Government MPs presented a motion to study Palestinian statehood at committee, sources say

Liberal MPs presented a motion to study a path toward recognizing Palestinian statehood on Thursday, CBC News has learned.

The text of the motion — presented in a closed-doors session of the parliamentary foreign affairs committee — calls for the government to find the quickest way toward recognizing a Palestinian state and asks the committee to dedicate four study sessions toward the matter, sources said.

CBC News has agreed not to identify the sources as they were not authorized to comment publicly on the matter.

CBC News reached out to several MPs on the committee across party lines, but none agreed to offer a comment, citing the confidentiality of its in-camera sessions.

The sources said the motion found approval with the committee's NDP and Bloc Québécois MPs, but did not go to a vote because it was filibustered by Conservative members.

Sources also said the committee will return to examining the text on Tuesday, in a session that may be open to the public if the motion is put to a vote.

Inching closer to recognition

The death toll has continued to mount in the Israel-Hamas conflict, which began in October 2023 when the Palestinian militant group attacked Israel from the Gaza Strip, killing around 1,200 people and taking another 250 hostage. Since then, the Hamas-run Health Ministry has said more than 40,000 people have been killed in Israel's retaliatory military strikes against Gaza, which Hamas controls.

Ottawa has inched closer to recognition of Palestinian statehood in the intervening months.

In March, the House of Commons passed a softened NDP motion that called for the government to work for the «establishment of the State of Palestine as part of a negotiated two-state solution,» with the backing of nearly the