(National Post-Canada) Irwin Cotler and Orde Kittrie - Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said on Sep. 16 that Ottawa would recognize a Palestinian state at the UN despite its failure to implement any of the conditions and demands set forth in Prime Minister Mark Carney's July 30 announcement of Canada's recognition plan. This is a mistake, which would regrettably reward terrorism, make peace less likely, and contradict the longstanding international legal frameworks for recognizing statehood and for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Carney said Ottawa's "intention" was "predicated on the Palestinian Authority's commitment" to fundamentally reform its governance, hold general elections "in which Hamas can play no part," and demilitarize the Palestinian state. None of these commitments have been implemented. Carney also demanded that Hamas immediately release all hostages, disarm, and "play no role in the future governance of Palestine." None of these demands have been met. The international legal criteria for statehood require that a nascent state have a) a permanent population; b) a defined territory; c) a government with effective control over that population and territory; and d) capacity to enter into relations with other states. The European Council (EC) added several non-binding criteria in its 1991 guidelines for recognizing new states in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. These include prospective states providing their citizens "the rule of law, democracy, and human rights." One of us (Irwin Cotler) has personally met with PA President Mahmoud Abbas and his aides many times over the years. They have repeatedly promised that they would abolish the pay-for-slay program and move towards demilitarization and deradicalization. Regrettably, those promises have largely gone unfulfilled. Irwin Cotler is a former minister of justice and attorney general of Canada. Orde Kittrie is a law professor at Arizona State University and a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
2025-09-21 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive