Canada Lawmakers Back Motion Meant to Help Bring Peace to Gaza

The polarized debate in Canada over the conflict in Gaza spilled into the country’s House of Commons on Monday as lawmakers voted to endorse a wide-ranging package of nonbinding measures that a left-leaning opposition party had presented as way to bring peace to the region.

The motion approved on Monday night — which called for ending authorizations of arms exports toIsrael, an immediate cease-fire and the release of all Israeli hostages — differed sharply from the version that the left-of-center New Democratic Party had been proposing earlier in the day. That proposal called on Canada to immediately recognize a State of Palestine.

The version of the motion that was ultimately approved, with language agreed to in last-minute private negotiations, simply echoed Canada’s longstanding policy of working toward the creation of a Palestinian state as part of a two-nation solution for Middle East peace.

The 204-to-117 vote on Monday evening followed an often-fractious debate over a motion that some lawmakers, especially in its earlier form, had characterized as anti-Israel.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whose Liberal Party negotiated a toned-down version of the motion with the N.D.P. as the day went on, has supported Israel’s right to self-defense while also condemning violence against Palestinians.

“We’re entangled in a web of devastation and under pressure to pick sides,” Mélanie Joly, Mr. Trudeau’s foreign minister, said during the debate. “We have to condemn both sides.”