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ike most of the international community, “Canada is committed to the goal of a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East, and the creation of a sovereign, independent, viable, democratic and territorially contiguous Palestinian state living side by side in peace and security with Israel” (Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade [dfait] 2007). The key challenge facing Canadian decision makers, however, has been how to translate general support for a negotiated two-state solution into policies that might make a difference in bringing that solution into being. Does Canada have particular strengths (or weaknesses) to bring to the Middle East peace process? Is there a particular Canadian niche? And what constraints might be imposed on Canada for taking a proactive and innovative role in supporting a peaceful settlement of the conflict? This chapter will focus on the evolution of Canadian policy since the early 1990s. In doing so, it will first offer a brief history of Canadian involvement in the Arab-Israeli conflict. It will then turn to the contemporary Israeli-Palestinian peace process and Canadian engagement in that process. Several aspects of Canadian policy during this period will be highlighted: Canada’s general orientation toward the Middle East peace process, development assistance to the West Bank and Gaza, and the thorny humanitarian and political issue of Palestinian refugees. This will be followed by a discussion of the key variables that have shaped Canadian policy responses. Finally, the chapter will conclude by assessing what role Canada might play in the coming years. Canada and the Arab-Israeli Conflict Canada’s first substantial involvement in the Arab-Israeli conflict came with the very birth of Israel. As a member of the 11-member United Nations Special Rex Brynen 5 Canada’s Role in the Israeli-Palestine Peace Process 73 L Committee on Palestine (unscop) in 1947, Canada voted in support of the majority report calling for the partition of Palestine into Jewish and Arab states. At the time, Canadian views were shaped by cultural and historical factors rather than realpolitik: many Canadian policy makers viewed the “Holy Land” through the prism of the bible and their predominantly Christian heritage , and had particular sympathy for the Jewish people in the wake of the recent atrocities of the Holocaust. By contrast, the views of the majority of the indigenous Arab population in the territory counted for little. When Israel was established in May 1948, Canadians overwhelmingly supported the nascent Jewish state in the ensuing war with its Arab neighbours. The next major phase of Canadian engagement came during the 1956 Suez crisis, when Israel, France, and the United Kingdom attacked Egypt. AngloFrench intervention was criticized by Washington, and Ottawa found itself uncomfortably torn between its American and British allies. The Suez crisis also threatened to escalate into a broader East-West confrontation amid the tensions of the Cold War. To resolve the splits in the western alliance and avert the broader crisis, as Minister of External Affairs Lester Pearson proposed the deployment of a UN peacekeeping force in the Sinai. Canadian forces subsequently served in the United Nations Emergency Force (unef), which was commanded for a period by a Canadian, Lieutenant-General E.L.M. Burns. For Pearson’s contribution both to resolving the Suez Crisis and the development of UN peacekeeping, he was awarded the 1957 Nobel Peace Prize. No other Canadian foreign minister achieved as much, and few even tried to make the issue a personal priority. With the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, Israel achieved a stunning military victory over its neighbours. The last remaining areas of Palestine—the Jordanianannexed West Bank, and Egyptian-administered Gaza Strip—fell under Israeli occupation. So too did Syria’s Golan Heights. Canadians remained overwhelmingly sympathetic to the Israeli side. At the same time, Canadian policy supported UN Security Council (unsc) resolution 242 and its call for an Israeli withdrawal from occupied territories and a negotiated settlement among the warring states. The Palestinians and their claims for self-determination, however , did not yet figure as a major element in either unsc resolution 242 or Canadian policy, other than as amorphous “refugees” in need of a “just settlement ” to their plight. From this point, however, Canadian policy would undergo significant evolution in the 1970s and ’80s. One reason for this was the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. This war again illustrated the dangers of regional conflict in a world already fraught with Cold War tensions. The accompanying Arab oil...

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