Sheryl Saperia: Supporting Palestinian statehood means endorsing violence
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On Wednesday, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced that Canada would recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly in September, under the conditions that Hamas disarm, release the remaining hostages, and not participate in a future Palestinian government. This came a day after his government promised $10 million to support the Palestinian Authority government in the West Bank.
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On the international front, recognizing a Palestinian state at this moment in history is not a step toward peace or security, as the prime minister claimed. It is, rather, a reward for terrorism. Hamas — a listed terrorist entity in Canada — committed the worst mass murder of Jews since the Holocaust on October 7, 2023, proudly documenting its atrocities for the world to see.
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The Palestinian Authority (PA), often held up as the 'moderate' alternative to Hamas, represents a moral distinction without a difference. It is riddled with corruption, brutally cracks down on internal dissent, and until February, enforced a 'pay-for-slay' policy that financially rewards Palestinians who murder Israelis (many claim the policy continues, just under a different guise). Mahmoud Abbas is currently in the 21st year of his first four-year term as leader of the PA. To suggest that he and the PA are the foundation for a future state is a disturbing display of either ignorance or wilful blindness.
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Worse still, what does it mean for Canada to lend legitimacy to a people whose institutions have, for generations, educated children to hate Jews, glorify martyrdom and reject coexistence with the West? Palestinian school curriculums, children's television programming and public messaging remain saturated with antisemitic indoctrination and incitement to violence. This is not merely a concern for Israel's security. It is a question of what kind of state the world is being asked to recognize, and what values Canada is endorsing in doing so.
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Recognition now sends a clear message: the international community will deliver statehood not in exchange for reform or reconciliation, but in response to terrorism, incitement and rejectionism. It encourages Hamas to continue holding (and torturing) hostages and prolonging conflict, knowing that pressure will build not on them — but on Israel. It also signals to other terrorist organizations worldwide that decades of violence, extremism and indoctrination can be vindicated with the ultimate political prize: a state of their own.
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But the dangers are not only global — they are also acutely domestic.
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The Carney government, facing economic stagnation, a trade relationship with the United States that is increasingly precarious, ballooning deficits far exceeding promises and at least one scandal-plagued cabinet minister, is using foreign policy to distract from its failures at home. It is an old political trick: when domestic problems mount, find a foreign cause that appeals to an agitated base. But in this case, the price of distraction is dangerously high.
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Canada's streets have become theatres of escalating political extremism that threatens our very democracy by seeking to break all boundaries. Pro-Palestinian protests have crossed the line into intimidation and lawlessness — threatening elected officials, breaking into MP offices, vandalizing public property, glorifying terrorist groups and blocking critical infrastructure. Jewish Canadians have been assaulted, harassed and made to feel unsafe in their own neighbourhoods and places of worship. By moving to recognize Palestinian statehood at this time and under these conditions, Carney is sending an unmistakable message: disruptive, threatening and unlawful behaviour works. Those who scream the loudest and break the most rules will set the foreign policy agenda.
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This is not just a betrayal of Canada's Jewish community. It is a signal to every group in this country — on every side of every issue — that the path to political relevance runs not through lawful protest or democratic engagement, but through confrontation, coercion and chaos.
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Canada's foreign policy must not be allowed to become a political balm for a flailing government. And it certainly cannot become a prize for those who are actively eroding democratic norms at home, let alone those who commit atrocities abroad. If foreign policy is domestic policy with its hat on, then Carney's hat is one of capitulation — to extremists, to mob pressure and to a worldview that undermines both Canadian and global security.
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This decision must not stand unchallenged. Not just for the sake of Israel, or even for the future of the Palestinian people, but for the integrity of Canadian democracy itself.
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