Canada to revoke JNF’s charitable status over support for Israel military

 The Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA) has informed the Jewish National Fund Canada (JNF) of its decision to revoke the organisation’s charitable status due to its support for military infrastructure in Israel.

JNF Canada’s President, Nathan Disenhouse, and CEO, Lance Davis, revealed on Wednesday that they have initiated a legal challenge against the CRA’s decision in the Federal Court of Appeal.

“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,” wrote Nathan in a statement released yesterday. “It is simply unjust to close a charity supported by over 100,000 Canadians based on reversing a decision the CRA made in 1967.”

He added, “Unfortunately, our overtures to have a dialogue in order to negotiate an agreement were rejected – CRA officials refused to meet in person with JNF Canada officials throughout this ordeal – and the CRA confirmed its intention to revoke on June 26th.”

They further stated that their appeal aims to demonstrate that the CRA’s findings are flawed, the federal body’s procedures are unfair, and that there “is a reasonable apprehension of bias in the audit.”

JNF previously faced issues with the CRA following a financial audit that revealed donations were used to build military infrastructure for the Israeli army. The CRA determined this violated Canada’s Tax Code, which prohibits supporting foreign militaries.

In recent years, the CRA has similarly targeted other Canadian Jewish charities. In 2019, the Beth Oloth Charitable Organization lost its charitable status for distributing funds to aid the Israeli military.

Meanwhile, Mark Blumberg, an attorney specialising in Canadian charity law, explained to The National Post, that while there were past compliance issues, it’s difficult to draw firm conclusions from JNF’s announcement without reviewing the CRA’s and JNF’s correspondence.

Created in 1901 during the Zionist Congress in Switzerland, the JNF was tasked with buying land in Palestine for Jewish settlement.

The process was typically done through absentee landlords, but when Palestinians became aware of the JNF’s efforts in the 1920s, they refused to sell their land to the organisation. The JNF then turned to more insidious methods of acquiring land.

Much of the land it owns has been made into national parks, which seek to erase the Palestinian history and ties to the land, however remanence of the Palestinian life remain visible with in the parks.

Read: The JNF: A charity complicit with ethnic cleansing

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20240726-canada-to-revoke-jnfs-charitable-status-over-support-for-israel-military/