The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) has published an expose on a Jewish charity in Canada which has been under investigation for using donations to build infrastructure for the Israeli army in violation of the country’s tax rules.
According to CBC the Jewish National Fund (JNF) of Canada one of the country’s long-established charities has been the subject of a Canada Revenue Agency audit after a complaint was filed in October 2017.
The JNF of Canada funds numerous projects in Israel such as reforestation efforts in areas hit by wildfires but according to official accusations leveled against it it has also funded infrastructure projects at Israeli army’s ground air and naval bases.
Such JNF activities has violated the Canadian law which prohibits charitable funds to be used for supporting a foreign army.
CBC’s article details many troubling aspects of the charity’s projects which along with funding infrastructure on Israeli military bases it has also contributed directly to the construction of at least one hilltop settler outpost in the occupied West Bank where Israel’s settlement activities are considered illegal under international law.
The Jewish group which disclosed to donors last year that it has been under audit by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) claimed it stopped funding those projects in 2016.
However a complaint which was submitted in October 2017 with the support of Independent Jewish Voices Canada (IJV) presented detailed evidence that JNF of Canada still works in violation of the Income Tax Act and contravenes Canadian foreign policy in numerous ways.
According to CRA guidelines funding for projects intended to increase the “effectiveness and efficiency” of a foreign military cannot be considered charitable and therefore should not be tax-deductible.
“It is unconscionable that Canadians are subsidizing an organization that has used tax-deductible donations to support the Israeli military especially when that army has killed nearly 200 unarmed protesters in Gaza this past year including medical personnel members of the media and children” CBC quoted Canadian Rabbi David Mivasair one of four complainants as saying.
According to IJV JNF of Canada has funded well over a dozen projects to support the Israeli forces in the last few years alone and has officially partnered with the Israeli forces and the Israeli ministry of defense.
Its military projects include “the new planned [Israeli military] training base city in the Negev” desert and “helping the development of the Bat Galim (naval) training base complex area” according to CBC.
In 2014 JNF of Canada held a Negev Gala dinner where proceeds were to “develop three areas of the Negev’s Tse’elim army base the largest military training facility in Israel and the national center for ground forces training.
JNF of Canada has also funded security roads along Israel’s borders with Lebanon and Gaza which in the words of JNF itself are designed to “enhance military activity” in these border regions.
Fifteen million dollars of tax-deductible Canadian funds have also contributed towards building JNF Canada’s flagship project Canada Park along with a new adjacent Israeli settlement.
The park was built on militarily occupied territory over the ruins of three Palestinian villages which Israeli forces depopulated and demolished in 1967 as well as the lands of a fourth IJV was quoted as saying.
