Canada promises to spend $100 MILLION for Palestinian police, aid
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced on Tuesday that Canada will provide $100 million in new funding for Palestinians. The effort will also include expanding a Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) training mission in the West Bank to include Palestinian police in Gaza.
Speaking to reporters during the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Carney said that Canada will continue to seek a two-state solution where a Palestinian state can exist peacefully alongside Israel. Canada recognized a Palestinian state last year while attaching conditions that include reforms to the Palestinian Authority.
“A year on, the prospect of a two-state solution remains distant,” Carney said, according to The Canadian Press. “The long-held international consensus for a two-state solution means nothing—unless these conditions change.”
Carney told reporters that Palestinians are facing “immense human suffering” and that Israel is also facing “existential threats from Hamas and from Iran and its proxies.”
“Gaza is now home to the greatest number of child amputees in modern history. Its hospitals, schools, and maternal clinics have all been destroyed and none have been rebuilt,” he said.
Of the newly announced $100 million, $80 million will be spent on humanitarian aid, while $20 million will support security initiatives, including additional funding to train Palestinian police. The RCMP training program in the West Bank is prepared to expand to Gaza when conditions become safer.
The announcement came two weeks after Canada, France, and Britain joined a number of other countries in saying they would ban the trade of goods from Israeli settlements in the West Bank. In June, Canada announced a separate $100 million in funding to organizations that provide humanitarian assistance for Palestinians.
Since the start of the Israel-Gaza war that broke out in October 2023, Canada has pledged over $600 million in aid for Palestine. However, Canadian parliamentary documents have found that Israel's military has damaged Canadian-funded projects.
Hamas has repeatedly been accused of interfering with humanitarian shipments to Gaza, such as taxing or looting the shipments intended for civilians.
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