Canadian Orientalism: Israel, Palestine, and the Middle East in the ‘Golden Age’ of Canadian Foreign Policy

Abstract

Beyond the issues of Palestine’s partition and the Suez crisis, the Middle East has received little attention within the history of Canadian international relations. And yet, in 1947 and in 1956, Canadian officials undertook fateful actions that shaped this region’s politics. This paper examines Canadian foreign policy toward the Middle East during the 1940s and 1950s, the so-called golden age of Canada’s international influence. In this period, and despite a reputation as honest brokers, Canadian officials came to identify with and support Israel, a country they viewed favourably because they saw it as a fellow Western state that stood out from its Oriental neighbours. Examining how Canadian foreign policy elites viewed Israel, Palestine, the wider Arab world, and the people of these regions during the 1940s and 1950s, this paper traces Orientalism’s important influence on Canada’s relations with the Middle East and stance toward the Arab-Israeli conflict.