Anand says Palestinian statehood recognition does not mean diplomatic normalization

OTTAWA — Foreign Minister Anita Anand says Canada’s imminent recognition of Palestinian statehood does not mean the government will immediately normalize diplomatic relations with the Palestinian Authority.

Speaking to reporters from Mexico on Friday, the minister argued that recognizing Palestinian statehood at the United Nations General Assembly next week — breaking with decades of Canadian foreign policy precedent — was no different than believing in a two-state solution between Palestine and Israel.

But the recognition does not mean Canada will normalize diplomatic relations with the Palestinian Authority (PA), the governing body in the West Bank, she noted.

“Normalization is completely different from recognition,” she told reporters.

“The process of normalization involves increases in diplomatic relationships. It involves opening embassies. It involves opening consulates. It involves ensuring that there are processes for transfer of citizens between the two states at issue,” the minister said.

Canada currently only has a representative to the Palestinian Authority with an office in Ramallah, West Bank.

That step will only happen when the government sees the Palestinian Authority make good on commitments to significant democratic reform and hold a general election in 2026 (for the first time since 2006) that cannot involve terrorist group Hamas, Anand said.

Anand said she would speak to PA leader Mahmoud Abbas later in the day on Friday and would reiterate the need for Hamas to lay down its weapons and release remaining Israeli hostages.

“I will be stressing again, the importance of the promises laid out in the Abbas letter that we received in July.”

In the meantime, Anand said she was in “deep” conversation with the United Kingdom, France and Australia which are also slated to recognize Palestinian statehood at the UN General Assembly next week.

In July, Carney said the statehood recognition would go to the Palestinian Authority and that Hamas is not welcome “in any shape or form” in the process.

Considering that Abbas has not held a general election in the West Bank since 2006 and the extreme devastation in Gaza due to the ongoing war with Israel, most international observers consider it unlikely that the PA hold a general election in 2026.

Carney’s July announcement was immediately condemned by the Israeli embassy, which said it rewards the 2023 terrorist attacks against Israel that started the war in Gaza.

“Let us be clear: Israel will not bow to the distorted campaign of international pressure against it. We will not sacrifice our very existence by permitting the imposition of a jihadist state on our ancestral homeland that seeks our annihilation,” said Israeli Ambassador Iddo Moed at the time.

National Post

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