Front Burner (CBC)

Episode: Will recognition lead to a Palestinian state?
Date: October 1, 2025
Host: Jamie Poisson
Guest: Noora Erekat – Academic, human rights lawyer, author, Palestinian-American activist

Episode Overview

This episode explores whether recent formal recognitions of Palestinian statehood by Western countries signal meaningful progress towards an actual Palestinian state. Host Jamie Poisson interviews Noora Erekat to unpack the present conditions, historical context, the resilience of the two-state solution narrative, the challenges posed by Israeli settlements, and possible alternatives—including the concept of a one-state solution.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Canada & Others Recognize Palestine: What’s New?

• Canada, the UK, Australia, and France have officially recognized Palestinian statehood but attached strict conditions: demilitarization, exclusion of Hamas from government, and oversight by the Palestinian Authority (PA).
  • "Canada recognizes the state of Palestine and offers our partnership in building the promise of a peaceful future for both the state of Palestine and the State of Israel." (Host quoting PM Carney, [01:31])
• The United States and Israel responded with their own proposed Gaza plan, containing only vague suggestions of potential future statehood for Palestinians.

2. The Limits & Risks of “Recognition”

Guest: Noora Erekat

• These recognitions are late, mainly symbolic, and laden with conditions that end up disadvantaging Palestinians.
  • "These states are basically coming late to the party... After some 150 states have already recognized Palestine, [this] might be more deflection than it is positive. In many ways [it] is even less than symbolism because they're actually creating conditions that are making it worse for Palestinians." ([03:34])
• The conditions focus solely on Palestinians, ignoring decades of occupation, apartheid, and displacement imposed by Israel and Western powers.
  • "These states continue to single out Palestinians as the problem, rather than identifying these systems of oppression as the problem." ([03:34])
• Despite this, Noora sees a faint positive: a rarer instance of European states challenging the US’s unconditional support for Israel.
  • "For the first time, we're seeing a coalition of European states consolidate their efforts in order to confront the United States... The positive of that is to further isolate the US and Israel, which now stand alone." ([05:26])

3. The Palestinian Authority (PA): Complicated Legitimacy

• The PA is viewed with deep suspicion by many Palestinians:
  • "The Palestinian Authority [was] a creation of the Oslo Accords from 1993... It's done so without electoral legitimacy." ([06:53])
  • The PA is seen as acting more as an instrument to enforce Israeli occupation, involved in internal repression and lacking real accountability to the people.
  • "They have become a police state that is beholden to the whim of Israel and the United States." ([08:34])
• The imposition of the PA in any future statehood plan is viewed as another external constraint on Palestinian self-determination.

4. Oslo Accords and the “Trap” of the Two-State Solution

• Oslo’s design: Promised only autonomy—not true independence or sovereignty—for Palestinians.
  • "The Oslo Accords... were basically an agreement to agree over the autonomy of Palestinians... Nowhere in the documents does it ever mention a Palestinian state or promise a Palestinian state. It promises autonomy..." ([10:56])
• Major, final-status issues—refugees, borders, settlements, Jerusalem, water—were left unresolved, with no real timeline, in a way that favored Israeli interests and expansion.
  • "When people talk about a two-state solution... they're really only talking about a Palestinian state because Israel has been recognized as a state by the United Nations since 1948... Oslo... It's a sovereignty trap." ([10:56])
  • "Any calls now for a Palestinian state, frankly, are disingenuous because what we need is not more recognition of the state. What we need is to stem Israeli theft of Palestinian lands... and support to isolate an apartheid regime..." ([10:56])

5. Settlements—a Fundamental Obstacle

• What are the settlements?
  • Israeli settlements mean systematic dispossession and violence; settlements aren’t just new houses but acts involving violence, forced displacement, and the creation of exclusive Jewish-only communities on Palestinian land.
    • "What it means is that either vigilantes backed by the state, protected by state violence, will take Palestinian land, build an outpost, kick the Palestinians off, and then build their own homes..." ([18:26])
    • "I want to emphasize that it's a process that focuses on the constant, constant dispossession of Palestinians of their land..." ([20:36])
• International complicity:
  • The US and PA complicity have enabled the seamless, ongoing expansion of settlements.
  • The settlements have not only rendered the two-state vision almost physically impossible but incentivized violence and entrenched Palestinian dispossession.
  • Everyday life is heavily restricted; travel, family life, and livelihood are disrupted.
    • "Bethlehem is a Palestinian city. Today, my friends tell me that the cities around Bethlehem are being cut off from it. They are all being separated from one another so that Palestinians can't travel, so that Palestinians can't move..." ([20:36])

6. Considering a One-State Solution

• The guest questions the assumption that a two-state solution is less difficult than a one-state solution.
  • A one-state solution would mean a single democratic state with equal rights for all. Repatriation and restitution for millions of Palestinian refugees would need to be implemented.
  • "There is no way through but through... People often think that the one-state solution is, you know, more difficult than the two-state solution. But why?" ([24:05])
  • She argues that the real issue is the fundamental sense of entitlement—allowing anyone, even those with no tie to the land except religion, to claim rights over indigenous Palestinians.
    • "Somebody not yet born, yet with no ties to this land, who decides to convert to Judaism, can have more rights than a Palestinian grandma who has been there..." ([25:17])
• The obstacles to both outcomes are enormous, but if both are hard, why not strive for the more just, inclusive future?
  • "Any future to forge is going to be so hard that partition as being easier is a fiction... So if we know that both ways forward are incredibly hard, then why wouldn't we push for the optimal future that we want?" ([26:45])

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Western Recognition:
  "They're actually creating conditions that are making it worse for Palestinians... Far from getting what we need in this moment, which is accountability for war crimes... instead we get an articulation of what is to be done with the Palestinians further to make sure to either contain them or remove them from being a problem."
  — Noora Erekat [03:34]

• On Oslo:
  "If you read through these documents, they're a trap, they're a sovereignty trap that... tells Palestinians that in exchange for being good natives they’ll get certain privileges that never amount to their liberation."
  — Noora Erekat [10:56]

• On Settlements:
  "We say settlements, but I want to emphasize that it’s a process that focuses on the constant, constant dispossession of Palestinians of their land, removal of them through killing or... ethnic cleansing..."
  — Noora Erekat [20:36]

• On One-State vs. Two-State:
  "Any future to forge is going to be so hard that partition as being easier is a fiction... So if we know that both ways forward are incredibly hard, then why wouldn't we push for the optimal future that we want for the rest of the world?"
  — Noora Erekat [26:45]

Timestamps for Important Segments

• [01:31] — Announcement of Canada recognizing Palestine; context for the episode.
• [03:34] — Noora Erekat on the symbolism and limitations of recent recognitions.
• [05:26] — The small positive: Europe beginning to challenge US-Israel policy dominance.
• [06:53] — History and current legitimacy challenges of the Palestinian Authority.
• [10:56] — Oslo Accords: how the framework has failed Palestinians.
• [18:26] — The reality and impact of Israeli settlements.
• [23:02] — The "one-state solution"—vision, challenges, and why the two-state narrative persists.
• [26:45] — Final thoughts: if all solutions are hard, why compromise on justice?

Tone & Language

The episode is forthright, analytical, and deeply critical of Western policy posturing and the prevailing diplomatic narratives. Noora Erekat’s responses are passionate, historically grounded, and peppered with straightforward, sometimes hard-hitting assessments of the situation.

This summary captures the key themes, arguments, and voices from the episode, giving listeners the context and substance they need to understand this ongoing and urgent debate.