I sraeli Technicians and the Post‐Colonial Racial Triangle in P apua N ew G uinea

P apua N ew G uinean imaginings of I srael as a potential development partner draw on C hristian renderings of the B ible, but they also reflect an understanding of I srael as a modern, technologically advanced nation. As middle‐class P apua N ew G uineans reflect on the failures of national development since gaining independence from A ustralia, they express ambivalence about the appropriateness of W estern models of development for the P apua N ew G uinean context. However, the influx of A sian investment is also seen as lacking, or even threatening; therefore, A sian models of development also fail to offer an appealing hope for the future. In this paper, I argue that these racialised understandings of modernity represent a ‘post‐colonial racial triangle’, a discursive field within which the moral implications of development are understood and debated. Within this triangle, M elanesians are thought to have ‘culture’ and ( C hristian) ‘morality’ but lack ‘development’. A ustralians or ‘whitemen’ are thought to have ‘development’ and ‘morality’ but to lack ‘culture’. ‘ A sians’ are thought to have ‘development’ and ‘culture’ but to lack ( C hristian) morality. Taking this moral framing of race into account, I srael emerges as a possible aid donor with the credentials to reconcile these three positions as it is seen to be the possessor of ‘development’, ‘culture’, and ‘morality’.