Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced Wednesday that he would join France and the UK in recognizing a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly in September.
The White House repeated that such a step would be a “reward” for Hamas — and families of the 50 Israeli hostages still in captivity in Gaza condemned the rush to reward terrorists before they had freed those they had kidnapped.
“Canada has long been committed to a two-state solution,” Carney said on X, referring to “an independent, viable, and sovereign Palestinian state living side by side with the State of Israel in peace and security.”
With Hamas at war with Israel, and with no clear borders for a potential Palestinian state, nor a form of government other than autocracy, it was not clear what Carney was talking about, nor how to achieve it.
The Times of Israel said the families of the hostages — 20 of whom are still living — were not impressed:
With a growing number of Western countries declaring they could soon recognize Palestinian statehood amid outrage over Israel’s handling of the Gaza conflict, families of hostages still held in the Gaza Strip, as well as a British-Israeli former hostage, condemned such action on Wednesday as a “shameful” reward for Hamas.
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“Recognition of a Palestinian state while Hamas holds 50 hostages isn’t just a step away from peace, it is a blatant violation of international law and a dangerous moral and political violation that bestows legitimacy to horrifying war crimes,” said The Hostages and Missing Families Forum in a statement.
“The international community — if it wants peace — must join the efforts of the US and demand, before all else, the release of the hostages and then the end of the fighting,” said the Forum. The Forum, which represents a majority, but not all, of the hostages’ families, advocates a deal with Hamas to return all the hostages in exchange for an end to the war and the release of Palestinian security prisoners.
The White House reiterated its opposition to premature declarations of Palestinian statehood. President Donald Trump told reporters on Tuesday that such measures amounted to a “reward for Hamas” terror.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of Trump 2.0: The Most Dramatic ‘First 100 Days’ in Presidential History, available for Amazon Kindle. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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