JNF Canada’s charity status has been officially revoked. On August 10th the revocation notice for JNF Canada was published in the Canada Gazette, the official newspaper of the Canadian Government. This act finalizes the historic decision, and at this moment Canadian tax money will no longer subsidize the JNF’s illegal support of Israeli apartheid.
In the wake of this important victory, we think about all of the Palestinians, IJV members, and our allies that worked tirelessly to make this happen. This decision comes as a direct result of decades of grassroots campaigning such as IJV’s Stop the JNF Campaign, and activism from individuals including Ismail Zayid, Uri Davis, and Walter Lehn.
As the former charity pursues an appeal to this decision, it is important to remember JNF Canada’s long history of breaking Canadian tax law and refusing to comply with government regulations.
What is JNF Canada?
The so-called “environmental nonprofit” has been closely tied to Israel’s colonizing and genocidal activities since before the country was founded. The JNF is today the largest single landowner in Israel. Most commonly known for its century-old campaign to “make the desert bloom,” the JNF’s lands were obtained through exploitative land sales and often-violent, forced removals of Palestinians from their lands. JNF Canada has contributed to these efforts since its founding by financing projects like Canada Park, which stands on the site of over 1,400 demolished Palestinian homes in the West Bank.
JNF Canada’s continued support for the IDF and settlements
In 2018, JNF Canada announced that it stopped supporting activities on Israeli military bases as of 2016 and committed to stop doing so in the future. In early 2021, it announced that it had stopped funding projects in the “disputed territories.” However, Independent Jewish Voices has found reasonable evidence to wonder, are JNF Canada reps telling the truth?
Recently released revocation documents showed that the CRA acted upon many of the arguments made in the 85-page 2017 complaint linked to our #StopJNFCanada campaign, including:
- Support for the Israeli military
- Complicity in de-facto annexation of the occupied West Bank, and complicity in annexation of East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights
- Serving as a conduit for JNF (KKL) in Israel
As revealed by the Canadian Jewish News, JNF Canada donated $1.9 million to the Ne’eman Foundation between 2018-2022, which lost its charitable status at the same time, largely due to financing groups that support the Israeli military and right-wing settler groups including Elad/Ir David and Women in Green. But that’s not where the story ends.
Continued illegal activities and support for the Israeli military
Independent Jewish Voices has identified multiple instances of JNF Canada activities that offer support for the Israeli military and/or the occupation of the West Bank over the past few years.
Here’s a shortlist:
- Projects on Israeli military bases
JNF Canada has continued to support Bat Galim Naval Base near Kiryat Eliezar/Haifa by funding a promenade between January 1, 2008 and July 10, 2022.
It also continued to support Tel Nof Airbase, by funding a “Refreshment corner for soldiers in the 114 Y’saor Squadron”. This project was opened on May 5, 2015 and finished on April 23, 2023.
- Training facilities to prepare youth to be soldiers in the IDF
In 2019, JNF Canada began promotion and fundraising for a “House for Excellence” in Sderot, Israel, and would ultimately raise at least $2 million for the Bervin JNF Canada House. The purpose of these centres, according to KKL-JNF, is to “encourage the youngsters and the community to identify with Zionist values, to serve meaningfully in the IDF…”. Geared to students in Grades 10 to 12, one of the successes KKL-JNF describes for the Heritage Centers is that students report stronger feelings “of willingness to be recruited for significant service…” Programming at the Houses of Excellence is offered by IDF soldiers, specifically soldiers who have served in the IDF elite Intelligence Unit 8200.
- Missions to Israel
JNF Canada has continued to co-host with other JNF branches, missions to Israel, which have included volunteering on army bases and wine tasting in settlements.
On a January 2024 mission, participants volunteered in an army warehouse, packing 16,000 bags of energy snacks for soldiers in Gaza as a way to “contribute[…] to the war effort”. On a February mission, CEO of JNF Canada, Lance Davis, posted a picture of himself on Facebook making 400 meals for IDF soldiers. On a May 2024 mission, the itinerary indicated a visit to an artillery base near Kibbutz Nir Oz, next to the Gaza Strip, to “meet IDF soldiers”, wine tasting at an illegal Israeli settlement in the West Bank, Gush Etzion, on May 21, 2024, and dinner with “lone soldiers”.
- Begin Park
In addition to providing funds to benefit the IDF, JNF Canada continued to support Israel’s illegal occupation of the West Bank by funding Begin Park, which crosses into the occupied West Bank next to Palestinian village and UNESCO world heritage site Battir, until June 2022. As has often been the case, JNF forests help to create facts on the ground, allowing Israel to more easily expand settlements. True to purpose, the Israeli government announced that it will be establishing a new settlement on the lands of Battir on August 15, 2024.
- “Gateway to Jerusalem”
According to its website, JNF Canada is actively seeking donations toward a 1,300 square meter attraction park in illegally annexed East Jerusalem, already in partial operation. Linked to the City of David National Park, the project is led by right-wing settler group Elad/Ir David, which works to evict Palestinians and “create a Jewish majority in Arab neighborhoods” of East Jerusalem. This organization’s work was notably referenced as non-charitable by the CRA in its recent charitable status revocation notice for another organization, the Ne’eman Foundation.
No more tax breaks for apartheid and war crimes.
JNF Canada must never be permitted to regain its charitable status. It has demonstrated, over numerous decades, its refusal to engage honestly with CRA officials, donors and the broader Canadian public, repeatedly violating CRA rules and implicating all Canadians in violations of international law.
Unfortunately, JNF Canada is not the only organization using Canadian tax subsidies to finance Israeli apartheid and war crimes. In April 2024, IJV Canada and Just Peace Advocates released an open letter calling on the federal government to immediately investigate and end the tax status of organizations such as Mizrachi Canada, which use federal funds to support and fund IDF military units and violent settler organizations in Israel.
It has taken decades of organizing, petitioning, and protesting for the Canadian government to take action about JNF Canada’s illegal activities. At this moment, when Palestinians are undergoing genocide in Gaza and settler attacks and IDF invasion in the West Bank, it is crucial that the illegal use of Canadian charity status to support Israeli apartheid and war crimes are immediately ended, and that the organizations funding them are held responsible.
