Canada–Israel Relations

Canada and Israel maintain diplomatic missions in each other’s countries: Canada’s embassy is in Tel Aviv, while Israel’s embassy is in Ottawa, with Israeli consulates also serving Montreal and Toronto.[1] Their relationship combines government-to-government diplomacy with commercial, academic, legal, cultural, and community connections.[1][5] Canadian support for Israel’s right to live in peace and security with its neighbors has been a core element of its Middle East policy since 1948.[1]

A January 2014 memorandum organized the partnership around four pillars: diplomacy, security, economic prosperity, and culture and education.[3] It established a framework for deeper engagement rather than a record demonstrating that every proposed activity subsequently occurred.[3] The Canada–Israel Free Trade Agreement, commonly abbreviated CIFTA, and its 2019 modernization provide an important institutional basis for commercial relations.[6]

The relationship has also included recurring differences over regional diplomacy, Palestinian political rights, and Israeli military operations.[5][7] These differences became especially prominent after October 2023, as Canada restricted military export permits, imposed sanctions on Israeli individuals and entities, and recognized a Palestinian state in September 2025.[4]

Canada was one of the 11 members of the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine, established in April 1947 to investigate communal unrest and recommend next steps for Palestine.[8] Its majority, which included Canadian justice Ivan C. Rand, recommended separate Jewish and Arab states linked by an economic union; a minority favored a federal state.[7][8] The Mackenzie King government initially sought to avoid involvement, while concern about Anglo-American disagreement over Palestine and its implications for negotiations toward NATO helped shape its eventual support for partition.[7]

On November 29, 1947, Canada voted for General Assembly Resolution 181, which recommended partition into Arab and Jewish states with an economic union.[9] The resolution passed by 33 votes to 13, with 10 abstentions.[9] Arab leaders rejected the resolution.[10]

Canada granted Israel de facto recognition in December 1948.[10] On December 17 that year, however, Canada abstained when the Security Council considered Israel’s membership application, as did Belgium, China, France, and the United Kingdom.[11] The application received five affirmative votes, below the seven then required.[11] This abstention was distinct from Canada’s subsequent sponsorship of Israel’s admission to the United Nations.[11][12]

On May 11, 1949, the General Assembly admitted Israel, with Canada among seven co-sponsors alongside Australia, Guatemala, Haiti, Panama, the United States, and Uruguay.[12] Canada established formal diplomatic relations with Israel that day.[1] Avraham Harman became Israel’s first consul general in Canada a week later, and Montreal hosted Israel’s first North American diplomatic mission in 1949.[4][13] Canada opened its embassy in Tel Aviv in September 1953, the same month Michael Comay became Israeli ambassador to Canada; Canada appointed a non-resident ambassador to Israel in 1958.[4]

Defense contacts developed alongside diplomacy.[14] By October 1956, Canada had contracted to sell Israel 24 F-86 aircraft, eight of which had been paid for, with delivery scheduled at four aircraft per month.[14] Canada reserved the right to halt the transaction if political conditions warranted but decided to proceed despite concern about developments along the Israel–Jordan border.[14]

Following the 1956 Suez Campaign, External Affairs Minister Lester Pearson helped formulate the proposal for a UN peacekeeping force between Israeli and Egyptian forces.[7] Canadian troops subsequently served with the United Nations Emergency Force in Sinai and the Gaza Strip.[7] David Ben-Gurion made the first official Canadian visit by an Israeli prime minister in May 1961; he had previously visited Canada more than four decades earlier while serving with the British Army’s Jewish Legion in Nova Scotia.[10]

During the 1967 crisis, Pearson objected to the withdrawal of UN peacekeepers from Sinai and Egyptian measures affecting Israeli shipping.[7] Canadian diplomats later participated in efforts to build Security Council agreement around Resolution 242, adopted in November 1967.[7] After the Yom Kippur War in 1973, Canada expanded diplomatic and commercial representation in Arab and Muslim capitals and increasingly abstained on UN resolutions critical of Israel.[7]

Under Pierre Trudeau, Canada increasingly recognized Palestinians as a people with collective rights and treated the Palestine Liberation Organization as their political representative.[7] By the late 1970s and early 1980s, it permitted mid-level PLO contacts and supported a Palestinian homeland in the West Bank — known by its original, indigenous Jewish name of Judea and Samaria — and Gaza.[7] Canada also encouraged Israel–Egypt peace negotiations in the late 1970s; Menachem Begin met Trudeau during a Canadian stop in 1977, before the Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty was signed in 1979.[10]

In 1979, Conservative leader Joe Clark pledged to move Canada’s embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.[5] The proposal was reversed after objections, including reactions in the Arab world and among Canadian corporations with business interests there.[5] Relations deteriorated during the 1982 Lebanon War: in letters to Begin, Trudeau condemned PLO terrorism and acknowledged Israel’s security concerns but rejected the justification for Israel’s incursion and questioned whether it could deliver lasting security.[7]

A March 1988 Canada-Israel Committee dinner became a public flashpoint when External Affairs Minister Clark criticized Israeli actions toward Palestinians during the First Intifada.[15] The committee chair criticized his remarks, and some attendees walked out.[15] Clark subsequently called Canada’s support for Israel “unwavering,” while Prime Minister Brian Mulroney described him as a “firm and loyal friend” of Israel and assured Jewish leaders that Canadian policy remained unchanged.[15]

In 1991, Mulroney and Clark differed over the PLO’s future negotiating role: Mulroney supported Palestinian participation but considered the PLO leadership substantially discredited, whereas Clark maintained that it retained an important role.[16] Visiting Israel in March, Clark urged preparedness to exchange territory for peace and praised Israeli restraint in meetings with Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir and Foreign Minister David Levy.[16] Canada also supported the December 1991 repeal of the UN resolution equating Zionism with racism.[16]

After reviewing some General Assembly resolutions in 2004, Ottawa announced changes to a limited number of votes, explaining that one-sided resolutions could damage peace efforts.[15] This was a selective adjustment rather than a wholesale revision of Canadian positions.[15]

On November 29, 2012, Canada joined Israel and seven other countries in opposing the General Assembly resolution granting Palestine non-member observer state status.[17] The resolution passed 138–9, with 41 abstentions; the other opposing countries were the Czech Republic, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Panama, and the United States.[17]

An account published by the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs presents Harper’s early government as marking a policy change: in 2006 it refused to recognize a Hamas-led Palestinian Authority government and withdrew government-to-government assistance while continuing funding for UNRWA and nongovernmental organizations.[18] The same account describes Canada switching a UNESCO vote on a resolution condemning Israel from abstention to opposition.[18]

That analysis also recounts Harper’s support for Israel’s right to defend itself during the 2006 Lebanon war and his description of its response as measured.[18] It quotes him placing responsibility for ending escalation on Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza, and describes his opposition to a Francophonie statement that would have unilaterally condemned Israel.[18] At a Toronto celebration of Israel’s 60th anniversary in 2008, Harper said that those threatening Israel also threatened Canada.[18]

Harper’s January 2014 Knesset address was the first by a Canadian prime minister.[2] He affirmed support for Israel as a free and democratic Jewish state while also supporting a two-state solution and the establishment of a Palestinian state.[2] Emphasizing ties between peoples as well as institutions, he referred to approximately 350,000 Canadians of Jewish heritage.[2] His pledge, “Through fire and water, Canada will stand with you,” echoed a Rosh Hashanah prayer.[2]

Harper criticized efforts to delegitimize Israel, boycott campaigns, and attempts to describe Israel as an apartheid state.[2] He also said Canadian sanctions against Iran would remain in place.[2] Most parliamentarians gave him standing ovations, while two Arab lawmakers heckled him and later walked out.[2]

The accompanying strategic-partnership framework provided for expanded cooperation in international organizations, defense, counterterrorism, education, economics, and trade.[3] In January 2015, Foreign Ministers John Baird and Avigdor Lieberman signed a public-diplomacy memorandum committing the governments to coordinate opposition to boycotts of Israel, its institutions, and its people, and to challenges to Israel’s right to exist.[4]

The January 2014 memorandum proposed periodic government-to-government meetings, ministerial visits, and annual political consultations between senior foreign-affairs officials.[3] It also envisaged a multilateral working group and annual dialogue before General Assembly meetings, linking bilateral engagement with coordination in international forums.[3]

Security provisions included enhanced information and intelligence sharing, regular security discussions, defense-policy dialogues, military-to-military cooperation, and counterterrorism consultations.[3] The framework also proposed cooperation in cybersecurity, aviation security, and public safety.[3] Its regional provisions supported stability and Middle East peace efforts, including targeted development assistance and training relevant to Palestinian Authority institutions.[3]

An earlier umbrella agreement on defense and military cooperation was signed in January 2011 and strengthened that November.[4] Memoranda involving Defense Ministers Peter MacKay and Ehud Barak covered intelligence sharing and cooperation in developing and selling military technologies.[4] The 2014 framework identified the January 10, 2011 defense memorandum as a milestone in the relationship.[3]

Commercial defense transactions have not always involved either national government as purchaser.[19] A 2020 report described an anticipated $100 million purchase of 29 retired Israeli F-16 A/B aircraft by the private Canadian company Top Aces, explicitly distinguishing the buyer from the Canadian government.[19] The aircraft had served in Israel since the 1980s, with the last retired in 2016; the report described the transaction as nearing completion rather than confirmed.[19]

In 2026, Israel’s Defense Ministry said it would replace its resident Ottawa defense attaché with a Washington-based, cross-accredited attaché.[20] The ministry described a global realignment within existing resources and reaffirmed commitment to defense cooperation.[20] Ambassador Iddo Moed separately denied that deteriorating relations caused the decision, while questioning how substantial defense collaboration could be maintained without a resident attaché.[20]

CIFTA was signed in Toronto on July 31, 1996, during a visit by Israeli Industry and Trade Minister Natan Sharansky, and entered into force in 1997.[4][6] The original agreement covered goods, removing tariffs on industrial products and some agricultural, fish, and seafood products.[6]

Before the agreement, two-way trade exceeded $450 million in 1995, a 37 percent increase over 1994.[21] Canadian exports totaled $216 million, up 49 percent, while imports from Israel reached $240.8 million, up 32 percent.[21] Canadian exports included machinery, aluminum, paper products, wood pulp, and cereals; Israeli exports included diamonds and mechanical and electrical machinery.[21] Air Canada began nonstop service to Israel in June 1995.[21]

The 2014 partnership memorandum proposed modernizing CIFTA, annual economic consultations, and trade and investment missions at least every two years.[3] A May 29, 2018 update signed by François-Philippe Champagne and Eli Cohen eliminated excess duties on thousands of products, including fresh fruit and canned goods.[4] The modernized agreement took effect on September 1, 2019, after more than nine years of meetings and negotiations.[22]

Modernization expanded market access and eliminated virtually all tariffs on agricultural, agri-food, and fisheries products.[6] New chapters addressed e-commerce, intellectual property, labor, gender, and small and medium-sized enterprises, alongside corporate social responsibility and environmental protections.[6] Other provisions addressed technical barriers, regulatory transparency, and administrative obstacles.[6]

In 2020, two-way merchandise trade reached C$1.6 billion, more than three times its level when CIFTA entered into force; services trade totaled C$634 million in 2019.[6] Canadian direct investment in Israel stood at C$515 million in 2020, compared with Israeli direct investment in Canada of C$617 million.[6] These figures describe those reporting years rather than present-day totals.[6]

A 2020 Israeli trade official offered a less expansive assessment of commercial development, saying trade had remained relatively dormant partly because Israeli companies prioritized the United States.[19] The official said bilateral trade had not reached $1 billion in 2019; that figure should be read in the terms of that interview rather than merged with differently reported Canadian-dollar totals.[19] The report also described the loss of a full-time trade attaché in 2016 and subsequent remote management before renewed Toronto activity.[19]

At a 2019 Ottawa gathering, International Trade Diversification Minister James Gordon Carr announced that new trade-agreement legislation had passed.[23] Justin Trudeau also met a Jewish organizational delegation that thanked him for support of Israel and efforts against antisemitism and the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement.[23]

The Canada–Israel Industrial Research and Development Foundation supports partnerships and jointly funded research by Canadian and Israeli companies.[21][24] A renewed understanding in March 2006 provided annual contributions of $1 million from each country.[1] In March 2018, the foundation announced $4.3 million for eight joint projects spanning agritech, robotics, satellite communications, food technology, and cleantech.[24] Participating companies included Gilat Satellite Networks, Atlantium Technologies, Canopy Media, and Afcon Holdings.[24]

The 2014 framework identified information and communications technology, life sciences, and cleaner-energy technology as research priorities.[3] It also proposed scientific collaboration and exploration of academic, youth, and sports exchanges.[3] Other bilateral arrangements cover film production, mutual legal assistance, a 1977 tax agreement, and space cooperation agreed in March 2005.[1]

Provincial links include agreements involving Manitoba and Ontario and a Quebec–Israel research program following a 2017 cooperation agreement.[1][19] Under the Quebec program, Israeli companies could receive grants covering up to half their project budgets, while Quebec companies could receive up to C$250,000.[19] A 2022 agreement between the Quebec Research Fund and Israel’s Ministry of Science and Technology supported research in bioconvergence, artificial intelligence, and quantum technology; three projects received $300,000 each, shared between the governments.[13] Quebec finalized its decision to open a Tel Aviv office in 2023; by March 2025, the office was newly opened and focused on research, technology, and innovation.[13]

Community ties also support business, philanthropy, and tourism.[1] A 2013 account estimated approximately 20,000 Canadian citizens living in Israel and a Canadian Jewish population of approximately 350,000; these were contemporary estimates, not current population counts.[1] Universities, legal scholars, and business and political study visits form additional institutional connections.[5]

Former ambassador Vivian Bercovici, writing in SAPIR Journal, highlighted the symbolic importance of Mulroney’s appointment of Norman Spector as Canada’s first Jewish ambassador to Israel.[25] She quoted Mulroney describing it as “smashing the odious myth of dual loyalties” that had prevented Jews from holding the position for 40 years.[25]

On October 8, 2023, Trudeau unequivocally condemned Hamas’s attacks, supported Israel’s right to defend itself in accordance with international law, demanded the immediate release of hostages, and urged protection of civilian life.[26] He described Canada’s support for the Israeli people as steadfast.[26]

Canada stopped approving new military export permits to Israel on January 8, 2024.[4] A March Commons motion, which was non-binding, called for a two-state solution and suspension of arms exports; an earlier call to recognize Palestine was removed through a Liberal–New Democratic Party compromise.[27] Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly said Ottawa planned to halt arms exports pursuant to the motion.[27] Two organizations had filed a March 5 lawsuit challenging government sales of military goods and technology to Israel.[27]

Canadian officials initially described the restrictions differently: Joly emphasized the halt in new approvals, the foreign ministry said deliveries could continue under existing approvals, and Defense Minister Bill Blair called the parliamentary move a temporary pause.[28] Reporting identified 315 permits issued in 2022, representing approximately C$21 million in goods, and C$28.5 million in defense exports during October–December 2023.[28] In September 2024, Joly said about 30 existing permits had also been suspended following contract reviews.[4]

The restrictions therefore did not amount to an immediate end to all reported exports.[20] A 2026 report, citing Canadian government figures, put military-goods exports to Israel during 2025 at approximately US$10.7 million.[20]

In June 2024, Canada sanctioned seven Israeli settlers and five entities accused of involvement in extremist violence in the West Bank.[4] A July joint statement with Australia and New Zealand called for an urgent Gaza ceasefire, condemned Hamas’s October 7 attack, demanded hostage release, and urged protection of Palestinian civilians.[4] Canada also said it would comply with the International Criminal Court warrants issued in November 2024 for Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.[4]

In May 2025, Carney, Keir Starmer, and Emmanuel Macron called Israel’s announced allowance of basic food supplies into Gaza wholly inadequate, urged an end to military operations and immediate humanitarian access, and demanded that Hamas release remaining hostages.[29] In June, Canada joined Australia, New Zealand, Norway, and the United Kingdom in measures targeting ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich over rhetoric the governments said promoted forced displacement and settlement expansion.[4]

On July 30, 2025, Carney announced plans to recognize a Palestinian state, citing humanitarian suffering and preservation of a two-state solution.[30] He linked the plan to Palestinian Authority reform, elections in 2026 excluding Hamas, and demilitarization.[30] Canada announced recognition in September 2025, alongside recognition announcements by the United Kingdom, Australia, and Portugal.[4][31]

A May 2026 call between Carney and President Isaac Herzog reaffirmed Canadian support for Israel’s security and lawful self-defense and discussed expanding engagement in trade, technology, and climate change.[32] The leaders also differed over a Gaza-bound flotilla: Carney sought an independent investigation into the treatment of civilians, including Canadians, while Herzog condemned the flotilla.[32] In June 2026, Canada joined five other countries in sanctions against individuals and entities accused of financing and enabling settler violence.[33] In September, Canada, France, and the United Kingdom announced plans for restrictions on settlement-goods imports and related targeted measures; these were announced steps, not evidence of implemented bans.[34]

The partnership links Canada’s role in the international diplomacy surrounding Israel’s establishment with later cooperation in trade, research, defense, and education.[3][7] Its institutional reach extends beyond national governments to provinces, universities, businesses, and Jewish community connections.[1][5] Joint technology projects and the modernization of CIFTA illustrate practical cooperation alongside diplomatic disagreement.[6][24]

In an August 2025 interview, Ambassador Moed described relations as being at one of their lowest points, criticizing what he considered Canada’s tendency to view the relationship primarily through Gaza.[35] At the same time, he emphasized continuing academic, economic, scientific, research, and commercial cooperation.[35] The May 2026 presidential-level conversation similarly combined discussion of bilateral difficulties with proposals for greater engagement.[32]

Palestinian recognition became a major dispute in 2025.[36] Carney accused the Israeli government of systematically obstructing Palestinian statehood, while Israel’s Foreign Ministry rejected Canada’s announced policy change as rewarding Hamas and harming ceasefire and hostage-release efforts.[36][37] Netanyahu subsequently argued that recognition by Canada and other countries encouraged terrorism; families of eight Canadians killed by Hamas also criticized Carney’s decision.[38] The American Jewish Committee argued that recognition without the difficult steps required for peace would undermine negotiations, while welcoming stated conditions concerning hostage release and Palestinian Authority reform.[39]

Other disputes have involved the territorial scope of commercial ties.[22] In July 2019, Canada’s Federal Court ruled that labeling Psagot and Shiloh wines produced in the West Bank as “Product of Israel” was false, misleading, and deceptive.[22] The Canadian government decided to appeal in September; the contemporary report did not establish the litigation’s later outcome.[22]

The domestic and international political effects of Israel policy have also generated differing interpretations.[15] After Canada lost its 2010 Security Council election bid to Portugal, some former officials blamed Harper’s strong support for Israel, while others emphasized different Canadian policies and circumstances; the available analysis did not establish Israel policy as the sole cause.[15]