Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, for inviting me to be here today.

My name is Maytal Kowalski. I'm the executive director of JSpaceCanada. JSpaceCanada is a pro-Israel, pro-peace, pro-democracy Jewish Zionist organization that advocates that Canada promote and preserve the two-state solution in Israel and Palestine, as championed by our community of Canadian Jews.

I myself am a dual Canadian-Israeli citizen. I was born in Winnipeg and moved to Israel with my family in 1994. I want to thank you for holding these meetings at such a crucial time.

While some would argue that only just over a year from the horrific Hamas terror attacks of October 7 this is not the time to discuss peace, I would like to quote former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert, who stated just last weekend that using October 7 as an argument against the creation of a Palestinian state is a “gross mistake”. It is precisely because of October 7 and precisely because a two-state solution is the best way to defeat Hamas and other terror entities that we must act now.

Since February of this year, JSpaceCanada has been advocating that Canada recognize a Palestinian state alongside the State of Israel, broadly based on 1967 borders. This is also my recommendation today, but I want to make sure that this is not merely a symbolic gesture. Therefore, I ask of you, in addition to and in tandem with recognition, to consider the following actions.

Commit to a continuation of ongoing sanctions on entities, organizations and individuals directly involved in, financing and/or supporting settler violence and annexation in the occupied West Bank, including extremist Israeli politicians and government officials such as Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich.

Support and strengthen the Palestinian Authority as an alternative to Hamas rule in the face of plans by finance minister Smotrich to collapse the Palestinian Authority through withholding tax revenue collected by Israel.

Finally, pressure the Palestinian Authority to commit to a range of reforms aimed at enhancing democracy and governance, fighting corruption, revising its prisoner payment program and addressing incitement.

We know from a variety of polls that the majority of Canadian Jews, Israelis and Palestinians still support a two-state solution and a diplomatic—not militaristic—solution to the conflict. You simply cannot have a two-state solution without one of those states being the State of Palestine. Canada's long-stated position has been that a state of Palestine should be recognized as a part of final status negotiations directly between Israelis and Palestinians.

When my family moved to Israel in 1994, it was at the height of the Oslo accords, mere months before the Israeli-Jordanian peace treaty was signed. At the time, when both Israelis and Palestinians were actually involved in negotiations, perhaps such a policy made sense, but it is no longer 1994, and peace is no longer seemingly just on the horizon.

The Israel I knew and loved as a child has been all but sacrificed for messianic, ultra-nationalistic visions of the Israeli far right. We must acknowledge not just what we want to see in the future, but what exists now. What exists now is a one-state reality, where, between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, one state, Israel, controls the entry and exit of people and goods, oversees security and has the capacity to impose its decisions, laws and policies on millions of people without their consent.

Canada's foreign policy must adapt itself to the Israel that exists now. This is precisely what being a friend of Israel means. If I stop my friend from drinking and driving, I'm not punishing my friend: I am saving them. Right now, by enabling this Israeli government headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, not only are we allowing our friend to drink and drive; we are encouraging them to take another few shots before getting in the driver's seat.

After all, when Netanyahu's own party, the Likud, sponsors an event to encourage resettling the north of Gaza, in the words of a friend of JSpaceCanada, the father of 20-year-old hostage Nimrod Cohen, held in Gaza for over a year, “They want to lay the foundations of their settlements over the body of my son.”

I am here representing a large portion of the Canadian Jewish community that feels connected and attached to Israel, believes in Israel's right to exist as a secure democratic home of the Jewish people and, precisely because of that attachment and connection, opposes the current Israeli government and wants to see their Canadian government take strong action.

You may hear reasons today as to why a step like Palestinian statehood recognition is risky. There will always be inherent risks with working towards peace, but they will never outweigh the risks of living forever by the sword and being in a state of perpetual war.

At a rally with the peace organization Peace Now, in Israel, mere kilometres from where I lived in the early 2000s, a man named Haim Perry held a sign that read, “Better to have the pains of peace than the agonies of war”. Haim Perry was taken hostage by Hamas on October 7. In June of this year, he was murdered at the hands of Hamas in the absence of a hostage release and ceasefire deal that could have freed him.

For the memory of Haim Perry, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Vivian Silver, Judih Weinstein and so many others, including the tens of thousands of Palestinians whose names we never even got to learn, we must pursue a path of peace through whatever mechanisms we can, such as recognizing the Palestinian state even if it is painful, because it is better to have the pains of peace than the agonies of war.

Thank you.