Carney told reporters the decision hinges on “fundamental governance reforms” by the Palestinian Authority, including elections next year held without Hamas participation and steps toward demilitarizing Palestinian territories.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry condemned the plan as “a reward for Hamas” and warned it could hinder efforts to free Israeli hostages and halt fighting in Gaza.
Former U.S. president Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social that the announcement would make a future U.S.–Canada trade deal “very hard.”
Carney, citing the expansion of Israeli settlements, Gaza’s deepening humanitarian crisis and Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attacks on Israel, said traditional diplomacy had stalled.
“The prospect of a Palestinian state is being eroded before our eyes,” he said, arguing that continued paralysis was “no longer tenable.”
More than three-quarters of U.N. member states—147 of 193—already recognize Palestinian statehood. France unveiled its recognition timetable last week, and Britain said on Tuesday it would do the same in September unless Israel agreed to a cease-fire and other conditions.
Canada’s recognition would depend on the Palestinian Authority “fundamentally reforming its governance,” Carney said after a phone call with President Mahmoud Abbas. The Authority, led by Abbas’s Fatah party, administers parts of the occupied West Bank, while Hamas controls Gaza; neither territory has held an election since 2006.
Domestic reaction was swift. Canada’s opposition Conservatives said recognizing a Palestinian state after the 7 October attacks “sends the wrong message to the world.”
Nearly 200 former Canadian diplomats had urged Carney in an open letter to take the step, warning that Ottawa’s principles were being “abandoned daily” amid civilian suffering in Gaza and settler violence in the West Bank.
Asked whether U.K. and French decisions or consultations with Washington influenced him, Carney replied that Canada “makes its own foreign-policy choices.”
If London and Paris follow through, the United States would become the only permanent U.N. Security Council member yet to recognize Palestinian statehood.
In Gaza, the restricted flow of news left many unaware, but journalist Imad Abu Shawish posted on Facebook that each new recognition brings Palestinians “a step closer to our dream of an independent state.”
Carney said details of Canada’s recognition would be finalized before the annual U.N. gathering in September. “Our goal is a viable, secure, two-state solution,” he added. “Recognizing Palestinian statehood is a necessary, though not sufficient, step toward that outcome.”
On Wednesday, foreign ministers from 15 Western countries appealed for global recognition of Palestine and an immediate Gaza ceasefire after a U.N. conference in New York co‑hosted by France and Saudi Arabia.
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Source: BBC, Reuters