Just one day after Great Britain announced its plan to recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations, Canada’s prime minister Mark Carney stated much the same thing.
“Canada intends to recognize the State of Palestine at the 80th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in September 2025,” Carney stated.
What is known as Gaza, or the Gaza Strip, today is a 25-mile strip of territory that is the approximate size of Las Vegas and Detroit.
According to a Times of Israel article, Gaza was claimed and controlled by the Philistines, an enemy of Israel, in ancient times. The area is perhaps most famous for the story of Samson, who destroyed the pagan temple of Dagon. The book of 1 Samuel recounts the Philistines captured the Ark and took it to their cities there. The territory was attacked by two Israeli kings, King Solomon and King Hezekiah.
In the 20th century, Jews won the Arab-Israeli War in 1948 to establish the State of Israel but some Western nations were planning to partition Gaza for Arabs. Egypt captured that territory during the war but Israel captured it in 1967 during the Six-Day War.
The modern-day Gaza Strip has been controlled by Jew-hating Hamas since 2007, when it defeated political rival Palestinian Authority in elections there. Just two years earlier, in 2005, Israel Prime Minister Ariel Sharon handed over the area when he withdrew the military and evacuated 10,000 Jews from settlements.
Hamas, recognized as a terrorist group by the United States, doesn't recognize Israel's right to exist and frequently carries out terrorist attacks against Israelis, including civilians.
After its surprise attack in October 2023, Hamas has now been crushed by the Israeli Defense Forces, or the IDF. The IDF now controls most of Gaza, as much as 75% of it, after almost two years of war but is now under international pressure to declare victory and withdraw.
Dr. Charles McVety, president of Canada Christian College, tells AFN both Christian and Jewish communities disagree with Carney’s plans.
“The Christian and Jewish communities are horrified by Carney's wanton disregard for decency, democracy and peace,” McVety says, “because he is rewarding Hamas for their massacre of innocent young Israelis.”
Prime Minister Carney, McVety continues, plans to reward Hamas “with a state that has never existed in human history.”
