Prime Minister Justin Trudeau criticized Benjamin Netanyahu’s position on Palestinian statehood after the Israeli prime minister claimed in a nationally-televised news conference that the so-called “two-state solution” is dead.
“I was not surprised to hear Prime Minister Netanyahu share that. That has long been his position,” Trudeau said Thursday when asked about the comments at a press conference in Iqaluit.
“He and I had, just a few weeks ago, an extensive conversation on exactly this topic and others.
“Canada’s position is crystal clear. We believe the only way forward for the region, indeed the only way forward for a safe and secure Israel, is to have a Palestinian state that is also safe and secure with internationally-recognized borders. We believe in a two-state solution.”
WATCH | ‘Canada remains deeply committed towards a two-state solution’ in Gaza, Trudeau says
‘Canada remains deeply committed towards a two-state solution’ in Gaza, says Trudeau
3 days ago
Duration 1:10
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he is ‘not surprised’ by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent comments on Palestinian statehood. Earlier on Thursday, Netanyahu said he has informed the U.S. that he opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state as part of any post-war scenario.
Netanyahu’s decision to lay his cards on the table Thursday sets up a potential conflict with Israel’s most important backer, U.S. President Joe Biden.
His address to the Israeli nation followed weeks of pressure by the United States to get Netanyahu’s government to commit to a plan for the post-Gaza War period that includes a clear roadmap to a sovereign, independent Palestinian state.
Israel’s Western allies committed to Oslo Accords
Despite Israeli requests for Biden to stop talking about the two-state solution during the war, the American leader and his envoys have continued to insist.
All of Israel’s western allies say they want to see the conflict resolved according to the principle of land-for-peace that Israel agreed to decades ago in the Oslo Accords.
Netanyahu has long opposed a two-state solution but has generally avoided saying so explicitly, at least in English.
In Hebrew, he has been more frank. In 2010, the Jerusalem Post released a 2001 video of Netanyahu in which he said he “de facto put an end to the Oslo Accords.”
His televised speech will further embarrass Biden, who has given Israel unconditional backing since the Hamas attacks of Oct. 7. Biden has insisted that the U.S. and Israel are working together toward a two-state solution.
In his statement Thursday, Netanyahu told Israelis that “the prime minister needs to be capable of saying no to our friends.”
On Sept. 22, 2023, Netanyahu went before the UN General Assembly with a printed map entitled “The New Middle East” that showed a Greater Israel in blue containing all of the land from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu uses a red marker on a map as he addresses the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly on Friday, Sept. 22, 2023. (Richard Drew/AP)
“In any future arrangement … Israel needs security control of all territory west of the Jordan [River],” Netanyahu said Thursday. “This collides with the idea of sovereignty. What can you do?”
Palestinian Delegate to Canada Mona Abuamara took aim at that part of Netanyahu’s speech.
“The thing that caught my eye mostly was the from-the-river-to-the-sea use,” she said on CBC News’ Power and Politics, noting that Palestinians who use the same language are routinely condemned.
“In the course of these three months, PM Netanyahu has said everything that Western democracies refuse to believe, and blame the Palestinians for not achieving the peace initiative, not fulfilling it,” she added. “But Netanyahu came out and said he’s the reason the Oslo Accord failed, and now he’s saying he will not allow for any part of it to happen.”
WATCH |International community needs to call out Israel, says Palestinian rep:
International community needs to call out Israel as an occupying power, says Palestinian representative
3 days ago
Duration 11:16
“You don’t allow the oppressor, the occupier to decide if the occupied and the oppressed get to have their own state. You recognize that state,” Mona Abuamara, chief representative of the Palestinian Delegation to Canada, told Power & Politics.
Pressed on Netanyahu’s remarks on CBC News’ Power and Politics, Israeli Ambassador Iddo Moed said Israel is focused on winning the war, not on post-war arrangements.
“Talking about the two-state solution is something that is not tangible at the moment and therefore there is no reason to be discussed,” he told host David Cochrane. “Once we win that war, we’ll see.”
Asked whether Netanyahu’s comments would alienate allies that have supported Israel on the understanding that it would honour the Oslo Accords, Moed replied that “at the moment it’s not the right time to talk about that, and I think that the two-state solution is a concept that is not realistic.”
WATCH | Two-state solution talks ‘not tangible at the moment,’ says Israeli ambassador:
Two-state solution talks ‘not tangible at the moment,’ says Israeli ambassador
3 days ago
Duration 11:23
“Talking about an idea from the past when we know that the future is completely different … doesn’t really make sense,” Israel’s Ambassador to Canada Iddo Moed told Power & Politics.
Since coming to power in 2022, the Netanyahu government has accelerated the granting of permits for new settlement construction in the Occupied Territories even as its settler allies have accelerated their often-violent efforts to push Palestinians from the land.
Much of the land envisioned as part of a future Palestinian state in the 1990s has now been taken by settlers or seized by the government of Israel for other purposes.
Moed said the situation in the region remains in flux. “Let us not try to impose any kind of an idea that is based on a reality that doesn’t exist anymore,” he said.
Canada’s position on Palestinian statehood
Israel’s new official position is also at odds with longstanding Canadian policy on the Middle East, which places the Oslo Accords and subsequent agreements that built on Oslo at the centre of its vision.
“Canada recognizes the Palestinian right to self-determination and supports the creation of a sovereign, independent, viable, democratic and territorially contiguous Palestinian state, as part of a comprehensive, just and lasting peace settlement,” says the government’s statement of Canadian policy on key issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Oslo, says the government’s policy statement, “continues to provide the basis for a comprehensive agreement based on UN Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338.”
UNSC 242 is a resolution passed unanimously at the conclusion of the Six-Day War in 1967 that requires “the withdrawal of Israel armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict,” including Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and the Syrian Golan Heights. UNSC 338 reaffirmed that demand at the conclusion of the Yom Kippur War in 1973.
Canada’s official policy document explicitly states that “Canada does not recognize permanent Israeli control over territories occupied in 1967 (the Golan Heights, the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip). The Fourth Geneva Convention applies in the occupied territories and establishes Israel’s obligations as an occupying power, in particular with respect to the humane treatment of the inhabitants of the occupied territories.
“As referred to in UN Security Council Resolutions 446 and 465, Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention. The settlements also constitute a serious obstacle to achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace.”
That fundamental position has been held consistently by Canada, under both Liberal and Conservative governments, since the Israel-PLO agreement informally known as the Oslo Accords was signed in Washington in 1993.
An elderly woman looks on as she sits with children at a makeshift camp in an area of the European Hospital in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on December 31, 2023, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the militant group Hamas. (AFP/Getty Images)
Netanyahu’s cabinet is dominated by West Bank settlers such as National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who are fiercely opposed to a two-state solution.
The more extreme members of the Netanyahu government have been openly calling for the removal of Gaza’s Palestinian population and its replacement with Jewish settlements.
Opposition to the two-state solution is by no means limited to the Netanyahu government, however.
Benny Gantz, widely considered the frontrunner to replace Netanyahu, has denounced the Israeli coalition that took power on Dec. 29, 2022, as “an extremist government that will drag the country to the brink and to further radicalization.”
But Gantz himself has taken to referring to a “two-entity solution,” implying that he will only support a plan that leaves the Palestinians with something less than an independent state, because it was “impossible to rely on dreams.”
U.S. says Oslo is still the only path
While Israeli leaders have pointed to the October 7 massacre as a reason to take the two-state concept off the table, U.S. officials have taken the view that those events only confirm the need for a two-state solution.
“The October 7th attacks should have been a wake-up call to everyone that there needs to be a solution moving forward that addresses the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people while providing security to the Israeli people,” State Department spokesperson Matt Miller said last month. “We think the best way to achieve that is the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.”
Palestinians look at the destruction after an Israeli strike in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024. (Fatima Shbair/The Associated Press)
In Davos, where the World Economic Forum gathered for its annual conference, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told delegates Wednesday that respect for Oslo and the two-state principle is not negotiable.
“You now have something that you did not have before, and that is Arab countries and Muslim countries, even beyond the region, that are prepared to have a relationship with Israel in terms of its integration, its normalization, its security that they were never prepared to have before,” Blinken said.
“But you have an absolute conviction by those countries, one that we share, that this has to include a pathway to a Palestinian state.”
No rebuilding without 2-state commitment
U.S. officials also have warned that other countries will not contribute anything to reconstructing Gaza after the war until they see Israel irrevocably embarked on a clear path to two states.
One presentation at Davos estimated those costs at about $15 billion just to replace housing, without considering public infrastructure.
“Look, we’re not going to get into the business, for example, of rebuilding Gaza, only to have it levelled again in a year or five years and then be asked to rebuild it again,” Blinken said on the sidelines of Davos, saying that was the message he had received from Arab leaders.
Abuamara said the Israeli PM’s remarks proved that the time has come for the international community to “implement” the Oslo Accords.
“We want the implementation of international law, we want for Palestine not to be the exception anymore,” she said. “We want for Israel to be held accountable.”
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
