Canada Lawmakers Back Motion Meant to Help Bring Peace to Gaza

The polarized debate in Canada over the conflict in Gaza spilled into the country’s House of Commons on Monday as lawmakers voted to endorse a wide-ranging package of nonbinding measures that a left-leaning opposition party had presented as way to bring peace to the region.

The motion approved on Monday night — which called for ending authorizations of arms exports to Israel, an immediate cease-fire and the release of all Israeli hostages — differed sharply from the version that the left-of-center New Democratic Party had been proposing earlier in the day. That proposal called on Canada to immediately recognize a State of Palestine.

The version of the motion that was ultimately approved, with language agreed to in last-minute private negotiations, simply echoed Canada’s longstanding policy of working toward the creation of a Palestinian state as part of a two-nation solution for Middle East peace.

The 204-to-117 vote on Monday evening followed an often-fractious debate over a motion that some lawmakers, especially in its earlier form, had characterized as anti-Israel.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whose Liberal Party negotiated a toned-down version of the motion with the N.D.P. as the day went on, has supported Israel’s right to self-defense while also condemning violence against Palestinians.

“We’re entangled in a web of devastation and under pressure to pick sides,” Mélanie Joly, Mr. Trudeau’s foreign minister, said during the debate. “We have to condemn both sides.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has supported Israel’s right to self-defense while also condemning violence against Palestinians.Credit...Amber Bracken/Reuters

Still, over the past several weeks, Mr. Trudeau has taken a much more critical tone toward Israel, a stance that has opened divisions within the Liberal Party. Three Liberal Party lawmakers voted against the motion.

And from his left, Mr. Trudeau has been criticized by the New Democrats, whose votes he relies on to pass legislation, for not doing more to end Palestinian suffering in the enclave, where more than 30,000 people have been killed and food and medicine are in critically short supply.

The Conservative Party condemned the motion and charged that Mr. Trudeau’s approach had failed Israel and supported terrorism.

“Hamas should be focused on, and not the State of Israel,” Michael Chong, who speaks for the party on foreign affairs, said during the debate.

Earlier in the day, Ms. Joly indicated that several provisions in what the New Democrats had described as “actions to promote peace in the Middle East” were unacceptable to the government, saying that important policy matters could not be changed by an opposition motion.

One of the key sticking points was the New Democrats’ call for an immediate recognition of a Palestinian state, a position that no Group of 7 nation has adopted.

Other modifications negotiated over the course of the day included adding a call to end the illegal trade in arms to Hamas to a section calling on the government to stop authorizing arms shipments to Israel. Canada is not currently sending weapons to Israel, and Ms. Joly confirmed on Monday that nonlethal military shipments had been suspended.

The motion, describing Gaza as “currently the most dangerous place in the world to be a child,” also called on the government to immediately reinstate funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, a step Mr. Trudeau had already taken.

It also called on the government to support the prosecution of all crimes and violations of international law committed in the region; to ensure Canadians trapped in Gaza can reach safety; and to impose sanctions on Israeli officials who incite genocide, while maintaining sanctions on Hamas leaders.