Recognizing Palestine is one thing but absent concrete, collective, and courageous action to bring about a peaceful resolution to the war no one is safe.
By: Mark Kersten
Amidst the atrocities, annexation efforts, and ignored warnings to stop both, it became impossible to defend the status quo. So, on 21 September 2025, Canada joined 150 other states – including erstwhile Israeli allies, France and the UK – that recognize Palestinian statehood. But what, if anything, will recognition change? On some issues, quite a bit. On others, not much. Ultimately, recognition alone cannot save Palestinian lives or end the war; only concerted and collective action can.
Canada has long insisted it supports a two-state solution. Yet it refused, until now, to actually recognize two states. Instead, it lent increasingly right-wing and anti-Palestinian governments in Israel and the United States an effective veto over Palestinian human rights, self-determination, and statehood. It has long been obvious – to advocates, states, Israelis, and Palestinians – that any proclaimed interest from Washington and Tel Aviv in working towards a two-state solution is not in good faith; it’s not kicking the can down the road, if you just kick it to the curb. That much is now obvious to Canada too. In announcing Canada’s recognition of Palestine, the Prime Minister’s Office stated that “the current Israeli government is working methodically to prevent the prospect of a Palestinian state from ever being established…. It is now the avowed policy of the current Israeli government that there will be no Palestinian state.”
Recognition will have some impact inside Canada. Israel’s war on Gaza and its moves to annex the West Bank have played out in our political landscape and matter to Canadians. The government will be keenly aware of the consequences of recognizing Palestine within Canadian communities, including its electoral base. But what about the impact of recognition in the international arena and on Palestine itself?
First, and foremost, recognizing Palestine puts Canada among those willing to do the morally and legally right thing. As pointed out by almost 200 former Canadian ambassadors and diplomats, recognition of Palestine flows from basic human rights law, and specifically the right to self-determination, enshrined in multiple international rights treaties. Recognition is also completely in line with international law’s criteria for statehood. It is not about “rewarding” terrorism or Hamas. By conflating the self-determination of Palestinians with the interests of a terrorist organization, such arguments betray an intention to exact collective punishment on all Palestinians for the crimes of Hamas.
At the same time, Canada’s recognition does not make Palestine a state – because it already is a state under international law, recognized by the majority of the world as well as international organizations, including the United Nations General Assembly and the International Criminal Court (ICC). However, Ottawa’s recognition means that it will now have to view the war between Israel and Palestine as a war between two states, with one having effectively invaded and occupied another. There can now be no difference in how the annexation of Crimea by Russia and the West Bank by Israel are treated. Recognizing Palestine also means that Canada must drop its opposition to the ICC’s investigation into Palestine, as well as its arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Canada’s political ambivalence towards the ICC’s work in Palestine has exposed double standards in how Ottawa views the international rules-based order. But its legal opposition was always based on the fact that Canada did not recognize Palestine as a state, and therefore the ICC could not have jurisdiction over it. That changes with recognition.
Source: opencanada.org/canada
