Canada’s attitude toward the Palestinian people could be described as hypocritical. We have consistently claimed that we support an independent Palestinian state, but then just as consistently act to thwart it.
For example, in 2012 the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution upgrading Palestine to “non-member observer state” status. This was an excellent first step in bringing the Palestinians into the world of nations. We voted against it.
In fact we have voted “no” to more UN resolutions supporting Palestine than any country other than the U.S.
The Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement attempts to use economic means to pressure Israel into meeting its obligations under international law. It is an entirely peaceful movement. In 2016 the House of Commons voted overwhelmingly to condemn it.
The State of Palestine has been recognized by 146 of the 193 United Nations’ members. But not by Canada.
We have weaselled out way out of supporting a Palestinian state by parroting the Americans and insisting that it must be negotiated between the two peoples. This means that these powerless people would have to negotiate with a powerful state. In other words, if the Palestinians want a state, they have to beg Israel for it.
At one time we were more balanced in our approach, but we drifted increasingly pro-Israeli under Liberal prime minister Paul Martin. That trend accelerated sharply under Stephen Harper. Trudeau’s government has maintained the voting pattern it inherited from the Harper government.
That pattern is now changing. A crack in the pro-Israel solidarity appeared in 2019. Perhaps due in part to a statement by President Trump’s secretary of state that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory wasn’t necessarily illegal, we supported a UN resolution that reaffirmed, “the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, including the right to their independent State of Palestine.”
Last year we called for a ceasefire in the Hamas-Israel conflict through a vote in favour of a non-binding United Nations resolution. It passed the UN General Assembly with 153 votes in favour, 10 against and 23 abstentions.
Early this year the House of Commons passed a symbolic motion on Palestinian statehood with support from the Liberal government. Alexandre Lévêque, an assistant deputy minister at Global Affairs Canada, said the federal government was discussing the proposal with like-minded countries.
This month we voted in favour of a UN General Assembly resolution condemning Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territories. (We abstained on a similar UN resolution last September.)
Recently 30 Canadian MPs (including NDP and Green leaders Jagmeet Singh and Elizabeth May, and four Liberals) joined forces with counterparts in New Zealand and Australia in support of recognizing a Palestinian state. In an open letter more than 100 parliamentarians from nine political parties urged their governments to join the 146 countries which have recognized Palestinian statehood.
This week Prime Minster Trudeau stated Canada will abide by the International Criminal Court arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The PM declared “We stand up for international law, and we will abide by all the regulations and rulings of the international courts. This is just who we are as Canadians.”
All of these recent events suggest that perhaps the devastating death, displacement and destruction inflicted on Gaza has finally convinced our government that Arabs matter as much as Jews. In fact, justice for the Palestinians is the best, perhaps the only, path toward peace and security for both parties. Israelis will never be secure as long as they continue to subjugate five million Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
It’s long past time that both Palestinians and Israelis are free from the Jordan to the sea.