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Canada intends to recognize Palestinian state at UN General Assembly: Carney

Canada plans to recognize a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in September, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Wednesday, a major policy shift that drew an angry response from US President Donald Trump and was rejected by Israel.  Carney said the move was necessary to preserve hopes of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a long-standing Canadian goal that was “being eroded before our eyes.””Canada intends to recognize the State of Palestine at the 80th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in September 2025,” the prime minister said. This makes Canada — a G7 nation — the third country, following recent announcements by France and the United Kingdom, to signal plans to recognize a Palestinian state in September.Carney said the worsening suffering of civilians in Gaza left “no room for delay in coordinated international action to support peace.”Israel blasted Canada’s announcement as part of a “distorted campaign of international pressure,” while Trump warned that trade negotiations with Ottawa may not proceed smoothly.”Wow! Canada has just announced that it is backing statehood for Palestine,” the US president wrote on his Truth Social platform.”That will make it very hard for us to make a Trade Deal with them.”Asked by reporters if there was a scenario where Canada could change its position before the UN meeting, Carney said: “there’s a scenario (but) possibly one that I can’t imagine.”Canada’s intention “is predicated on the Palestinian Authority’s commitment to much-needed reforms,” Carney said, referring to the body led by President Mahmoud Abbas, which has civil authority in parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Carney said his plans were further predicated on Abbas’s pledge to “hold general elections in 2026 in which Hamas can play no part, and to demilitarize the Palestinian state.”- ‘Historic’ decision -With Wednesday’s announcement, Carney positioned Canada alongside France, after President Emmanuel Macron said his country would formally recognize a Palestinian state during the UN meeting, the most powerful European nation to announce such a move.The Israeli embassy in Ottawa said “recognizing a Palestinian state in the absence of accountable government, functioning institutions, or benevolent leadership, rewards and legitimizes the monstrous barbarity of Hamas on October 7, 2023.”The PA’s Abbas welcomed the announcement as a “historic” decision, while France said the countries would work together “to revive the prospect of peace in the region.”Canada’s plan goes a step further than this week’s announcement by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.Starmer said the UK will formally recognize the State of Palestine in September unless Israel takes various “substantive steps,” including agreeing to a ceasefire in Gaza.- Two-state solution -Carney stressed that Canada has been an unwavering member of the group of nations that hoped a two-state solution “would be achieved as part of a peace process built around a negotiated settlement between the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority.” “Regrettably, this approach is no longer tenable,” he said, citing “Hamas terrorism” and the group’s “longstanding violent rejection of Israel’s right to exist.”The peace process has also been eroded by the expansion of Israeli settlements across the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem, Carney said. The prime minister said a two-state solution was growing increasingly remote, with a vote in Israel’s parliament “calling for the annexation of the West Bank,” as well as Israel’s “ongoing failure” to prevent humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.He framed his decision as one aimed at safeguarding Israel’s future.”Any path to lasting peace for Israel also requires a viable and stable Palestinian state, and one that recognizes Israel’s inalienable right to security and peace,” Carney said. 

‘Ours forever’: would-be Israeli settlers march on Gaza

Within sight of Gaza, the devastated Palestinian enclave ravaged by nearly 22 months of war, hundreds of Israeli settlers marched Wednesday to stake their claim to the battered territory.Waving Israeli flags alongside the orange banners of Gush Katif — a bloc of settlements dismantled in 2005 — the marchers went from the town of Sderot to the Asaf Siboni observation point, overlooking the ruins of Beit Hanun.Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza 20 years ago ended 38 years of military presence. About 8,000 settlers were evacuated and 21 communities demolished.But a vocal fringe never gave up the dream of return — and now, amid war with Hamas and with hardliners in government, some believe the time is ripe.Veterans of Gush Katif have been joined by a new generation of would-be settlers ready to move in if the army gets out of their way.”As a movement, 1,000 families — you see them today marching — we are ready to move now, as things stand, and to live in tents,” said 79-year-old Daniella Weiss, a former mayor of the West Bank settlement of Kedumim.”We are ready with our children to move into the Gaza area right away, because we believe this is the way to bring quiet, peace, to put an end to Hamas,” she told AFP.”It’s only when we hold on to the soil, to the grains of sand, that the army will raise a white flag,” she said.Far-right groups joined the protest, marching toward the border chanting: “Gaza, ours forever!” Loudspeakers blared: “The way to defeat Hamas is to take back our land.”- ‘God and the government’ -Much of Gaza has been ruined by the Israeli offensive launched in response to the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023, which left 1,200 dead and more than 250 taken hostage.More than 60,000 Palestinians have been killed since, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. International NGOs have accused Israel of forcibly displacing civilians and committing war crimes — with some alleging genocide, a charge Israel fiercely rejects.The official policy of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is that the Gaza operation was launched to destroy Hamas and rescue Israeli hostages — not to restore settlements.But the would-be settlers say they have been in talks with hardline members of the ruling coalition and believe there may be a political opening, despite the fact that reoccupation is deemed illegal under international law.They were further buoyed this week when Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, in a speech at the Gush Katif museum, declared: “It’s closer than ever. It’s a realistic work plan.”We didn’t sacrifice all this to transfer Gaza from one Arab to another Arab. Gaza is an inseparable part of the land of Israel.”I don’t want to go back to Gush Katif — it’s too small. It needs to be much bigger. Gaza today allows us to think a little bigger.”The marchers heard him.”I have faith in God and in the government,” said Sharon Emouna, 58, who came from her settlement in the occupied West Bank to support the Gaza return movement.”I’m just here in support, to say that the land of Israel is promised to the Jewish people and it’s our right to settle there,” she said.And if any Palestinians want to remain in Gaza, Emouna added, they would benefit from living alongside the settlers.On Wednesday, however, it was Israeli soldiers who blocked the final short walk to Gaza, across a parched landscape of low brush scorched by the summer sun.A continuous stream of families approached the border, close enough to glimpse the apocalyptic silhouette of smashed Palestinian homes left by the fighting — and, perhaps, what they hope will become home again.