Jewish National Fund of Canada Has Its Charitable Status Revoked

[cbabe]

https://truthout.org/articles/jewish-national-fund-of-canada-has-its-charitable-status-revoked/

Jewish National Fund of Canada Has Its Charitable Status Revoked

The move marks a significant victory against apartheid, genocide and Palestinian dispossession.

By Yves Engler , MONDOWEISS
Published July 26, 2024

…

Under pressure from Independent Jewish Voices (IJV) and others the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) instigated an audit of the JNF in 2018. JNF Canada was eventually forced to differentiate itself from its parent organization in Israel and to stop “co-mingling” its funds with that organization. JNF Canada was also instructed to stop assisting projects in the illegally occupied West Bank and initiatives supporting the Israeli military. But, apparently it failed to fulfill the Revenue Agency’s requests and now the CRA has rescinded its ability to grant donors tax credits.

…
Born in a West Bank village demolished to make way for the JNF’s Canada Park, Ismail Zayid has been complaining to the CRA about its charitable status for four decades. For years Lebanese Canadian Ron Saba has been “writing to various Canadian government departments and officials, corporations, and media to” denounce what he calls the “racist JNF tax fraud.” During the Liberal Party convention in 2006 Saba was widely smeared for drawing attention to leadership candidate Bob Rae’s ties to the JNF. Saba put in multiple Access to Information requests regarding the JNF, demonstrating government spying of its critics and long-standing knowledge of the organization’s dubious practices. Under the headline “Event you may want to monitor,” Foreign Affairs spokesperson Caitlin Workman sent the CRA a communication about a 2011 IJV event in Ottawa stating: “author of the Black Book of Canadian Foreign Policy, Yves Engler, will give a talk on Canada and the Jewish National Fund.” At the Green Party convention in 2016 Corey Levine pushed a resolution to revoke the JNF’s charitable status because it practices “institutional discrimination against non-Jewish citizens of Israel.” The effort brought the issue into the mainstream though she, IJV and the entire Green Party were smeared as “hard core Jew haters” for even considering the resolution.

…

The campaign to revoke the JNF’s charitable status has always been about more than just winning the specific demand. It has drawn attention to the racism intrinsic to Zionist ideology. In control of 13% of Israel’s land — and with significant influence over most of the rest — the JNF openly discriminates against the over 20% of Israelis who aren’t Jewish.

The JNF campaign has also been about exposing Canada’s most significant contribution to Palestinian dispossession. 200+ registered charities send over a quarter billion dollars a year to Israel, which has a GDP per capita equal to Canada’s. Many of these groups assist the Israeli military, racist organizations and illegal colonies in violation of CRA rules and the Revenue Agency has received formal complaints detailing a dozen Israel focused organizations violation of charities’ rules.

… more …

[lapucelle]

1. Mondoweiss? Really?

It's pretty disgusting that the already dodgy Truthout is linkwashing a Mondoweiss story.

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Analysis / Bias

Mondoweiss exhibits a strong pro-Palestinian bias and is extremely critical of the Israeli government. It frequently publishes content that is negative toward Israeli policies and actions, often portraying them in a highly critical light. For example, the article “Genocide in service of Nakba 2023” is emotionally loaded and one-sided against the Israeli government due to its use of highly charged language and its singular focus on alleged atrocities committed by Israel without providing context or perspectives from the Israeli side. The piece characterizes the situation as a “genocidal war on Gaza” aimed at “depopulation and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people” in “brutal but deliberate stages.” It accuses the Israeli government of engaging in “widespread destruction and industrial-scale slaughter,” cutting off essential supplies like water and food and targeting civilian areas for destruction. The article alleges that these actions are part of a strategy by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to achieve “complete forced displacement” of Palestinians, describing this as “ethnic cleansing” and “genocide” used as a means to an end​. This piece is a one-sided opinion by the author.

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Overall, we rate Mondoweiss as Left Biased and Questionable due to the blending of opinion with news, the promotion of pro-Palestinian and anti-zionist propaganda, occasional reliance on poor sources, and hate group designation by third-party pro-Israel advocates. (D. Van Zandt 3/4/2017) Updated (12/07/2023)

https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/mondoweiss/

[cbabe]

2. Good to know. Thanks. But the report is still accurate.

[lapucelle]

3. Is it accurate? The ruling is under appeal.

Canada revoking JNF Canada charitable status, JNF says motive antisemitic

JNF suggested that anti-Zionist or antisemitic motives within the ranks of CRA may have influenced the decision.

The Canadian Revenue Agency notified the Jewish National Fund Canada that it was revoking the organization’s charitable status because the government body did find its original 1967 main charitable object unacceptable, the JNF said in a statement and newsletter on Thursday.

JNF Canada national president Nathan Disenhouse and CEO Lance Davis announced in a statement dated Wednesday and published Thursday that they had launched a legal challenge against CRA with the Federal Court of Appeal.

CRA was reportedly making its decision based off of a 2014 Audit, and JNF said that it was unjust that after five issueless audits and accepting the original charitable objective decades ago charitable status was now being revoked.

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Disenhouse and Davis said that CRA had bypassed its usual compliance measures such as education letters, compliance agreements and sanctions before revoking JNF’s status, even refusing to discuss a new objective or compliance agreement.

https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/article-812023

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Jewish National Fund is taking the CRA to court over plan to revoke its charitable status

JNF has funded infrastructure projects on Israeli army, air and naval bases

The JNF's filing said the minister first notified the JNF of its intention to revoke its charitable status in 2019. In a media statement released on Thursday, the JNF said it demonstrated a "willingness to work with the CRA" over several years and made changes to its operations "even though it does not agree with the CRA's positions."

The media statement said the minister's decision to proceed with revoking its charitable status "undermines a basic fundamental right for all Canadians."

"Our position is that it is unjust for CRA to revoke a charity because a charitable object that it accepted almost 60 years ago is now no longer considered to be a valid charitable object," Disenhouse said in the statement.

The JNF said it remains open to working with the CRA to find a solution outside the legal process.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/jewish-national-fund-cra-revoke-charitable-status-1.7276839

[David__77]

4. The legal struggle against the illegal occupation is an important one.