Revoke Charities Now: Stop Tax Subsidizing Israeli settlements through Canadian Charities
Tell the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) it must immediately revoke the charitable status of all organizations assisting five groups and eleven individuals Global Affairs recently sanctioned. It’s absurd to criminalize assisting these organizations and individuals while the government simultaneously subsidizes donations supporting them and other illegal settlements in the West Bank.
On Thursday, June 27, 2024, Global Affairs Canada announced sanctions on five Israeli organizations and seven individuals for “their role in facilitating, supporting or financially contributing to acts of violence by Israeli extremist settlers against Palestinian civilians and their property.” In May 2024, four other individuals had been sanctioned. As a result of these sanctions, it’s illegal for Canadians to assist these listed entities, and the individuals are not allowed into Canada.
This is a positive step, but all Canadians have been subsidizing donations to this Israeli settlement movement as part of the quarter billion dollars a year in charity donations going to an apartheid state committing war crimes and genocide.
One of the individuals placed on Canada’s sanctions list is Daniella Weiss, former mayor of Kedumim. Weiss has been hosted in Toronto several times over the years, and has called for the resettlement of Gaza. Mizrachi Organization of Canada has funded Kedumin, while the Ne'eman Foundation of Canada has provided funds to a Se'u Tziona Nes v'degel which fundraises for Weiss’ Nachla movement. Both Mizrachi and Ne'eman are registered Canadian charities.
The CRA must investigate Canadian charities' relationship to the newly sanctioned organizations/individuals and immediately rescind the charitable status of groups that have aided them. It’s contradictory to sanction groups while simultaneously subsidizing donations to groups assisting them.
More broadly, the Global Affairs statement announcing the sanctions noted that “Canada continues to oppose the expansion of illegal settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.” Yet a slew of Canadian charities have assisted illegal settlements in the West Bank.
Over the years the CRA has been asked to investigate Mizrachi Organization of Canada, Ne'eman Foundation Canada, United Israel Appeal, Canadian Friends of Yeshivat Har Etzion, Jewish Heritage Foundation of Canada and others because they funneled money to illegal settlements and the Israeli military.
The CRA must immediately revoke the charitable status of all organizations supporting settlements, providing services to settlements and actively working to support the illegal settlement of occupied Palestine and the Syrian Golan Heights.
Read academic article by Dr. Miles Howe, Zionist Philanthropy and Palestinian Erasure: Jgive.com and the Mizrachi Organization of Canada, Miles Howe, published in the State Crime Journal, June 11, 2024
Learn moreabout Canadian charities supporting apartheid, war crimes and genocide.
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