Embassy of Canada to Israel

The embassy occupies the fourth floor of Canada House at 3/5 Nirim Street, Tel Aviv 6706038.[1] Its general telephone number is +972 (0)3-636-3300, its fax number is +972 (0)3-636-3383, and its general email address is taviv@international.gc.ca.[1] The consular section uses the email address taviv.consular@international.gc.ca and the same telephone and fax numbers.[1]

General public hours run Monday through Thursday from 08:00 to 16:30, with a midday break from 12:30 to 13:00, and Friday from 08:00 to 13:30, by appointment; the embassy is closed on Saturdays and Sundays.[1] Consular services are offered by appointment Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday from 08:00 to 11:00, and are closed on Wednesdays and weekends.[1] Emergency consular assistance for Canadians is available around the clock, every day of the year, and hours may change during a large-scale emergency.[1] Paper citizenship applications may be mailed to the embassy or left in the Consular Services drop box in the lobby of 3 Nirim Street from Monday through Friday, 07:00 to 22:00, excluding public holidays. Passport applications may be deposited in a separate main-entrance drop-off box described as accessible around the clock.[4]

A separate Trade Commissioner Service office at the same Tel Aviv address provides trade and investment services to Canadian businesses operating in Israel.[5] As of August 2026, Allen Brown held the position of Chargé d'Affaires, and Bonny Berger served as Senior Trade Commissioner and Counsellor (Commercial).[6]

Canada withheld de facto recognition of Israel until December 1948 and granted full recognition on May 11, 1949, after Israel was admitted to the United Nations.[7][8] Israel's official bilateral chronology dates the opening of the Canadian Embassy in Tel Aviv to September 1953, while a Global Affairs Canada historical database records an embassy opening under a resident Chargé d'Affaires a.i. on October 18, 1954.[8][9] Another Global Affairs Canada historical record states that the Canadian Ambassador to Greece was concurrently accredited to Israel while resident in Athens.[10] The first resident Canadian Ambassador to Israel was Blanche Margaret Meagher, who took up the position in 1958.[9]

A 1967 conference programme documented the embassy's historical address as 84 Rehov Hahashmonaim, Tel Aviv, with the telephone number 37161 — an illustration of how substantially the mission's physical footprint has changed over the decades.[11] The Canada-Israel Free Trade Agreement came into force in 1997 and was modernized in 2019; two-way merchandise trade totaled more than $2.1 billion in 2025.[2]

In January 2014, Canada and Israel signed a Strategic Partnership Memorandum of Understanding, providing a formal framework for cooperation across four pillars: security, economic prosperity, culture, and education.[3] The agreement called for annual political consultations between Canada's deputy foreign minister and Israel's director general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, diplomatic-reporting exchanges, joint foreign-ministry training initiatives, and cooperation in multilateral forums.[3] It also provided for maintaining military attaché offices in the respective countries and for exploring additional diplomatic-representation needs, including advocacy, service delivery, and emergency assistance in third countries where either party had no diplomatic presence.[3]

Brian Mulroney later stated that he appointed Norman Spector as Canada's first Jewish ambassador to Israel, describing the move as breaking a barrier that had prevented Jews from serving in that role for forty years.[12]

The embassy has been situated in Tel Aviv rather than Jerusalem as a consequence of Canada's longstanding refusal to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital.[7] Canada's original position, dating to 1948, was rooted in the hope that the United Nations partition plan's proposal to internationalize Jerusalem might remain viable; over time, Canada's stance narrowed to supporting internationalization only as necessary to protect the city's holy sites.[7]

In 1979, Progressive Conservative leader Joe Clark pledged during the federal election campaign to move the embassy to Jerusalem. After winning the election, Clark faced sustained pressure from the Canadian business community, Arab countries, and senior government officials, and ultimately rescinded the pledge.[7] In December 2017, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau confirmed that Canada would not move the embassy from Tel Aviv, with Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland simultaneously reaffirming that the status of Jerusalem could be resolved only through a comprehensive settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute.[13]

Several ambassadors have shaped the mission's profile over the years. David Berger represented Canada in 1998, engaging Israeli officials at the Foreign Ministry over aviation-rights disputes arising from the 1985 bilateral political agreements.[14] Michael Bell held the ambassadorship in 1999, intervening at ministerial level over Air Canada's request to expand its Israel service from four to seven weekly winter flights and invoking the Canada-Israel Free Trade Agreement in those negotiations.[15]

Vivian Bercovici served as ambassador from January 2014 until June 2016, appointed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper.[16] She was a practicing lawyer in Toronto before and after her diplomatic service and was described as an active advocate for the Canada-Israel relationship.[16] In 2016, Bercovici praised the Canadian parliament's vote condemning the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, which passed 221 to 51, and characterized Canada as a close friend and ally of Israel.[17]

Deborah Lyons was identified as Canada's ambassador to Israel in 2017 and again in January 2020.[18][19] Lisa Ann Stadelbauer subsequently served as ambassador, and Leslie Scanlon was identified as ambassador in 2026.[20] The ambassadorial residence was a duplex in the Elkon Building at 38 Sderot Chen in Tel Aviv, leased for approximately $25,000 per month and occupying about 450 square meters, in addition to terrace space. The embassy decided to end the lease in May 2026 to reduce rental costs, with Scanlon reported as the third ambassador to have used the apartment.[20]

The embassy has played an active coordinating role in bilateral commercial activity. In May 2017, the Israel-Canada Chamber of Commerce organized a week-long visit by Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard alongside a delegation of eighty Canadian businesspeople, coordinated with the Canadian embassy in Israel.[21] The delegation — described at the time as the largest Canadian business mission ever to visit Israel — included representatives from the aviation, transportation, information technology, and medical sectors and toured facilities at Elbit Systems, Aeronautics, Israel Aerospace Industries, and Bombardier's Haifa site.[21] During that mission, Israel and Quebec established a $12 million industrial research-and-development collaboration program, with Quebec and the Israel Innovation Authority each committing $3 million over five years and an additional $6 million to come from private research partners.[22] Ambassador Lyons noted at the time that both countries could bond through innovation and learn from each other.[22]

In August 2023, Quebec announced plans to open its first Middle East bureau inside the Canadian embassy in Tel Aviv, intended as a platform for promoting innovation and business ties and designated as Quebec's thirty-fifth international office overall.[23]

The embassy has also engaged with Canadians serving in the Israel Defense Forces. In January 2020, Ambassador Lyons organized a reception for Canadian lone soldiers, inviting all 78 Canadians then in IDF service; 33 attended.[19] The event featured Canadian foods including kosher butter tarts and Nanaimo bars, and Lyons expressed her intention to make it an annual tradition.[19] Canada's defense attaché, Col. Rick Thompson, attended alongside embassy staff from multiple sections to answer questions and offer support.[19]

The embassy has also been involved in humanitarian coordination. In 1999, it was reported that Canada had secretly assisted in rescuing hundreds of Cuban Jews, with applications processed through the Canadian embassy in Havana, transferred via Israel's embassy in Ottawa to Tel Aviv, and followed by the issuance of exit visas using Canadian documents.[15]

The embassy provides a broad range of services to Canadians visiting and resident in Israel. These include assistance with adoption and surrogacy, birth registration abroad, citizenship applications, death abroad, marriage abroad, notarial services, passports, pensions and retirement matters, study abroad programs, visa and immigration services, and voting abroad.[1]

For Canadians and their families in Israel who require emergency assistance, Global Affairs Canada directs them to the embassy's 24-hour telephone line, the Representative Office of Canada in Ramallah, or the Global Affairs Canada Emergency Watch and Response Centre, which operates continuously.[24] Israel is represented in Canada by its embassy in Ottawa and by consulates in Toronto and Montreal.[8]