The House of Commons vote endorsing a package of conflict-ending measures came after language calling on Canada to immediately recognize a State of Palestine was removed.
The polarized debate in Canada over the conflict in Gaza spilled into the country’s House of Commons on Monday as lawmakers voted to endorse a wide-ranging package of nonbinding measures that a left-leaning opposition party had presented as way to bring peace to the region.
The motion approved on Monday night — which called for ending authorizations of arms exports to Israel, an immediate cease-fire and the release of all Israeli hostages — differed sharply from the version that the left-of-center New Democratic Party had been proposing earlier in the day. That proposal called on Canada to immediately recognize a State of Palestine.
The version of the motion that was ultimately approved, with language agreed to in last-minute private negotiations, simply echoed Canada’s longstanding policy of working toward the creation of a Palestinian state as part of a two-nation solution for Middle East peace.
The 204-to-117 vote on Monday evening followed an often-fractious debate over a motion that some lawmakers, especially in its earlier form, had characterized as anti-Israel.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whose Liberal Party negotiated a toned-down version of the motion with the N.D.P. as the day went on, has supported Israel’s right to self-defense while also condemning violence against Palestinians.
“We’re entangled in a web of devastation and under pressure to pick sides,” Mélanie Joly, Mr. Trudeau’s foreign minister, said during the debate. “We have to condemn both sides.”
Source: nytimes.com
