The recognition of the State of Palestine : Canada’s misstep

Prominent Canadian-Jewish figures and institutions—as well as the Jewish world–were united in joy and relief after Hamas terrorists in Gaza released 20 living hostages on Oct. 13, two years and six days after Hamas brutally murdered and committed unspeakable atrocities on 1,200 Israelis merely seeking to celebrate the end of a Jewish holiday and enjoy a music festival.

The release coincided with a fragile truce between Israel and Hamas that was orchestrated by the United States and key Middle East nations, including Egypt, Qatar and Turkey.

But there was no feeling of bonhomie weeks earlier, after Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, not long after a telephone call with 89-year-old Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas, announced on Sept. 21 that Canada would recognize Palestinian statehood as the United Nations General Assembly, which was about to convene.

Countries that joined Canada at the GA in support of Palestinian statehood included key Western nations like France, the United Kingdom. and Australia.

Dozens of other UN nations have already recognized Palestinian statehood, while the United States has declined to.

It weas US president Donald Trump who helped fashion his administration’s own 20-point peace proposal that led to the ceasefire.

Canadian Jewish groups such as the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, B’nai Brith Canada, and others were quick to denounce Carney’s UN decision, arguing that countries recognizing Palestinian statehood were effectively rewarding terrorism.

“It was a mistake,” said Irwin Cotler, a famous Canadian human rights advocate and former Justice Minister who has historically supported a two-state solution in which Israelis and Palestinians could live side-by-side in peace.

“Carney was the best of the three (of Canada, the UK, and Australia) in putting forward conditions for recognition, but that should have preceded recognition, not been a consequence of it.”

Strikingly, French president Emmanuel Macron was the first to recognize Palestinian statehood at the UN “unconditionally,” Cotler said, while UK prime minister Keir Starmer seemed to put the conditions for Palestinian statehood on Israel instead of Hamas.

“That’s why it was so mistaken” Cotler said. “They got it backwards.”

Although a small number of Canadian Jews have supported recognition of Palestinian statehood at the UN–among them those long critical of Israeli policies and progressive Zionist groups such as JSpace Canada–the vast majority have not, at least not before a “two-state solution” is arrived at.

One figure highly critical of Canada for recognizing Palestinian statehood at the UN was Vivian Bercovici, a former Canadian ambassador to Israel (2012-2014).

Recognizing statehood there was “ostensibly in order to advance peace,” she wrote in an email, but described it as “uninformed, reckless pandering to various powerful demographics.”

“Trump’s peace proposal…shows the rush of Canada and other countries to recognize Palestine…”

But because of it, Bercovici said, “Canada is irrelevant in that region going forward.

“Carney had a one-hour phone call with Abbas, memorialized in a two-paragraph press release, and he told the world he’d solved the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

“Right,” Bercovici said sarcastically.

Cotler himself also seemed to have no faith in Abbas, whom he’d met with numerous times over the years, to little avail.

“He’s been in standing breach of his own commitments for years,” Cotler said, providing renewed evidence that Carney’s telephone call to Abbas, with the latter’s assurance that he would assist in building an institutional infrastructure for peace, stability, and democratization in the region, had little merit.

Mount Royal Liberal MP Anthony Housefather, who like Cotler has historically supported a two-state solution, sought to clarify his position in August, when news first broke of Carney’s plan to recognize Palestinian statehood.

Housefather was one of only three Liberal MPs in 2024 opposing a motion to recognize Palestinian statehood.

“I have always supported a two-state solution,” Housefather said, “and achieving one remains the objective of the Prime Minister and the Canadian government.”

At the same time, “I have been deeply disappointed by statements from Israeli government ministers rejecting a two-state solution and proposing annexation of the West Bank and Gaza.”

Housefather also clarified that he was against Canada recognizing Palestine at the UN until Hamas fully surrendered, released the hostages, and that Hamas and PA leader Abbas recognized Israel’s right to exist.

Neil Oberman, a prominent lawyer who in the last federal election ran for the Conservative Party of Canada in Housefather’s riding and has been at the forefront in fighting a major surge in campus antisemitism since Oct. 7, like others celebrated the release of the Hamas hostages and the ceasefire.

“However, sustainable progress toward Palestinian statehood must rest on more than temporary de-escalation,” Oberman wrote in an email exchange.

“Under international law, the attributes of statehood include a defined territory, a permanent population, a functioning government, and the capacity to enter into relations with other states.”
“These are not mere formalities, but essential guarantees of stability and accountability.” Oberman said.

“For a lasting recognition, the prospective state must also demonstrate adherence to international norms, including the rejection of terrorism, respect for existing peace agreements, and a genuine commitment to coexistence.”

“Without these foundations, diplomatic recognition risks reinforcing division rather than advancing peace.” Cotler, for his part, cited seven “D”s that he saw as essential in moving forward towards a “pathway for peace.”

These included the disarmament of Hamas; the “crucial” dismantling of its infrastructure, “embedded as it is in hospitals and homes, kindergartens, schools. mosques, and UNRWA centres; demilitarization; deradicalization; deployment of an international “governance/stabilization force”; and development, to address the “catastrophic devastation and destruction” in Gaza.”

Cotler said the final “most important D,” is “democratization.”

“I’ve always believed in two states for two peoples, but not as an idle or a lazy slogan.

“Two democratic states, living side-by-side, in peace and security and mutual acknowledgement of each other’s legitimacy.

“At this point, what we have to guard against is another authoritarian, let alone terrorist, government, in Gaza and in the Middle East.

“So democratization is a strategic, as well as a political and moral imperative.”

At writing however, aspirations of “democratization” in Gaza seemed as remote as ever.

Hamas’s grip on Gaza seemed to re-strengthen during the fragile ceasefire, two years after war rained death and destruction on the Palestinian population.
During the truce, Hamas terrorists began to execute suspected collaborators in the Gazan streets, which Cotler said demonstrated Hamas’s cynicism and disregard for their own people.