- Tweet.
- This article is originally by Middle East Monitor, Republished here under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has announced that his country plans to recognise the State of Palestine at the United Nations.
In a Friday post on X, Carney stated: “Canada supports a two-state solution which guarantees peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians.” He added that Ottawa “will work intensively in all fora to further that end, including through the participation of the Minister of Foreign Affairs at the UN High-Level Conference on a Two-State Solution in New York next week.
The Prime Minister also said that Canada condemns the Israeli government’s failure to prevent the rapid deterioration of the humanitarian adisaster in the Gaza Strip.
Earlier, French President Emmanuel Macron declared his intention to recognise the State of Palestine in September 2025.
In response, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu strongly condemned the move, saying that the establishment of a Palestinian state would pose a threat to Israel’s security.
Meanwhile, the Hamas movement welcomed Macron’s intention to recognise Palestine during the UN General Assembly in September.
Hamas described the move as a positive step in the right direction towards justice for the oppressed Palestinian people and support for their legitimate right to self-determination and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on all of its occupied territory, with Jerusalem as its capital.
I think the issue people are having is that this tweet from the PM does not appear to represent any kind of change in policy.
In fact just yesterday, Reuters reported that Canada and the UK were asked by Macron to join France in recognising Palestinian statehood but refused: https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/frustration-gaza-alarm-drove-macron-go-it-alone-palestine-recognition-2025-07-26/
Okay, so there’s an upcoming conference at the UN about officially recognising the state of Palestine that has been proposed by France. Yes France was unable to get the UK and Canada to cosponsor the proposal but that is not the same as rejecting it. We will only know the official stance after the conference. However, this tweet by the Canadian government is referring to this proposal by France. In the tweet he stated that “Canada supports a two state solution” and that “Ottawa “will work intensively in all fora to further that end, including through the participation of the Minister of Foreign Affairs at the UN High-Level Conference on a Two-State Solution in New York next week.” Together it seems likely that Canada is intent on supporting the proposal, again we will only know after the conference.
If so, great! I remain skeptical given our PM’s recent use of phrases like “Zionist Palestine”, an inability to use the word ‘genocide’ to describe the ongoing genocide, and the lack of any meaningful action thus far.
Even the sanctions placed on two Israeli politicians in June don’t have real teeth; a previous update (Feb 2025) to Canada’s sanctions rules actually allows the foreign affairs minister to issue permits overriding restrictions. https://www.international.gc.ca/world-monde/international_relations-relations_internationales/sanctions/esv-vec.aspx?lang=eng
As I said in my other reply though, I genuinely hope you’re right - but I don’t see it as a foregone conclusion yet. Important to keep the pressure on our MPs.
I managed to get the office manager at my local constituency office on the phone on Friday, and was assured that I’ll get a call back from my MP tomorrow. If I do, I’ll ask directly what the plan is, and push for this to happen!
I can just barely understand avoiding the term genocide but what Israel is doing and proposing to do further is textbook ethnic cleansing and is equally egregious. We can’t even officially call it ethnic cleansing. There’s zero ambiguity on that definition.