Israel is pitching itself to Canada as a technology partner that may offer tangible solutions and safer artificial intelligence, despite the heavy strains on the bilateral relationship over wars and conflict within the Middle East.
“Canada and Israel are each countries which might be very much seeking to export technologies, to open recent markets and to resolve problems that also exist elsewhere,” Israeli Ambassador Iddo Moed told The Canadian Press.
Moed has said his country’s relationship with Canada is at its lowest point in nearly 80 years of relations. Canada accuses Israel of grave violations of international law, while Israel argues Ottawa is taking steps that undermine prospects for peace.
Prime Minister Mark Carney has never had a proper call or meeting together with his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu, who faces an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court.
Carney has accused Netanyahu’s government of failing to stop a humanitarian crisis within the Gaza Strip by repeatedly restricting the delivery of essential aid to Palestinians. Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said in May that Israel’s mistreatment of Canadians participating in a flotilla trying to achieve Gaza violated the Vienna Convention.
Israel says Canada is undermining peace within the region through its growing criticism of the country, its withdrawal of support in United Nations votes and its formal recognition of the State of Palestine.
Moed said he still believes the Carney government has some interest in collaborating with Israel on AI and that this might involve firms working together to spice up defences against cyberattacks. He said Israeli tech firms could also help Canadian municipalities use data to higher manage road traffic flows.
Moed said Israeli firms also wish to collaborate with Canada on Israel’s hospital-at-home concept, which involves monitoring patients with acute or chronic needs through wearable devices and video calls. Israeli firms have run hospital-at-home pilot projects in Europe and the U.S., and are occupied with doing the identical in Canadian provinces, he said.
“Persistently, Israelis are leading find quick solutions for significant problems,” Moed said.
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He argued that Israel’s tech sector dovetails with the Carney’s government’s deal with economic productivity. He said each countries have a “culture of innovation” but Israel has put more deal with translating research into startups that develop into economically viable.
His embassy is attempting to connect firms in each countries within the hope that Israeli innovation can profit from Canada’s larger population and market access to the U.S. — whilst Washington upends continental trade.
“We’re working on form of a digital virtual network or virtual community that may bring together technologists in any area, in cyber and AI, that cuts through in lots of sectors (like) agriculture, communications, transportation, aviation,” Moed said.
AI Minister Evan Solomon met with Moed in January to debate possible collaboration with Israel. The minister appeared to acknowledge the strained state of Canada-Israel relations on the time.
“Dialogue matters, particularly in complex times,” Solomon wrote in his social media posts in regards to the meeting.
Not every Canadian politician is as open to engagement with Israel.
Earlier this month, Alberta NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi apologized after posing for a photograph with Moed on the Calgary Stampede, saying it had “caused loads of harm to loads of people.”
The photo was taken as Moed was accompanying an Israeli technology delegation.
Citing Israel’s “indiscriminate” bombing in Gaza and invasion of Lebanon, Nenshi said he regretted posing for the photo — particularly for the reason that embassy posted it on social media with a message equating support for Israel with support for democracy and human rights.
The embassy later said Nenshi’s apology allowed “for hate to creep and fester right into a place built on hospitality.”
Moed’s pitch to Canada also includes safer uses of AI.
Ottawa has been pushing for guardrails on how artificial intelligence is designed and deployed since a minimum of 2018, when it was one among the topics Canada focused on on the G7 summit in Charlevoix, Que.
At an April reception ahead of Israel’s national day, Moed took aim at what he claimed are efforts “to recode the algorithms” of social media “in order that the world might once more develop into hooked on antisemitism.”
He said countries can work together to cull hateful content from AI services.
“We provide here in Canada all types of ideas and even a joint collaboration, to search out recent ways to deal with this,” he told The Canadian Press.
“It’s not, in fact, just Jews. It’s about spreading hate and truly inciting for violence.”
Moed didn’t single out any specific platform. The X social media site has seen an surge in antisemitic rhetoric and anti-Jewish influencers because it was taken over by billionaire Elon Musk, in line with the U.S. Center for Countering Digital Hate.
Musk himself made a gesture that many interpreted as a Nazi salute at a rally celebrating U.S. President Donald Trump’s second inauguration, though he denied that was the case.
Facebook’s parent company Meta also has seen its AI chatbots echo racist tropes and antisemitic conspiracy theories.
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