Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government signalled a major shift in Canada’s Middle East policy last week by abstaining on a United Nations General Assembly resolution backing the recognition of Palestine as a full UN member.
Until last week, Canada had always sided with Israel and its allies in arguing that recognition of Palestinian statehood could come only after negotiations on a two-state solution and Palestinian endorsement of Israel’s right to exist.
To be clear, Canada stopped short of voting “Yes” on the resolution, which calls on the UN Security Council to “favourably reconsider” Palestine’s application for full UN membership. The resolution was overwhelmingly adopted, with 143 member countries voting for it and only nine countries, led by the United States, voting against it. Canada was among the 25 member states that abstained.
Still, why the sudden shift? During a devastating war brought on by a heinous attack on Israeli civilians by a terrorist organization – Hamas – whose main reason for existing remains the elimination of Israel? If changing Canada’s policy on Palestinian statehood now does not constitute a “reward” for Hamas’s actions, as Israeli officials have charged, just what point is the Trudeau government trying to make?
“The Israeli government under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has unacceptably closed the door on any path toward a two-state solution, and we disagree with that fundamentally,” Mr. Trudeau said after the UN vote, adding that Canada could use its future recognition of Palestine “as a way toward pushing that two-state solution.”
As if Mr. Netanyahu or any other Israeli leader would act on Canada’s or the UN’s urging. It is simply disingenuous to suggest that the UN vote could have any influence on a peace process that, regardless of who is in power in Israel, is unlikely to resume as long as Hamas has any say in the matter. So what gives?
Since Oct. 7, the Trudeau government has faced relentless pressure from its own progressive Liberal base and the New Democratic MPs, on whom it relies to govern, to abandon Canada’s traditional Middle Eastern policy, as an increasingly impatient pro-Palestinian movement fuels public antipathy toward Israel and occupies university campuses, chanting anti-Israel epithets, with nary a mention of Hamas.
It is hard not to see domestic politics at play in the Trudeau government’s sudden move to abstain on a UN resolution that, no matter how it tries to spin it, is seen as a major propaganda win for Hamas. By emphasizing Mr. Netanyahu’s obstructionism, the Trudeau government is helping shift the culpability for the carnage in Gaza from Hamas. In doing so, it is playing into the hands of Israel’s cynical enemies at the UN.
“We never wanted this war, and we only went for this war because our children were being burned alive. Because our elderly were being killed. Because we have, even right now, still hostages in the terror tunnels. And they raped women, and they conquered villages,” Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid said on a recent New York Times podcast. “And more than that, they have openly said – they meaning Hamas – that if they have a chance, they’ll do it again.”
Mr. Lapid is obviously no apologist for the Netanyahu government. He also supports a two-state solution. But he knows until Hamas is gone from Gaza, there can be no progress toward Palestinian statehood. “Because as long as Hamas is there and Hamas is active, and Hamas has control over the territory, there will be no future for the people of Gaza.”
Canada’s own Ambassador to the UN, Bob Rae, appears to disagree.
“History has shown that there are organizations that were described or defined as terrorist that changed,” Mr. Rae told the CBC’s Power & Politics after the UN vote. “Hamas as it currently stands – as it currently exists, what it currently stands for, how it has conducted itself – does not belong in the government of Palestine. But people can change.”
Surely, Canada’s policy in the Middle East cannot be based on the faint hope that Hamas would one day renounce violence and recognize Israel’s right to exist. Mr. Rae cited the Palestinian Liberation Organization, which was once a designated terrorist organization, as an example. But if Hamas has not budged since Oct. 7, what would make anyone think it would in future?
The implicit message sent by the 143 countries that voted for the UN resolution calling for Palestine’s full membership in the General Assembly is that Hamas does not have to change. Indeed, the resolution made no mention of Hamas or the Oct. 7 attacks, as if they have no bearing on the peace process, when they, as much as Mr. Netanyahu’s bullheadedness, are the main reasons this horrible war grinds on.