Canada tied recognition of Palestine to Palestinian Authority reforms
In Canada, a year after recognizing the State of Palestine, questions remain about the reforms the Palestinian Authority committed to carry out. Prime Minister Mark Carney stated in September 2025 that Ottawa’s decision to recognize Palestine was based on the Palestinian Authority’s commitment to implement the necessary reforms.
As Global News Canada reports, Carney received the relevant commitments in a letter from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and later discussed them with him by telephone. Canada’s Privy Council Office refuses to release the letter, citing respect for international diplomatic relations.
Governance and elections
Abbas promised to fundamentally reform the Palestinian Authority’s system of governance. Carney also stated that Hamas must not play any role in a future Palestinian state. Palestinian Ambassador to Ottawa Feda Abdelhady said that reforms are ongoing and are meant to strengthen democracy, but are constrained by continued violence and the humanitarian situation.
In a July report, the Palestinian Ministry of Finance said that 30 of 33 planned legal and social reforms had been completed over 18 months, including those concerning the rule of law and investment legislation. The document also states that Israel’s withholding of tax revenues, restrictions on financial transfers, cancellation of work permits, and obstacles to exports complicate the funding of social services and further changes.
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The Palestinian Authority also promised to hold general elections in 2026 without Hamas’s participation. Palestinians last voted in general elections in 2006. Last autumn, the authority said that elections would be possible only a year after the war in Gaza had fully ended and provided that voting could take place in the West Bank and East Jerusalem without Israel detaining candidates. In April, elections were held in the city of Deir al-Balah in Gaza.
Payments and education
Canadian officials linked demilitarization to ending payments to the families of Palestinians imprisoned or killed in Israeli prisons, including those accused of violent attacks. In February 2025, Abbas promised to end this practice and transfer social payments to the Tamkeen system, in which assistance is determined according to a family’s needs. Israel insists that the previous policy is still in effect, while the Palestinian Authority says that an independent audit, planned for release later this year, showed that it has largely been abolished.
Education is a separate component of the reforms. In a report from November 2025, Israeli firm Impact-SE said that textbooks and teachers’ guides published for Palestinian Authority schools contain materials that glorify violence and do not cover the Holocaust. At the same time, Israeli textbooks have also faced criticism: a 2012 study by the Hebrew University pointed to racist elements and a lack of depictions of Arabs as peaceful people.
