Press releases
"CBC Features Complaint Filed Against Registered Charity for Supporting Israeli Army, Settlements", January 4, 2019
"Jewish Group Welcomes Revocation Of Beth Oloth’s Charitable Status", January 28, 2018
"Jewish Group Welcomes Revocation Of Beth Oloth’s Charitable Status", January 28, 2018
Media Coverage
Petition tabled to revoke Jewish National Fund's charitable status
|
Canada investigates Jewish National Fund for funding Israel's crimes
Nora Barrows-Friedman, Electronic Intifada, January 15, 2019 Pressured by human rights activists and a Palestinian refugee, the Canada Revenue Agency has begun an investigation into the Jewish National Fund of Canada over its use of charitable donations to build projects for the Israeli military and illegal settlements.
Uses of charitable donations to fund foreign militaries contravenes Canadian law. JNF Canada’s parent organization, the Jewish National Fund (JNF), predates the establishment of Israel and uses tree-planting as a cover to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from their land. After Israel’s establishment in 1948, the JNF took control of most of the land which had been confiscated from Palestinian refugees. In the 1950s, the JNF became a quasi-state organization, with a policy to lease land only to Jews on an openly discriminatory basis. Click here to read more |
Al-Jazeera, "Canadian charity used donations to fund Israeli Army projects: CBC", January 4, 2019
Middle East Monitor, "Canadian charity used donations to fund Israeli Army bases", January 4, 2019
Middle East Eye, "JNF Canada under audit for using donations to fund Israeli Army projects", January 4, 2019
Anna Ahronheim, Jerusalem Post, "Canadian charity under fire for funding projects linked to IDF", January 6, 2019
David Lazarus, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, "Jewish National Fund of Canada audit over using donor money for Israeli-army linked projects", January 8, 2019 (picked up by Haaretz, Canadian Jewish News, Times of Israel, The Times of Israël (français))
Ynet, "Canada investigates Jewish charity for suspected unlawful IDF donations", January 8, 2019
Yves Engler, Mondoweiss, "Canadian government auditing Jewish National Fund over ties to Israeli military", January 10, 2019
Ron Csillag, Canadian Jewish News, "JNF pushes back against allegations it violated Canadian tax law", January 11, 2019
Ron Csillag, Canadian Jewish News, "NDP MP Sponsors anti-JNF petition", January 17, 2019
Canada Talks Israel/Palestine, "Explosive CBC article reveals JNF under audit by Revenue Canada", January 23, 2019
Ron Csillag, Canadian Jewish News, "More politicians pledge support for anti-JNF petition", January 25, 2019
Stewart Bell, Global News, "Government revokes charity status of Canadian Jewish group that supported ‘foreign armed forces", January 28, 2019 (re: Beit Oloth)
Al Jazeera, "Canadian Jewish group's charitable status revoked", January 28, 2019 (re: Beit Oloth)
Times of Israel (français), "Canada: le status d'organisme caricative d'un groupe juif révoqué", January 29, 2019
Nora Barrows-Feldman, Electronic Intifada, "Canada strips charitable status from group funding Israeli Army", January 31, 2019
Brenden Stone, Podcast: Unusual Sources, "Recent developments in Stop-JNF Campaign", February 15, 2019
Fabien Deglise, Le Devoir, "Des dons canadiens au service de l'armée israélienne", February 21, 2019
Victoria Fenner, Rabble Podcast, "Petition campaign calls on the federal government to revoke the charitable status of the Jewish Fund of Canada", February 28, 2019
Sharmini Peries, The Real News Network, "Can the Jewish National Fund dedicated to ethnic cleansing be considered a charity in Canada?", March 8, 2019
Middle East Monitor, "Canadian charity used donations to fund Israeli Army bases", January 4, 2019
Middle East Eye, "JNF Canada under audit for using donations to fund Israeli Army projects", January 4, 2019
Anna Ahronheim, Jerusalem Post, "Canadian charity under fire for funding projects linked to IDF", January 6, 2019
David Lazarus, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, "Jewish National Fund of Canada audit over using donor money for Israeli-army linked projects", January 8, 2019 (picked up by Haaretz, Canadian Jewish News, Times of Israel, The Times of Israël (français))
Ynet, "Canada investigates Jewish charity for suspected unlawful IDF donations", January 8, 2019
Yves Engler, Mondoweiss, "Canadian government auditing Jewish National Fund over ties to Israeli military", January 10, 2019
Ron Csillag, Canadian Jewish News, "JNF pushes back against allegations it violated Canadian tax law", January 11, 2019
Ron Csillag, Canadian Jewish News, "NDP MP Sponsors anti-JNF petition", January 17, 2019
Canada Talks Israel/Palestine, "Explosive CBC article reveals JNF under audit by Revenue Canada", January 23, 2019
Ron Csillag, Canadian Jewish News, "More politicians pledge support for anti-JNF petition", January 25, 2019
Stewart Bell, Global News, "Government revokes charity status of Canadian Jewish group that supported ‘foreign armed forces", January 28, 2019 (re: Beit Oloth)
Al Jazeera, "Canadian Jewish group's charitable status revoked", January 28, 2019 (re: Beit Oloth)
Times of Israel (français), "Canada: le status d'organisme caricative d'un groupe juif révoqué", January 29, 2019
Nora Barrows-Feldman, Electronic Intifada, "Canada strips charitable status from group funding Israeli Army", January 31, 2019
Brenden Stone, Podcast: Unusual Sources, "Recent developments in Stop-JNF Campaign", February 15, 2019
Fabien Deglise, Le Devoir, "Des dons canadiens au service de l'armée israélienne", February 21, 2019
Victoria Fenner, Rabble Podcast, "Petition campaign calls on the federal government to revoke the charitable status of the Jewish Fund of Canada", February 28, 2019
Sharmini Peries, The Real News Network, "Can the Jewish National Fund dedicated to ethnic cleansing be considered a charity in Canada?", March 8, 2019
Op-eds / Editorials
Like many kids growing up Jewish in the diaspora, the Jewish National Fund (JNF) was a warm, familiar connection with Israel.
Every year at my Hebrew school, on the occasion of Tu Bishvat – the Jewish new year of trees– each of us would raise a small amount of money to donate to the JNF for a tree to be planted in our name. And throughout the year, I was encouraged to put coins in a JNF pushke – little blue charity boxes found in Jewish institutions and household around the world – as a token of tzedakah, Hebrew for “charity”. As a good Jewish boy who won the prestigious Hebrew School award of Mensch of the Month on several occasions, I was sure to contribute a substantial portion of my allowance to the cause. I remember the immense sense of pride I felt. Not only was I contributing toward the collective prosperity of my people through the development of our homeland, but in giving charity I was putting the strong values I was being taught into action. In giving tzedakah I was doing a mitzvah, or “good deed.” Or at least that’s what I thought. It wasn’t until my early twenties that I started to find out more about the organization to which I sent so many nickels, pennies and dimes. I was working at the local Jewish Community Centre when a fellow employee revealed to me that JNF’s work is not all positive. My workmate told me that some of its funds go toward Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. My understanding of the situation in Israel-Palestine was rather limited at the time, but I knew enough to get that the settlements – and the occupation with it – were wrong and counterproductive to peace in the region. Click here to read more. |
Until a few years ago I had a pushke (Yiddish for “little charity box”) for the Jewish National Fund in every house I lived in, as did most of my relatives. The little blue and white box, which usually features imagery of tree planting or the map of the modern state of Israel, is for most Jews a ubiquitous, heartwarming symbol and an iconic feature of modern Jewish life.
“What is the meaning of the blue box?” one version of the pushke has written on its side. “It is not just a simple container with an unusual message. Small as it is, it stands for a big idea—for one of the greatest partnerships the world has ever known—that of the Jewish people everywhere with the land of Israel.” For the average Jew, the JNF is most strongly associated with planting trees. When I was a child going to a Jewish day school, I was told that where Israel is now there had before been desert, and the JNF had been instrumental in filling it with trees. Then, as now, Jewish children had trees in Israel dedicated in their name, and schools connected donating towards tree-planting in Israel with both Zionism and messages of ecological stewardship. Click here to read more. |
Fact-checking the Jewish National Fund of Canada
Michelle Weinroth, The Bullet, January 21, 2019 My parents first met in 1945 on the subway cars of New York city. They were 16 years of age. Like many Zionist youth of the post-war era, they were dedicated to world peace. Emissaries of the Zionist youth movement (Hashomer Hatzair), they gave fiery speeches in support of Jews seeking safe haven in Palestine. The little blue and white tin they passed around the subway riders served to garner countless donations for the Jewish National Fund (JNF), a charitable organization devoted to purchasing and ‘reclaiming’ land in Palestine for Jews – for Jews only, that is.
Committed to the cause of social justice, but still blithe, my parents saw no contradiction in collecting money for the JNF. They were determined to settle on an Israeli kibbutz and build an equitable and racially inclusive social order. In the early 1950s, they immigrated to Israel, wide-eyed and idealistic. They had not yet discerned the true nature of the JNF: that for all its charitable ‘largesse’, it was (and remains to this day), a powerful handmaiden of Israel’s ethnocentric settler colonialism. Click here to read more |
Canadian charity hides history, destruction of Palestinian villages
Bill Skidmore, Ricochet, March 5, 2019 Together with three other Canadians and the support of Independent Jewish Voices, I filed a complaint with the Canada Revenue Agency in October of 2017 asking that it revoke the charitable status of the Jewish National Fund (JNF) of Canada. Let me explain why. The creation of Israel resulted in the mass expulsion of indigenous Palestinians and the killing of thousands, because leaders of the new state insisted that it be populated by a sizable Jewish majority. This is where the JNF comes in, created in 1901 as the primary organization to acquire land in Palestine for settlement by Jews and Jews alone. In 1940, the head of the JNF’s Land Department, Yosef Weitz, wrote: “After the Arabs are transferred, the country will be wide open for us.… The only way is to transfer the Arabs from here to neighbouring countries, all of them, except perhaps Bethlehem, Nazareth, and Old Jerusalem. Not a single village or single tribe must be left.” Weitz’s words were matched with deeds, as the JNF compiled detailed surveys of Palestinian villages, which Jewish forces then used to guide their attacks in the war of 1948. But that was only half the job. Click here to read more. |
Quotes by complainants and others
Complainants
Rabbi David Mivasair, retired rabbi and IJV member based in Vancouver and Hamilton
“It is unconscionable that Canadians are subsidizing an organization that uses tax-deductible donations to support the Israeli military, especially when that army just recently killed over 100 unarmed protesters in Gaza, including medical personnel, members of the media and children. I’m acting as a Canadian taxpayer to get the CRA to stop allowing this.”
“I used to believe in the JNF. I donated to it and encouraged others to donate to it. I thought it was taking care of the environment,” he says, “I believe most Jewish Canadians donate to the JNF and don't know what it’s doing with their money.”
Dr. Ismail Zayid, Palestinian-Canadian retired Professor of Pathology at Dalhousie University based in Halifax
“Just the mention of the JNF brings pain and suffering to me. I along with several others have been complaining to the CRA about the JNF for nearly four decades now. It’s about time that the CRA acted on its own rules and regulations and revoked the JNF Canada’s charitable status.”
Bill Skidmore, Human Rights Instructor at Carleton University in Ottawa
“The JNF fundraises in Canada under the guise of an environmental charity but on the ground, its work is destructive and entrenches the conflict. I have seen first-hand the result of JNF activities. Most startling was my visit to Canada Park, located in the West Bank, just 20 minutes drive northwest of Jerusalem. Funded by the Canadian branch of the JNF, this park was planted on the lands of two West Bank Palestinian villages and stands adjacent to a third, all of which Israel razed in June of 1967. Their names are Imwas, Yalo, and Beit Nuba.”
Lorraine Guay, retired nurse and community activist based in Montreal
Others
Fabienne Presentey, consultante en employabilité des personnes autistes et membre de Voix juives indépendante basée à Montréal
“Appuyer le “Jewish National Fund” (JNF) constitue une partie intégrante de la vie juive. Ainsi, comme une majorité de jeunes juifs et juives, j’ai participé à la collecte annuelle de fonds pour Israël, croyant aveuglément faire une bonne œuvre. Par ailleurs, pour beaucoup de juifs canadiens, acheter un arbre était une forme de soutien financier très prisée. Cet alors, que j’ai “mon arbre” dans le célèbre Canada Park en Israël. Un arbre ayant une plaque en mon nom. C’est en 1982, lorsque que je cherchais “ mon arbre” que je me suis rendue compte pour la première fois que ce “Canada Park” n’était pas construit sur une terre“ sans peuple pour un peuple sans terre”. Ce sont les pierres des murets en ruines avec des inscriptions en arabe, qui m’ont ouvert les yeux. Le choc devant la découverte des vestiges de maisons palestiniennes fut retentissant! Depuis, nier l’existence d’un autre peuple et soutenir cette histoire juive mensongère ne me sont plus possibles.”
Lia Tarachansky, Israeli-Canadian filmmaker based in Toronto
“This is a corrupt, private corporation posing as a charity in Canada and enjoying Canada’s charities exemptions to pay its managers exorbitant salaries. In Israel the JNF was accused of corruption by our State Comptroller and by an American Attorney General and to understand what it does with the money it raises, you can think of it, essentially, as the fundraising arm of Israeli colonialism”.
Rabbi David Mivasair, retired rabbi and IJV member based in Vancouver and Hamilton
“It is unconscionable that Canadians are subsidizing an organization that uses tax-deductible donations to support the Israeli military, especially when that army just recently killed over 100 unarmed protesters in Gaza, including medical personnel, members of the media and children. I’m acting as a Canadian taxpayer to get the CRA to stop allowing this.”
“I used to believe in the JNF. I donated to it and encouraged others to donate to it. I thought it was taking care of the environment,” he says, “I believe most Jewish Canadians donate to the JNF and don't know what it’s doing with their money.”
Dr. Ismail Zayid, Palestinian-Canadian retired Professor of Pathology at Dalhousie University based in Halifax
“Just the mention of the JNF brings pain and suffering to me. I along with several others have been complaining to the CRA about the JNF for nearly four decades now. It’s about time that the CRA acted on its own rules and regulations and revoked the JNF Canada’s charitable status.”
Bill Skidmore, Human Rights Instructor at Carleton University in Ottawa
“The JNF fundraises in Canada under the guise of an environmental charity but on the ground, its work is destructive and entrenches the conflict. I have seen first-hand the result of JNF activities. Most startling was my visit to Canada Park, located in the West Bank, just 20 minutes drive northwest of Jerusalem. Funded by the Canadian branch of the JNF, this park was planted on the lands of two West Bank Palestinian villages and stands adjacent to a third, all of which Israel razed in June of 1967. Their names are Imwas, Yalo, and Beit Nuba.”
Lorraine Guay, retired nurse and community activist based in Montreal
Others
Fabienne Presentey, consultante en employabilité des personnes autistes et membre de Voix juives indépendante basée à Montréal
“Appuyer le “Jewish National Fund” (JNF) constitue une partie intégrante de la vie juive. Ainsi, comme une majorité de jeunes juifs et juives, j’ai participé à la collecte annuelle de fonds pour Israël, croyant aveuglément faire une bonne œuvre. Par ailleurs, pour beaucoup de juifs canadiens, acheter un arbre était une forme de soutien financier très prisée. Cet alors, que j’ai “mon arbre” dans le célèbre Canada Park en Israël. Un arbre ayant une plaque en mon nom. C’est en 1982, lorsque que je cherchais “ mon arbre” que je me suis rendue compte pour la première fois que ce “Canada Park” n’était pas construit sur une terre“ sans peuple pour un peuple sans terre”. Ce sont les pierres des murets en ruines avec des inscriptions en arabe, qui m’ont ouvert les yeux. Le choc devant la découverte des vestiges de maisons palestiniennes fut retentissant! Depuis, nier l’existence d’un autre peuple et soutenir cette histoire juive mensongère ne me sont plus possibles.”
Lia Tarachansky, Israeli-Canadian filmmaker based in Toronto
“This is a corrupt, private corporation posing as a charity in Canada and enjoying Canada’s charities exemptions to pay its managers exorbitant salaries. In Israel the JNF was accused of corruption by our State Comptroller and by an American Attorney General and to understand what it does with the money it raises, you can think of it, essentially, as the fundraising arm of Israeli colonialism”.