Prime Minister Justin Trudeau criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s position on establishing a Palestinian state after the Israeli president insisted in a nationally televised speech that the so-called “two-state solution” is over.
“I wasn’t surprised to hear Prime Minister Netanyahu sharing that. That’s his position,” Trudeau said Thursday when asked about the comment at a news conference in Iqaluit.
“He and I had an extensive conversation about this very topic and others just a few weeks ago.
“Canada’s position is very clear: We believe that the only way forward for this region, and indeed the only way forward for a safe and secure Israel, is to have a safe and secure Israel with internationally recognized borders. I believe in having a secure Palestinian state. It’s a two-state solution.”
Prime Minister Netanyahu’s decision to lay down his cards on Thursday set up a potential conflict with Israel’s most important supporter, US President Joe Biden.
His address to the Israeli public came after weeks of US pressure on the Netanyahu government to commit to a post-war plan for Gaza that includes a clear roadmap to a sovereign Palestinian state.
Israel’s Western allies commit to Oslo Accords
in spite of Israeli request The U.S. leader and his envoy continued to urge Biden to stop talking about a two-state wartime solution.
All of Israel’s Western allies have said they want the conflict to be resolved in accordance with the Land for Peace principle that Israel agreed to decades ago. Oslo agreement.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long opposed a two-state solution, but has generally avoided saying it explicitly, at least in English.
In Hebrew, he became more frank. In 2010, the Jerusalem Post published a 2001 video of Netanyahu in which he said he had “effectively put an end to the Oslo Accords.”
Biden’s televised address will further embarrass him, who has given unconditional support to Israel since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack. Mr. Biden has maintained that the United States and Israel are working together toward a two-state solution.
“The prime minister needs the ability to say no to our friends,” Netanyahu told Israelis in a statement Thursday.
On September 22, 2023, Prime Minister Netanyahu attended the United Nations General Assembly with a printed map titled “The New Middle East.” blue greater israel It includes all the land from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.
“In any future arrangement…Israel requires security control of all territory west of Jordan.” [River]” Prime Minister Netanyahu said on Thursday. “This conflicts with the idea of sovereignty. What can we do?”
Mona Abu-Amara, the Palestinian representative to Canada, took aim at that part of Netanyahu’s speech.
“What caught my eye was the river-to-sea application,” she told CBC News. power and politicspointed out that Palestinians who use the same language are routinely criticized.
“For the past three months, Prime Minister Netanyahu has said everything Western democracies refuse to believe, blaming the Palestinians for unfulfilled and unfulfilled peace initiatives,” he added. “But Prime Minister Netanyahu came out and said it was his fault that the Oslo Accords failed, and he now says he won’t forgive any part of it.”
Mona Abu-Amara, Head of the Palestinian Delegation to Canada, said: “We cannot allow oppressors and occupiers to decide whether the occupied and oppressed have their own state. You must recognize that state. Mona Abu-Amara, head of the Palestinian delegation to Canada, told Power & Politics.
CBC News follows up on the statement. power and politicsIsraeli Ambassador Ido Moed said Israel was focused on winning the war, not the post-war process.
“There’s no reason to talk about a two-state solution because it’s not concrete at this point,” he told host David Cochrane. “We’ll know when we win that war.”
Asked whether Prime Minister Netanyahu’s comments might alienate allies who have supported Israel on the understanding that it would abide by the Oslo Accords, Moed said: “Right now is not the right time to talk about that.” “I think a two-state solution is the solution.” It’s an unrealistic concept. ”
“Talking about ideas from the past when you know the future is going to be very different… it really doesn’t make sense,” Ido Moed, Israel’s ambassador to Canada, told Power & Politics.
Since taking power in 2022, Netanyahu’s government has accelerated the granting of permits to build new settlements in occupied territory, as settlement allies accelerate often violent efforts to force Palestinians from their land. .
Much of the land envisioned as part of a future Palestinian state in the 1990s is now occupied by settlers or confiscated by the Israeli government for other purposes.
Moed said the situation in the region remains fluid. “Let’s not impose any ideas that are based on realities that no longer exist,” he said.
Canada’s position on a Palestinian state
Israel’s new official position also contradicts Canada’s longstanding policy toward the Middle East, which places the Oslo Accords and subsequent Oslo-based agreements at the center of its vision.
“Canada recognizes the Palestinian people’s 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 durable peace settlement. ‘ says the government. Canadian policy statement On the main issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The Oslo government said in its policy statement that it “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 end of the Six-Day War in 1967 that called for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from areas occupied in recent conflicts, including Gaza, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Syrian Golan. ” is requested. Heights. UNSC 338 reaffirmed its demands at the end of the Yom Kippur War in 1973.
Canada’s official policy document states: “Canada does not recognize Israel’s permanent control over the territories occupied in 1967 (Golan Heights, West Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza Strip). applies to the region and establishes Israel’s obligations.” As an occupying power, especially regarding the humane treatment of the inhabitants of the occupied territories.
“As noted in UN Security Council resolutions 446 and 465, Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention. This poses a serious obstacle to the above.”
This fundamental position has been consistently held by Canada under both Liberal and Conservative governments since the signing of the Israel-PLO agreement, known informally as the Oslo Accords, in Washington in 1993. Ta.
Prime Minister Netanyahu is not alone in the two conflicting states.
Prime Minister Netanyahu’s cabinet is dominated by West Bank settlers, including National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who are fierce opponents of the two-state solution.
More radical members of Netanyahu’s government have openly called for the removal of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip and replacement with Jewish settlements.
However, opposition to a two-state solution is by no means limited to the Netanyahu government.
Benny Gantz, widely considered the front-runner to replace Netanyahu, has called the Israeli coalition, which came to power on December 29, 2022, “an extremist government that is dragging the country to the brink and leading to further radicalization.” denounced.
But Gantz himself has referred to a “two-subject solution,” implying that he would only support plans that would leave the Palestinians with something less than an independent state. Because it is impossible to rely on dreams.
US still insists Oslo is the only way forward
Israeli leaders have cited the October 7 massacre as a reason to take the two-state idea off the table, but U.S. officials say the events only confirm the need for a two-state solution. I’m taking it.
State Department spokesman Matt Miller said last month: “The October 7th attack is a reminder to everyone that we need to advance solutions that meet the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people while providing security for the Israeli people.” It should have been a wake-up call.” . “We believe the best way to achieve that is the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.”
In Davos, where the World Economic Forum gathered for its annual conference, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told delegates on Wednesday that Oslo and respect for the two-state principle were non-negotiable.
“You now have something that you didn’t have before, which is that Arab and Islamic countries have a relationship with Israel that is unprecedented in terms of integration, normalization, and security, even across the region. “We were prepared in advance,” Blinken said.
“But you have the absolute conviction of the nations, which we share, that this must include a path to a Palestinian state.”
Reconstruction is not possible without two-state commitment
U.S. officials have also warned that other countries will make no contribution to the postwar rebuilding of Gaza until Israel is irrevocably on a clear path to two states.
A presentation at Davos estimated the cost of housing replacement alone to be about $15 billion, without considering public infrastructure.
“We’re not going to get into the business of rebuilding, for example, the Gaza Strip, only to be leveled again in a year or five years and then asked to rebuild again,” Blinken said on the sidelines of Davos. Ta. He said that was the message he received from Arab leaders.
Abu Amara said the Israeli prime minister’s comments proved that the time had come for the international community to “implement” the Oslo Accords.
“We want international law to be enforced and we want Palestine to no longer be an exception,” she said. “We want Israel to be held accountable.”
