Canada's parliament passes vote after language on Palestinian statehood dropped

Canada's parliament passed a non-binding motion late Monday calling on the international community to work toward a two-state solution to resolve the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, in line with government policy.

The vote had been delayed by last-minute wrangling over wording supporting Palestinian statehood, an idea that looked set to deepen splits inside the ruling Liberal Party.

The original motion was drawn up by the minority left-leaning New Democrats (NDP), who are helping keep Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberal Party in power and are unhappy with what they see as his failure to do enough to protect civilians in Gaza.

The amended motion, which also adopted stronger language against the Palestinian militant group Hamas, passed by 204 votes to 117 after most of the Liberal cabinet - including Ya’ara Saks, who is Jewish - and caucus voted in favour.

It was opposed by some Liberal members of parliament -- Anthony Housefather, Ben Carr and Marco Mendicino, a former federal minister.

The initial version called on Canada to "officially recognise the State of Palestine" - a step that no member of the Group of Seven industrialized nations has taken.

After back-room negotiations between the NDP and the Liberals, that wording was dropped in favour of language calling on the international community to work toward the establishment of a Palestinian state as part of a two-state solution.

But Liberal and opposition legislators in the House of Commons complained that they had no notice of the new wording and demanded the chance to debate it, so proceedings were briefly suspended.

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