Ottawa, July 31 (The Canadian Press/GNA) – Prime Minister Mark Carney announced Wednesday that Canada intends to recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations in September, as long as the Palestinian Authority holds elections next year.
“Preserving a two-state solution means standing with all people who choose peace over violence or terrorism. And it means honouring their innate desire for peaceful coexistence,” Carney told reporters on Parliament Hill.
He said Ottawa intends to officially recognize the State of Palestine at the UN General Assembly in September.
“This intention is predicated on the Palestinian Authority’s commitment to much-needed reforms, including … general elections in 2026 in which Hamas can play no part, and to demilitarize the Palestinian state,” Carney said.
The Prime Minister’s Office said Carney spoke on Wednesday with Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority.
“Prime Minister Carney welcomed President Abbas’s commitment to these reforms,” it said in a statement.
“The prime minister informed the president that Canada will increase its efforts to promote peace and stability in the region, and work closely with regional allies toward this goal.”
For decades, Canada has called for a two-state solution, which means the eventual creation of a Palestinian state that would exist in peace alongside Israel. For years, Ottawa has suggested this would come at the end of a peace negotiation between Palestinian and Israeli leaders.
In recent months, Ottawa has been reluctant to join other countries in bestowing official recognition because the Palestinian territories are divided and have not held elections in years.
But amid rising starvation in Gaza and expanding settlements in the West Bank, France announced last week it would soon recognize Palestine and the U.K. said it intends to do so if Israel does not drastically change its actions in the territories.
Carney said there is a “necessity” for Canada to act as well as “an ability to influence” the situation in partnership with allies.
He said both Israeli and Palestinian leaders have been making it harder to get to a two-state solution.
“Prospects for a two-state solution have been steadily and gravely eroded, including by the pervasive threat of Hamas terrorism to Israel and its people, culminating in a heinous attack of Oct. 7, 2023,” he said.
“The accelerated settlement-building across the West Bank and East Jerusalem … while settler violence against Palestinians has soared, has also undermined the process.”
He also cited “the ongoing failure of the Israeli government to prevent the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian disaster in Gaza, with impeded access to food and other essential humanitarian supplies.”
Israel’s embassy in Ottawa rejected Canada’s endorsement of Palestinian statehood and repeated its claim that Israel has met its obligations on humanitarian aid — despite U.S. President Donald Trump and most major global organizations saying Israel has allowed starvation to spread in Gaza.
Israel “will not bow to the distorted campaign of international pressure against it,” Israeli Ambassador Iddo Moed wrote in a media statement.
The embassy said recognizing a Palestinian state in the absence of an accountable government or functioning institutions “rewards and legitimizes the monstrous barbarity of Hamas … vindicates Hamas’s Western sympathizers fuelling antisemitism, and hardens Hamas’s position at the negotiation table at a most critical time.”
GNA/The Canadian Press