Paul Hosford: Canada recognises Palestine as Gaza crisis deepens — but is symbolic support enough?

New Zealand and Australia were also signatories to the declaration that indicates they could follow suit in the coming months.

‘The New York Call’, published by the French foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, on Wednesday, said signatories “have already recognised, have expressed or express the willingness or the positive consideration of our countries to recognise the state of Palestine”.

Ireland among the 15 signatories

The signatories include Andorra, Australia, Canada, Finland, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Portugal, and San Marino, each of which has not yet recognised an independent Palestinian state. They also include Iceland, Ireland, Malta, Norway, Slovenia, and Spain, which have.

Ireland’s recognition of Palestinian statehood in May 2024 came amid a public outcry at a humanitarian disaster which has only gotten worse since.

At the time, former minister for foreign affairs Simon Coveney told the Irish Examiner that recognition was something Ireland had “been working on with like-minded countries for years to try to keep a two-state solution alive” and the move last year was not the perfect time, but “it is the right time”.

What does recognition mean?

Ireland was the first EU member state to endorse the idea of Palestinian statehood in 1980 and the recognition was contained in successive programmes for government without ever being fully realised.

At this point, it’s worth asking what recognition actually does.

In Ireland’s case, we recognised the state of Palestine, which is based on 1967 borders referenced in the United Nations Security Council resolution 242 (1967).

The 1967 borders acknowledge that land which has since been occupied by Israel settlers is in fact Palestinian territory.

While the symbolism of acknowledging a Palestinian state is important, there are many practical implications. For example, recognition will mean the establishment of full diplomatic relations.

For Ireland, this means the upgrading of the Palestinian mission in Ireland to an embassy, subject to a formal request from the Palestinian authorities as well as the the appointment of an ambassador to Ireland from the state of Palestine. The Government will also make similar changes.

Ireland has a diplomatic team based in the representative office in Ramallah, which works to promote relations between the Irish and Palestinian people, as do many of the countries which have joined the calls for recognition.

So it is not nothing. 

The countries which are calling for recognition of Palestine even at this late stage are committing to real work, to real change, and to something that will reaffirm the two-state solution, accepted by many as the only road out of this intractable violence in the Middle East.

Canada deserves praise for defying Trump

And so the leadership of those countries should in their own way be lauded for their decisions, particularly Mr Carney, whose country received a backlash from its nearest neighbour during the week, with US president Donald Trump saying recognition of Palestine by Canada would damage trade talks between the two countries.

Reacting, as he does, by posting on social media Trump said: “Wow! Canada has just announced that it is backing statehood for Palestine. That will make it very hard for us to make a Trade Deal with them.”

But beyond US reaction, it is worth asking what has prompted this new round of recognition for a Palestinian state. Carney on Wednesday said his country was recognising the state of Palestine because in part “the level of human suffering in Gaza is intolerable”.

In his own announcement last week, French president Emmanuel Macron said his country would recognise Palestine in September “true to its historic commitment to just and lasting peace in the Middle East”.

“We must also guarantee the demilitarisation of Hamas and secure and rebuild Gaza.

“Finally, we must build the state of Palestine ensure its viability and enable it, by accepting its demilitarisation and fully recognising Israel it contributes to the security of all in the Middle East. There is no alternative.”

British prime minister Keir Starmer said his country would recognise Palestine but added the caveat that Israel must meet certain conditions by next month including agreeing to a ceasefire in Gaza.

All the statements pointed to a logical point: One cannot say they support the two-state solution if they do not recognise that there are two states. The world leaders who have belatedly joined the 147 other UN member states in recognising Palestine seem to be pinning their hopes on the idea that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu will cease his relentless bombardment of the Gazan people only when a Palestinian state exists which he can negotiate with.

Late arrivals ignored two years of suffering

Unspoken in all of this is the idea that some form of Rubicon has been crossed in Gaza in recent weeks, that the starvation of children is somehow worse than bombing them when they sleep in tents as refugees.

It is somewhat galling to see nations which have resisted Irish invitations and pressure to join in recognising Palestine now come to the table as if they weren’t arriving late.

In the week leading up to Irish recognition of a Palestinian state, the death toll of Palestinians rose to more than 35,700. Just three days previously, an Israeli airstrike on a house in the Nuseirat camp killed at least 31 people, while Israeli settlers attacked a humanitarian aid truck in the West Bank, throwing boxes of food on the road.

The following day, amid huge criticism from the Israeli state and its embassy in Dublin, 91 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks.

No wrong time to do the right thing

The pictures which have emerged from Gaza in recent weeks of children being starved to death while aid sits waiting on the border have shocked some into action, with disgust replacing apathy or outright hostility towards Palestinians. And this is good, there is no wrong time to do the right thing.

But for world leaders to have ignored nearly two years of what have been called war crimes by many to finally come to this realisation poses the question; what took you so long?

Keir Starmer’s announcement was so conditional that it reeked of political backside-covering. 

Britain will only act if Israel does not take decisive steps to end the suffering and Gaza, reach a ceasefire, refrain from annexing even more territory in the west bank, and commit to a peace process that results in a two-state solution.

World must go beyond recognising Palestine

By dangling Palestinian recognition as a punishment for failure to meet those criteria, the British prime minister — who never met a fence he wasn’t comfortable on — tried to play both sides but only reinforced the Israeli idea that recognition of a Palestinian state is a punishment of them.

The movement of G7 countries on the recognition of Palestine is welcome and it means the US will stand alone as the only permanent members of the UN Security Council which does not recognise a Palestinian state.

But the chorus of international condemnation of Israel must go beyond recognition, because that alone will not slow down the humanitarian disaster unfolding before our eyes. And whatever steps are taken cannot wait as long again.