Jeffery Dvarkin, a political commentator and former director of the school of journalism at the University of Toronto, has told Al Jazeera that Canada’s decision to recognise a Palestinian state is “highly symbolic”.

It is contingent on the release of Israeli captives and on Hamas surrendering its weapons and leaving Gaza, he said.

“It’s not going to happen very quickly, but what it has done is that it sent a message to the Muslim community in Canada – that the old way is slowly changing,” Dvarkin told Al Jazeera.

He said the new government, led by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, is trying to “tread a very delicate line between doing what it feels is right in the long term, and not upsetting a lot of people in the short term”.

The other factor in play for the government is trying to differentiate Canadian foreign policy from US foreign policy, Dvarkin was quoted as saying.