Canada to recognize Palestinian state in September, prime minister says
Canada will recognize a Palestinian state at the next United Nations Assembly in September, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced on Wednesday.
The decision follows French President Emmanuel Macron saying France will recognize a Palestinian state at the UN, and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer saying Tuesday that his nation will do the same if Israel does not agree to a ceasefire in Gaza.
The comments come amid a deepening humanitarian crisis in Gaza and a growing chorus calling for an end to the nearly two-year conflict.
“Canada has long been committed to a two-state solution, an independent, viable and sovereign Palestinian state living side by side with the State of Israel in peace and security,” Carney said on Parliament Hill alongside Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday that it “rejects” Carney’s statement.
“The change in the position of the Canadian government at this time is a reward for Hamas and harms the efforts to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza and a framework for the release of the hostages,” the ministry said.
Following the U.K.’s decision on Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a statement directed at the prime minister, saying, “Starmer rewards Hamas’s monstrous terrorism & punishes its victims. A jihadist state on Israel’s border TODAY will threaten Britain TOMORROW. Appeasement towards jihadist terrorists always fails. It will fail you too. It will not happen.”
As of Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States has “rejected” France’s plan to recognize a Palestinian state.
“This reckless decision only serves Hamas propaganda and sets back peace. It is a slap in the face to the victims of October 7th,” Rubio wrote in a statement on X.
The news comes less than a week after Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, said the U.S. was cutting ceasefire talks short and bringing its negotiation team home from Doha, Qatar.
Countries announcing the decision come as the conflict in Gaza continues to escalate, with a widespread hunger crisis reaching catastrophic levels.
Gut-wrenching images have emerged of malnourished children suffering amid the lack of food and other aid in Gaza.
According to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health, seven people died of hunger over a 24-hour period on Wednesday, bringing the total number of deaths from malnutrition to 154 since Oct. 7, 2023, including 89 children. More than 60,000 have died in Gaza since the start of the war, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
Netanyahu and members of his administration have repeatedly denied there is a hunger crisis in Gaza.
“Israel is presented as though we are applying a campaign of starvation in Gaza. What a bold-faced lie,” Netanyahu said during an event in Jerusalem this week. “There is no policy of starvation in Gaza, and there is no starvation in Gaza.”