The Palestine movement in Canada and beyond has reason to celebrate after years of tirelessly organizing against land theft in Palestine. On July 25, The National Post reported that the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) will revoke the Jewish National Fund’s (JNF) charitable status for its support of the Israeli military.
Canada’s Tax Code dictates that no charitable entity can use donations to build infrastructure for a foreign army. The JNF, which was established in 1901 as a land-grabbing organization, has a long history embedded in the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and offering material support for the Israeli Occupation Forces. Mondoweiss reported that “in 1972, the Canadian branch, JNF Canada, raised $15 million to create Canada Park, built on top of the demolished villages in occupied Palestine.”
Not only have Canadian taxpayers been partially funding the displacement and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, but in 2019, the CBC reported that the JNF “funded infrastructure projects on Israeli army, air and naval bases.” This colonial organization, with numerous chapters across the West, has been attempting to mask itself as a harmless charity for decades, all while wreaking havoc in occupied Palestine and attacking the Palestinian movement abroad.
Even while blatantly funding international war crimes, breaking Canadian law, and dodging years of lukewarm warnings from the CRA, the JNF has gone unpunished… until now.
For Canadian advocates for Palestine, this decision is considered “long overdue,” as various organizations — such as the Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME) and Canada Palestine Association — have been protesting against the JNF and its crimes for years. As word of the CRA’s decision was shared, advocates cheered the revocation of the JNF’s charitable status.
AJ+’s Sana Saeed wrote on X, “This is significant - the Canadian Revenue Agency just revoked the Jewish National Fund’s charitable status for supporting the IDF. The JNF is the single-largest landowner (13%) in Israel via theft & does not allow non-Jews to live on land it owns.”
Director of Communications at the Adalah Justice Project, Sumaya Awad, wrote, “JNF funds apartheid and genocide. [Its status] should be revoked everywhere.”
The change in status comes merely a week after the ICJ ruled that Israel is breaking international law by unlawfully occupying the West Bank, east Jerusalem, and Gaza, reaffirming what Palestinians have been saying for the last 76 years. Although the ruling does not refer to all of historic Palestine, it is a defining moment for Palestinian liberation. The Zionist entity and its supporters know that Israel cannot be separated from its illegal settlements in the West Bank. A ruling such as this one is just a stitch away from acknowledging the entirety of Israel for what it is: — an illegal settler colony.
Al Jazeera quoted Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Maliki after the ICJ ruling saying, “the ICJ fulfilled its legal and moral duties with this historic ruling. All states must now uphold their clear obligations: no aid, no assistance, no complicity, no money, no arms, no trade, no nothing – no actions of any kind to support Israel’s illegal occupation.”
Earlier today, the CBC reported that the Zionist organization will be taking Canada’s minister of national revenue to court, appealing the decision.
The timing of the CRA’s decision could potentially indicate a growing desire for nations to distance themselves from Israel, as the possibility of Zionism’s collapse seems impending. With multiple countries seeking to join South Africa’s international court case against Israel and a warrant being sought for Netanyahu’s arrest, Israel’s image and global soft power have significantly deteriorated since its accelerated genocide in the Gaza Strip. After 76 years of Occupation, the reality that governments can be held accountable for fostering and rewarding the violent Occupation of Palestine has possibly set in.
