Canada adds a Palestinian state to Israel Travel Advisory after recognition – National
The Canada Travel Council site now includes advice for a Palestinian state and Israel following the official recognition of the State government, a decision defended by Prime Minister Mark Carney as “necessary” and called “badly” by a conservative criticism on Monday.
“We offer our full partnership in the implementation of the promise of a peaceful future for the State of Palestine and the State of Israel,” said Carney at a United Nations meeting to promote a two -state solution.
Travel Canada’s official travel opinion for the region is now listed as “Israel and Palestine”, after being called “Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip”.
The advice remains unchanged despite the update, the Canadians were invited to “avoid non -essential travel”.
Canada officially recognized a Palestinian State on Sunday while delegations around the world gathered in New York for the United Nations Annual General Assembly, where the current Israel-Hamas conflict and the future of a two-state solution are among the main priorities.
The United Kingdom, Australia and Portugal also recognized a Palestinian state on Sunday, and France followed suit on Monday.
The British government scored a separate travel notice for a Palestinian state for the first time on Monday. He also urges travelers not to visit the region.
France and Saudi Arabia presided over the large -scale meeting on Monday to the UN aimed at galvanizing the support of a two -state solution.
French president Emmanuel Macron announced the recognition by France of a Palestinian state at the top of the meeting, winning the applause of the members gathered in the room of the General Assembly.
“Let’s be clear: the state for the Palestinians is a right, not a reward,” said UN secretary general António Guterres in Reunion.
The president of the Palestinian authority, Mahmoud Abbas, also addressed the video meeting after he and dozens of other senior Palestinian officials were refused visas to attend the conference. He called on Israel to take up negotiations that will end the conflict in Gaza and bring lasting peace.
“I will approach the Israeli people saying, our future and the benches of peace,” said Abbas through a translator.
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“Enough violence and war. Our generations deserve to benefit from freedom and security. Let people in our region live in lasting peace and good neighborhood. ”
Speaking on Monday at the Council of Foreign Relations, Carney said that the decision to recognize the Palestinian state is in accordance with the longtime Canadian policy to support a two -state solution, despite the “admitted policy of the Israeli government that there will never be any Palestinian state”.
“It is necessary in our judgment and the judgment of most other countries in the world, which we must push this now,” he said.
“The possibility, in absolute violation of the Charter of the United Nations and in absolute violation of international law, of self -determination for the Palestinian peoples is erased. So we do what we can only recognize the limits. ”
Last week, the Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs urged the federal government to delay the recognition of a Palestinian state until a two -state solution is confirmed at the end of future negotiations between Israel, Hamas and the Palestinian Authority.
The government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long opposed the Palestinian state and now says that such a decision would reward Hamas, the militant group which still controls Gaza parties and whose mortal on October 7, 2023, the attack on Israel sparked the current conflict.
“This will not happen,” Netanyahu said in a statement on Sunday, calling for recognition “the last attempt to force a terrorist state at the heart of our land.”
Canada’s recognition of a Palestinian state depended on the Palestinian authority, the director body on certain parts of the West Bank, entering “concrete and significant reforms”, including new elections.
Ottawa also stressed that Hamas, which controls Gaza, cannot play any role in the governance of a future Palestinian state, which must itself be demilitarized in a future solution to two states.
More than 140 UN members recognized a Palestinian state before Canada and other countries made their advertisements this week. However, Palestinian representatives of the UN do not hold the official status of members and have limited powers within the world organization.
The move of Canada aroused strong criticisms in the House of Commons on Monday of the conservative Shuvaloy Majumdar, who declared that Carney had appeased “fascism formerly buried in the World War (this) again increased as a modern terrorism”.
“It is not diplomacy, it is appeasement. It is a betrayal,” he said in a press release in the House. “It’s bad.”
During the question period, Majumdar put the liberals challenged to “download a border map of this so-called state” on the Canada World Affairs website and “identify its capital”.
He also called on Canada to list a Palestinian state as a sponsor of terror, given the alleged acts carried out by members of the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian Liberation Organization.
“There is no military solution to the conflict to be fulfilled. There is only one political solution,” said Rob Oliphant, parliamentary secretary of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, in response to Majumdar’s questions.
He added that the Liberals “will continue to work for peaceful solutions to ensure that Israel and the Palestinians have safe and secure borders for each of them, so that they will live in peace together.”
“We will continue to defend the state of Israel, and we will continue to defend the people of Palestine to ensure that we have two states with equal justice and equal rights to prosperity,” he said.
The United States under President Donald Trump supported Netanyahu’s position, arguing by recognizing a Palestinian state at this stage of the conflict underflows the pressure for a cease-fire and a long-term peace agreement.
The White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Monday that Trump believed that such recognition will do nothing to guarantee the release of the remaining hostages held by Hamas or end the conflict.
“He therefore thinks that these decisions are just more discussions and not enough action of some of our friends and allies,” said Leavitt, adding that Trump would tackle his speech on Tuesday in the United Nations General Assembly.
– with files from the Associated Press
