Envoy says Canada is coming closer to recognizing Palestinian statehood
By Canadian Press on July 9, 2025.
OTTAWA — The Palestinian ambassador to Canada says she feels Ottawa is on the brink of officially recognizing statehood for her people, as she also takes note of tougher language from Canada on Israel’s actions in Gaza.
“Accountability means everything to the Palestinian people. That’s all we are looking for,” said Mona Abuamara, who is at the end of her four-year term as the chief representative of the Palestinian General Delegation to Canada.
“Canada could have done better and must do better.”
Abuamara said Canada’s approach to the situation in the Palestinian territories in recent years has amounted to supporting Israel “without budging” while funding small projects such as police training and development work.
“Basically, (it was to) be managed under that occupation,” she said. “But what we were looking for from Canada is to help us get rid of that occupation instead, so we could make our own money.”
For decades, Canada has backed the creation of a Palestinian country to exist in peace alongside a secure Israel. In May 2024, Ottawa said it no longer believes that recognizing Palestinian statehood can only happen after a peace negotiation. Around that time, Ottawa said it was assessing what conditions need to be in place, in order to proceed with formal recognition.
In an interview with The Canadian Press, Abuamara said Canada is now edging even closer toward that formal recognition.
She cited a June 10 consultation event Canada co-hosted with Qatar and Mexico at the United Nations headquarters on how to peacefully resolve the Israel-Palestine conflict and advance a two-state solution.
The event was supposed to be part of a UN conference organized by France and Saudi Arabia; participating countries were expected to either recognize Palestine as a state or agree on steps toward doing so. The organizers postponed the conference when a war started between Israel and Iran, and no new date has been set.
Abuamara said Canada had “a lot of conversations” with France and others about moving Ottawa closer to recognizing Palestinian statehood when the UN conference eventually takes place.
“We’ve been very close, before the (April federal) election, to the recognition,” she said.
The Canadian Press has asked the federal cabinet for comment but has not received a response.
Israel has pushed back firmly on calls for Palestinian statehood, saying the territories have divided leadership and Hamas and Fatah both run corrupt governments that refuse to hold elections and have supported terrorists.
Abuamara said recognizing Palestinian statehood would “set in stone for Canadians the rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination.”
Her work changed drastically on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas militants attacked Israel, resulting in the deadliest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. Hamas and its affiliates killed 1,200 people in Israel, including soldiers, and took 251 people hostage; they still hold roughly 50.
The attack prompted Israel to bombard Gaza. Hamas officials say Israeli military actions, including strikes on hospitals and refugee camps, have since killed nearly 60,000 Palestinians, including militants.
The Israel-Gaza conflict has triggered tense protests on Canadian streets and a spike in hate crimes targeting Jews. Muslim and Arab Canadians, meanwhile, report being afraid to express criticism of Israel’s military campaign because of the possible backlash.
The war also has bolstered calls for recognition of a Palestinian state. Spain, Ireland and Norway formally recognized a Palestinian state last year, citing Israeli officials’ talk of annexing Palestinian territories.
Abuamara’s role is to speak for Palestinians across the Middle East, although she was appointed by a government that only has control of the West Bank, not the Gaza Strip.
She said her posting in Canada left her dismayed by the shortage of Palestinian voices in the media and on academic panels. She said she struggled to get direct meetings with Canadian government officials.
But she noted that Prime Minister Mark Carney has been using stronger language to criticize Israeli policies and actions than did his predecessor, Justin Trudeau.
“We’ve seen stronger, clearer statements since the Carney government took office,” she said. “There is less two sides-ism, less not naming the perpetrator of the crime.”
She also cited comments Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand made in May describing Israel’s military campaign as “aggression caused against the Palestinian and the Gazan people in Palestine.” In those comments, the minister took the unconventional step of citing “Palestine” instead of the Palestinian territories.
Anand also said that by restricting humanitarian aid in Gaza, Israel was “using food as a political tool.”
Israeli officials took issue with Anand’s use of the word “aggression” to describe a military campaign to neutralize the threat of Hamas.
Abuamara said it was refreshing to see Canada call out violence toward civilians in the Middle East as it often does for Ukrainians attacked by Russia.
“Canada needs to just stand by international law,” she said.
“It’s not about Palestine. It’s about the international rules-based order, about human rights, about values and principles.”
Canada has been pushing Israel for more accountability on a number of incidents in Gaza, including in May after Israeli soldiers in the West Bank fired shots in the vicinity of Canadian and other diplomats during a humanitarian assessment of the Jenin refugee camp.
Canada summoned Israel’s ambassador following that event and is still awaiting the results of an investigation into what happened.
Abuamara said the lack of accountability for that incident illustrates how Palestinians feel when they level accusations against Israeli soldiers.
“It’s just exactly what we want the Canadian government and the Canadian people to know — this is what we have been living for decades. Israel is never wrong,” she said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 9, 2025.
Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press
37-36
The Palestinian ambassador to Canada continues to spew disinformation, stating over 60,000 Palestinians have been killed. The UN admitted several months ago the numbers were inflated and even an Hamas official admitted the death tolls were inflated in an effort to get the world to side with Hamas.
Hamas does not care about the Palestinians, only the cause, to kill all Jews then turn to the world and kill all infidels, with Israel being the little Satan and the West bring the great Satan. Canada has continued to support the Hamas funded protests, with funding also coming from Iran and Qatar indirectly, who burn out flag, scream death to Canada and we are Hamas!
What this ambassador isn’t telling you is that over 100 years ago Gaza, Judea and Samaria were all given to the Israeli’s in the Balfour Declaration, and the League of Nations agreed. The Israeli’s are Indigenous to the Middle East, descendants of Shem, Noah’s son (Noah’s ark, the great flood). They were not just sent there in 1917, but have always had a presence in the Middle East since Adam and Eve in the beginning, and archaeology continues to prove this. The temple mount had 2 Jewish temples where the current Islamic Temple Mount sits. Islam did not become a religion for 600 years after Christ was crucified.
Israel didn’t ask for the was it is in with the Palestinians, who have been USED, by Iran for Iran’s own agenda.
The Palestinians were offered their own state several times but refused, saying they would kill the Jews and take back the land of Israel.
The Israeli’s gave back Gaza 20 years ago in an effort to find peace, and instead of the Palestinians building up a great economic and peaceful country, they focused on killing the Jews, building over 500 miles of tunnels and subteranean infrastructure, with a massive complex below the UNRWA headquarters, who supplied the electricity for the massive complex. This was built using international aid funds, your Canadian tax dollars help build this and arm Hamas, while the people suffered with housing and food shortages.
Billions of aid money funded Hamas and their infrastructure which was built for the plans to kill all Jews!
They were offered a Palestinian state many times, but refused so it will change nothing!
The Liberals have proven to be pro-Hamas by their actions, because actions speak louder than words!
Gaza was the largest terrorist base in the world! If this ambassador truly wanted the best for her fellow citizens in the region she would focus on getting rid of the terrorists who kill the Gazans for not complying, who steal food and supplies given as aid and then use it to control the Gazans, and sell it back to them to support themselves, all the time gorging themsevles on the food and using up the other supplies for themselves. UNRWA was compromised by Hamas and controlled by Hamas!
This ambassador thinks Canadians are all ignorant and have blindly following the Associated Press lies coming from Gaza or the inflated fatalities from the Hamas run Gazan Health Authority.
Yes, there are many sheep who blindly follow the lies, but there are also the rest of us who know the truth!
A Palestinian state will solve nothing unless you get rid or the terrorists who are among them!