When Prime Minister Mark Carney announced in July that Canada would recognize a Palestinian state, he reversed almost eight decades of Canadian policy regarding Israel and its Arab protagonists. That reversal was ill-formed, badly timed and bound to give comfort to Israel’s enemies and strengthen the extreme right-wing nationalists in the current Israeli government.

Canada’s involvement with the birth of the modern State of Israel began in 1947, the year the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) — an 11-member body tasked with exploring the Palestine question and charged to make recommendations to the General Assembly on the future of the area — was formed.

One member of the committee was Justice Ivan Rand of the Supreme Court of Canada. After extensive travels, intervie

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