NDP urges government to recognize Palestinian statehood, sanction Israeli officials

The NDP is urging the Liberals to recognize Palestinian statehood and says that a Conservative government would not protect international law in the Middle East.

"If we go to an election within weeks or months, and if there is a Conservative government, this will not happen," NDP foreign affairs critic Heather McPherson said Monday.

She accused the Liberals of lacking the "moral courage and political will" to advance the Trudeau government's stated goal of advancing a two-state solution.

McPherson said Canada ought to recognize Palestinian statehood before any snap election. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has been leading in the polls for months, and McPherson argued the party has been uncritically supportive of Israel.

"We have heard from Pierre Poilievre and the Conservatives that they have no interest in international law, they have no interest in protecting the rights of Palestinians," she said.

Conservative foreign affairs critic Michael Chong wrote in a statement that Israel is defending itself against terrorism by Hamas and Hezbollah.

"Conservatives recognize that Israel is a democratic state defending itself in a fight between democracy and rising authoritarianism," he wrote. "There is no question which side Canada should be on."

The NDP is also seeking a two-way arms embargo, one that would go beyond barring new arms permits and actually block all military trade, including goods arriving from Israel.

The Liberals have restricted weapons sales by halting new permits and pausing some that were already in place. But the U.S. government has proposed buying Canadian arms and sending them to Israel, something Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly has said she is examining.

The NDP also wants Canada to go beyond sanctions on certain settlers in the West Bank by imposing a ban onfar-right ministers in the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. McPherson said two had uttered "genocidal language against the Palestinian people."

Ottawa condemned Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich last month for suggesting it would be justified to starve Palestinians. Smotrichalso said previously that the Palestinian village of Huwara should be erased.

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who is part of a Jewish supremacist party, has called on Palestinians to leave the Gaza Strip and have Israelis settle the territory, which has prompted accusations of ethnic cleansing.

McPherson noted the government could act on her three proposals without a vote in Parliament or a parliamentary study.

Israeli strikes killed more than 270 people in Lebanon on Monday and wounded a thousand people a week after pager explosions killed Hezbollah militants as well as civilians and children.

McPherson would not say whether she believes the pager attack, which has been widely attributed to Israel, is an act of terrorism. She said that Israel is not following international law.

"We know that Hezbollah is a listed terrorist entity, but the (Israeli) government is breaking international law when they are using indiscriminate weapons and the people of Lebanon are suffering," she said.