t happen yesterday, why we have to wait until September, particularly recognizing the desperate situation that the Gazans are finding themselves in—the genocide that is literally starving people to death today.”
The move offers a “glimmer of hope for many Canadians who have been … desperately trying to get their government to do anything,” she said, but noted statehood shouldn’t be used as a “bargaining chip,” and she doesn’t see why the government is waiting until the assembly to formalize its recognition.
Canada’s recognition comes with conditions put on the Palestinian Authority to commit to democratic reforms, said Carney (Nepean, Ont.) on July 30. The prime minister said the Palestinian Authority, which controls only parts of the West Bank, must hold an election next year, and that Hamas, which governs Gaza, can have no role in Palestine’s future governance.
Carney’s move follows similar commitments from the United Kingdom and France. Britain says it will recognize a Palestinian state if Israel does not agree to a ceasefire, allow the entrance of UN aid in the region, and take other steps advance peace. France also committed to recognition at the UN in September on July 24, without conditions, becoming the first member of the G7 to do so.
McPherson said despite this being a step in right direction, there is still “an enormous amount of work that’s needed.”
“We still haven’t seen meaningful action be taken on a ceasefire, on ensuring humanitarian aid gets in, making sure that … there are trade implications on Israel as they continue to commit a genocide,” she said.
Israel’s top envoy in Ottawa swiftly replied to the July 30 announcement that the embassy “rejects” Canada’s endorsement of a Palestinian state.
“Israel will not bow to the distorted campaign of international pressure against it,” Israel’s Ambassador to Canada Iddo Moed said in a statement. “We will not sacrifice our very existence by permitting the imposition of a jihadist state on our ancestral homeland that seeks our annihilation.”
In a June 30 X post, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre denounced the move, writing that recognizing a Palestinian state “legitimizes Hamas, a brutal terrorist group.”
United States President Donald Trump has also chimed in, posting on Truth Social the day before the Aug. 1 trade deal deadline to write that Carney’s decision “will make it very hard for us to make a Trade Deal with them.”
The move may also cause waves in the Liberal caucus. One Jewish Liberal MP, Anthony Housefather (Mount Royal, Que.), released a statement on X not long after Carney’s announcement, writing he has “always supported a two-state solution,” but that “we cannot forget that Hamas began this conflict” on Oct. 7, 2023, and that it “bears the largest share of responsibility for a two-state solution.”
Housefather said that statehood recognition “should be contingent on the future Palestinian state recognizing Israel’s right to exist,” also pointing to the “hateful speech and actions” Jewish Canadians have faced in the wake of the conflict.
Conservatives have been quick to jump on Housefather. Conservative MP Melissa Lantsman (Thornhill, Ont.), who is also Jewish, asked the MP on X if he was “asking people to thank” him “for rewarding terror with ‘conditions’?”
Israel ‘irritated,’ but action needed: former UN special rapporteur
Michael Lynk, a former UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Palestinian territories, agreed with McPherson that Canada—and other countries—have to take actions which “impose a significant political, diplomatic, and particularly economic cost” on Israel if they want to affect change.
He noted that though Israel may be “irritated” by recognition, the UN’s binding resolutions and countries’ statements have not made “any difference” to its actions thus far.
“Israel has learned the lesson that it doesn’t have to obey these resolutions and it doesn’t have to listen to diplomatic opinion coming from the global north,” said Lynk, who is now a law professor at Western University. “It can continue to do what it pleases.”
Still, he called recognition “important” as it will not only result in an embassy in the region and an ambassador, but it also “commits” Canada to “recognize Palestinian sovereignty over Palestinian territory.”
UN resolutions consider Palestine to consist of East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza. This means that Canada will be opposed to Israel’s “interference” with sovereignty in those regions, Lynk said.
Canada will “be opposed to the 360 Israeli settlements … the 740,000 Israeli settlers on Palestinian territory, and the thousands of Israeli troops on Palestinian territory,” said Lynk.
‘I wish I could be shocked’: report suggests Canada never stopped sending arms to Israel
Carney’s recognition came shortly after the release of a report suggesting that Canada has been sending military hardware to Israel despite an arms embargo. The Liberals deny Canada has sent arms to Israel since January 2024, with Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand (Oakville East, Ont.), calling the report “flawed” in an Aug. 1 statement.
The report, compiled from publicly available data from shipping records as well as records from the Israel Tax Authority by four NGOs, suggests that military equipment, including “bullets,” have continued flowing from Canada to Israel.
“I wish I could be shocked,” McPherson said of the report. “We have known for some time that they continue to send goods.”
She said that arms have been flowing from Canada to the U.S., and then sent on to Israel, through a “loophole.”
Last year, McPherson brought forth a non-binding motion to “cease the further authorization and transfer of arms exports to Israel.” The motion was watered down by the Liberals from its original draft to remove reference to Palestinian statehood, as well as other language, but passed on March 18, 2024.
“The prime minister stood in the House of Commons and voted on my motion to stop sending weapons, and then lied to me and lied to Canadians for months,” McPherson said of then-prime minister Justin Trudeau.
In her statement, Anand said that the “bullets” referred to in the report are “in fact paintball-style projectiles.” She said the government has refused any new permits, and has frozen existing permits for controlled goods that could be used in Gaza since January 2024.
The NGOs responsible for the report called the minister’s words “a pattern of deception,” releasing their own rebuttal statement that Anand does not deny Canada has shipped arms, only that those shipped aren’t being used in Gaza, but “without a shred of proof.”
Senators renew calls for arms embargo, want answers from ministry
The NGOs’ report’s findings also triggered a group of 26 Senators to renew calls for a full arms embargo. Eleven senators originally called for a two-way arms embargo with Israel in June, also calling on the government to recognize Palestinian statehood at the time, as well as commit to other actions to address the crisis. The larger group sent their letter to Anand on Aug. 1.
“The government has to explain how it is that all of the items documented in the report were able to get to Israel, and in all likelihood, contribute to the slaughter of innocent Palestinians,” Independent Senator Yuen Pau Woo (British Columbia) told The Hill Times.
Woo also criticized Anand’s July 28 commitment of $30-million in humanitarian aid for the region at a UN conference in New York, and her additional $10-million pledge “to accelerate reform and capacity-building for the Palestinian Authority.”
“[In] the seeming generosity of $10-million is the implication that Palestinians are not ready for statehood, and they will only be ready when we tell them they are ready,” he said, speaking before Carney’s July 30 announcement. “It’s so insulting. It’s colonial, paternalistic.”
Woo also called the humanitarian aid funding “deeply insulting,” arguing that Anand “knows very well” the problem isn’t a lack of aid, it’s that Israel is “blocking any and all food supplied from getting into Gaza in a way that’s safe for Palestinians to access.”
This is something for which Carney has previously condemned Israel. On July 24, he denounced the Israeli government’s “failure to prevent the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian disaster in Gaza,” in an X post, writing that aid systems need to be “replaced” by international organizations-run programs.
Moed has denied this accusation, saying that the “State of Israel remains committed to upholding international law and serving as an active partner in facilitating the flow of aid into Gaza.”
Anne Delorme, executive director of the international NGO Humanity & Inclusion, said her staff in Gaza are witnessing the effects of malnourishment—and also suffering from it—as it’s been “incredibly difficult” to get permission from Israel to bring in more support.
She said that the war in Gaza risks exposing “an entire generation” of “children and young people” to high levels of disability due to bombing, but also malnourishment, which she said is the leading cause of disability worldwide.
ewand@hilltimes.com
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