NDP motion on Palestinian statehood passes after major amendments

The House of Commons passed a softened New Democrat motion on Mon‐ day night that no longer calls for the federal govern‐ ment to officially recognize Palestinian statehood after last-minute amendments brought in by the govern‐ ing Liberals.

Softening the motion's original language, one of the 14 amendments called for the government to work to‐ ward "the establishment of the State of Palestine as part of a negotiated two-state so‐ lution."

The vote on the non-bind‐ ing motion - initially set to take place at about 7:30 p.m. ET - stirred confusion among MPs. Late in the evening, Lib‐ erals moved to amend the opposition motion by replac‐ ing clauses entailing recogni‐ tion and alluding to genocide - points that the NDP empha‐ sized and that angered some Jewish communities.

Other amendments in‐ clude referring to Hamas as a "terrorist organization," af‐ firming that Israel has a right to defend itself and demand‐ ing that Hamas release all hostages and lay down its ar‐ ms.

WATCH | Foreign policy can't change based on mo‐ tion, Joly says:

The amended motion also calls for ceasing the further transfer of arms to Israel (in‐ stead of asking to suspend all sales of military equipment to Israel) and increasing ef‐ forts to stop the illegal trade of arms, including to Hamas.

The amendments were tabled with the support of the NDP after several discus‐ sions behind the scenes.

A Liberal source told Radio-Canada the Liberals had argued that the political temperature needed to be lowered at a time of increas‐ ing public protests - and that immediate recognition of Palestinian statehood raised questions about borders and would have put Canada out of step with the rest of the G7.

WATCH | Motion on Pales‐ tinian recognition watered down:

Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner called the evening an "embarrassment" and that foreign policy can't be shaped on the fly with "an eleventh-hour" amendment process.

"This is such a serious is‐ sue and it's so important that Canada shows leadership and gets it right," Rempel Garner told CBC News ahead of the vote. "So what hap‐ pened is very much the exact opposite of that."

Due to what he called "massive changes," Conserv‐ ative MP Andrew Scheer called on the Speaker to con‐ sider ruling them out of or‐ der or "at the very least" de‐ fer the vote until tomorrow to give members the time to fully examine the motion and "absorb these massive changes.

Emerging from the vote, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly said MPs were able to work all together to find "common ground" on a situation that "Canadians have been very concerned about."

"That is why it was impor‐ tant to find a large consen‐ sus, working with many par‐ liamentarians to make sure we were sending an impor‐ tant message to the world," she said.

Liberals MPs Anthony Housefather, Ben Carr and Marco Mendecino voted against the motion.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said in a social media post that his party "forced the Liberals" to stop selling arms to the Israeli govern‐ ment, to support both the In‐ ternational Criminal Court (ICC) and International Court of Justice (ICJ), and to place sanctions on extremist set‐ tlers.

"Every single Conservative MP and some Liberals tried to block it - they failed," Singh wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

'Not without its faults'

Earlier Monday, Joly said the government wouldn't base its foreign policy on the mo‐ tion's original aim of recog‐ nizing Palestinian statehood.

"We can't change foreign policy based on an opposi‐ tion motion," Joly said during debate in the House of Com‐ mons.

Israel launched an offen‐ sive in the Gaza Strip follow‐ ing the Hamas-led attack of Oct. 7. The surprise assault left some 1,200 people mostly civilians but also sol‐ diers, police officers and se‐ curity officials - dead in Israel according to officials and saw hundreds of hostages taken to Gaza.

Gaza health officials said that, as of last week, Israel's military campaign had killed more than 31,000 people and displaced nearly two million more.

Calling the NDP motion important "but not without its faults," Joly said Canada wants a deal to secure the re‐ lease of the hostages being held by Hamas, and to estab‐ lish both a humanitarian ceasefire and a way to en‐ sure humanitarian aid reaches Gaza.

Conservative foreign af‐ fairs critic Michael Chong said Conservatives are in favour of a two-state solution but said that can't be accom‐ plished through a "unilateral declaration" in the House.

"It can only be achieved through a long, arduous pro‐ cess that will take months, if not years, of negotiations be‐ tween the two parties at hand, the state of Israel and representatives of the Pales‐ tinian people," he said, adding that Palestinian rep‐ resentatives would need to have popular support and must renounce violence and terrorism.

Liberal MP for Scarbor‐ ough Centre Salma Zahid

urged her colleagues to vote in favour of the motion, say‐ ing Canadians are demand‐ ing action.

"Either we stand for hu‐ man rights everywhere and for everyone, or we don't," she said in the House. "Let's be able to tell our next gener‐ ation we were on the right side of history."

Responding to a question from a Bloc Québécois MP, the NDP's Lindsay Mathyssen said she and members of her community are "frustrated" that the government "seems to want to be able to take two sides on this" conflict.

"Ultimately, violence has to stop before conversations can begin," said Mathyssen, the MP for London-Fanshaw.

Liberal MP for Mount Roy‐ al Anthony Housefather said the motion would create "a false equivalency between the state of Israel and the terrorist organization of Hamas."