Incredibly, Canada’s most significant contribution to Palestinian dispossession is called “charity” and deemed worthy of deductions from tax owing. So, the Fifth Estate exposing the subsidized groups assisting the Israeli military and illegal settlements is important.
Yesterday the CBC Fifth Estate released a 42-minute documentary “Investigating charities getting tax breaks for funding Palestinian displacement”. CBC’s flagship investigative program exposed the Canada to Israel charity pipeline, which includes 300 registered groups channeling around $400 million annually to projects in Israel. All Canadians subsidize these genocide-enabling donations.
The documentary, which was also briefly mentioned on last night’s The National, quotes lawyer Shane Martinez and academic Miles Howes who have done essential work in exposing this unique form of Canadian support for Zionism. While not quoted by the Fifth Estate, Karen Rodman of Just Peace Advocates is the person who has done the most work on apartheid charities in recent years. Rodman has organized dozens of action alert email campaigns about different Israel charities and coordinated/facilitated a lot of the research done by others.
I have worked closely with Rodman to publicize different charities’ rule-breaking and written dozens of articles on the subject so it’s rewarding to see the CBC mainstream this scandal.
It’s been many years of learning and campaigning. I covered charities extensively in my 2010 Canada and Israel: Building Apartheid which includes a section headlined “Charity begins at home”. The introduction notes, “private charities support Israeli militarism and every year Canadians send hundreds of millions of dollars worth of tax-deductible donations to Israeli universities, parks, immigration initiatives etc. More controversially, millions of dollars in private money, often subsidized by Canadian tax write-offs, is funnelled to illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank.”
Looking back on the book, however, I’m struck by the superficial nature of my knowledge. The book doesn’t properly detail the scope of charity support, public subsidy or illegal character of donations. Some wealthy people’s donations are subsidized up to 90%, explained charity lawyer Mark Blumberg in the Canadian Jewish News. Additionally, Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) rules bar charities from assisting foreign militaries, racist organizations, municipalities and West Bank settlements. Despite this, dozens of these ‘charities’ do exactly that. In the most remarkable example of my (and the decades old Palestine movement’s) failure to grasp the scope of the issue, I failed to mention that the Heseg Foundation for Lone Soldiers is a registered charity or that the CRA bar charities from assisting foreign militaries.
The total wealth transfer is staggering and entirely unique. Assuming donations have been flowing at a similar rate to today, it’s likely that Canadian taxpayers have subsidized $20 billion sent to projects in Israel since the federal government introduced deductions for charities in 1967. (That doesn’t include hundreds of millions of dollars more — probably a billion dollars annually — raised by charities promoting genocide domestically such as Honest Reporting Canada, Magen Herut Canada and TanenbaumCHAT. Blumberg claims there are a thousand “Jewish charities” with a whopping $12 billion in assets. While many likely have little to do with Israel, it’s safe to assume that most include an Israel element.)
It’s taken many years of research and activism to appreciate the scope of this unique form of support. Israel has a GDP per capita equal to Canada’s, yet no other wealthy nation receives anything similar in terms of subsidized donations. How many Canadian charities funnel money to Sweden or Japan?
The dominant media has largely ignored our efforts to draw attention to this unique Canadian contribution to a lawless apartheid state that’s committed a live streamed holocaust. While good for a major media outlet, the Fifth Estate documentary barely scratches the surface of the moral and financial outrage. But it almost certainly will raise pressure on the CRA to act on the nearly two dozen Israel charities against which they’ve received formal complaints.
My platform to lead the NDP calls to “Revoke charitable status of groups funding ethnic cleansing. Ottawa allows registered charities to contravene CRA rules by using tax deductible donations to fund the Israeli military, racist organizations, and West Bank settlements.”
It’s time to completely shutter the genocidal, apartheid, charity pipeline.
To assist, donate or learn more about my bid to lead the NDP check out yvesforndpleader.ca
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