OTTAWA – Former prime minister Stephen Harper’s 2014 address to Israel’s parliament remains one of the clearest recent statements of Canadian affinity for Israel. In the Knesset, Harper said Canada supports Israel “because it is right to do so” and that “through fire and water, Canada will stand with you.”
What has followed is a marked change in Ottawa’s posture. In September 2025, Prime Minister Mark Carney formally announced that Canada recognises the State of Palestine, saying the move is intended to preserve prospects for a two-state solution and to empower partners who seek peaceful coexistence. The announcement represented a major diplomatic shift for Canada.
The policy reversal did not stop there. In October 2025, Mr. Carney told interviewers he would honour an International Criminal Court arrest warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and that Canada would arrest Mr. Netanyahu if he travelled to Canada. The comment drew immediate rebuke from Israeli officials and intensified debate at home and abroad about the scope and tone of Ottawa’s new approach.
The change is especially striking against the backdrop of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel, which left 1,200 dead, saw more than 250 people kidnapped, and sparked a two-year war. The terrorist assault remains central to Israel’s security policy and the politics that followed. Critics of Ottawa’s recent actions say the timing and manner of its recognition and public statements risk rewarding or emboldening those who seek to delegitimize Israel.
Under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Ottawa’s public line in the immediate aftermath of October 7 was an unequivocal condemnation of Hamas and a reaffirmation of Israel’s right to defend itself. Trudeau issued a formal statement condemning the attacks and repeatedly denounced Hamas as a terrorist organisation. At the same time, later policy moves and votes at international fora, including abstentions or critical stances, prompted criticism from some Jewish and pro-Israel groups who said Canada began to equivocate.
For many in Canada’s Jewish community, the Carney era marks a further break with the Harper years. Harper’s 2014 Knesset speech framed support for Israel in moral terms and celebrated shared democratic values. That rhetoric remains remembered and often cited by community leaders as a benchmark for bilateral relations.
Supporters of Mr. Carney say his recognitions and remarks are intended to advance a diplomatic strategy to revive a two-state solution and to hold leaders to international legal standards. They say recognition is a tool to incentivise Palestinian political reforms and to preserve the viability of a Palestinian polity that accepts Israel’s right to exist and excludes terrorist groups. Mr. Carney himself framed recognition as a step toward peaceful coexistence and not an endorsement of violence.
Opponents counter that recognition without conditions met risks undercutting leverage and could be read as a unilateral shift that fails to address security and accountability concerns that predate these decisions. The pledge to enforce an ICC warrant against a sitting Israeli prime minister, they argue, injects an additional legal and diplomatic complexity into bilateral relations at a fraught moment.
Practical questions now loom for Ottawa and for Canada’s Jewish communities. How will Canada balance diplomatic recognition with security co-operation? How will it engage with Israel on issues of counterterrorism, hostage recovery, and humanitarian access? And how will political leaders address community anxieties about rising antisemitism and the perception of declining support from a longtime partner? These questions will shape debate in Parliament and in community corridors in the months ahead.
Eleven years after Harper’s Knesset pledge, Canada finds itself navigating a very different diplomatic landscape. Whether Ottawa’s new course will produce durable progress toward peace while protecting the security and dignity of Israel and its citizens is a question political leaders and community stakeholders must now answer in concrete policy and practice.
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This article is based on verified information from Reuters, The Prime Minister’s Office of Canada, The Associated Press, Global News, and The Times of Israel.