The Kars4Kids scandal comes at a difficult time for the genocide lobby and boosts rapidly growing efforts to curtail Canada’s most important contribution to Palestinian dispossession.
On The National Friday CBC reported on a legal ruling in California to ban the Kars4Kids jingle for violating false advertising laws. The registered charity operates a car donation service supposedly “to fund educational, developmental, and recreational programs for low-income youth.” In fact, the money is used by an Orthodox Jewish group running camps exclusively for Jewish youth in New Jersey and Israel as well as Middle East lobbying efforts and sending US teenagers to Israel.
According to CBC, Kars4Kids Canada transferred $12.6 million to the US and Israel in the 2024-25 fiscal year. In October Just Peace Advocates submitted a formal complaint to the CRA regarding Kars4Kids’ registered charity (Oorah Charitable Organization). It notes that there’s “no indication of any funds to Canadian programs despite advertising suggesting helping children. Donors would expect their donations to be used in Canada and certainly would not expect the funds to go to one religious group.” The submission ads that the “funds going to Israel are not for children but for post-secondary programs” and questions whether they are being used to support illegal West Bank colonies and the Israeli military.
The publicity about Kars4Kids comes at an inopportune moment for the genocidal Jewish supremacist lobby. Over the past two weeks they’ve been screaming about how they are victims because there’s been an effort to press the CRA to apply its rules to 11 school charities assisting the Israeli military. In response to a report/email campaign submitted to the CRA calling for an investigation into 11 schools, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, B’nai Brith and others claimed applying the rules would “erase Jewish life in Canada.” Liberal MP Anthony Housefather even stood before Parliament to demand his government intercede to ignore the law.
After two weeks of complaining, CIJA instigated an email campaign to the CRA responding to the Just Peace Advocates led report/email campaign. The CIJA letter doesn’t say “don’t investigate charities potentially violating CRA rules”, but that is effectively their message.
Instigating such an embarrassing petition campaign suggests CIJA is worried. Have they heard privately that some significant Zionist charities are undergoing a CRA audit? Might they be trying to head off more Zionist groups being added to the growing list of apartheid promoting charities who’ve had their status revoked?
A problem for CIJA is that the more people learn about the scope and activities of Zionist charities the more outraged they are. According to charity lawyer Mark Blumberg, there are approximately 1,000 registered Jewish charities in Canada with around $12 billion in assets. Around a quarter of them are focused on assisting projects in the genocidal Jewish supremacist state (there are also some Christian Zionist charities funnelling funds to Israel). Over three hundred million dollars a year in taxpayer subsidized donations go to Israel. A significantly larger sum of money is raised by schools, camps, synagogues and other community organizations that promote the Israeli military and violence against Palestinians, Lebanese, Iranians, etc.
In recent days Just Peace Advocates has released information on more charities that should be revoked. On Thursday Ezer Mizion, which aids Israeli soldiers and others affected by war, hosted a genocidaire in Toronto. Ezer Mizion has other direct ties to the IOF despite CRA rules precluding assistance for foreign militaries.
Another JPA report pointed out that several charities are linked directly to political parties in Israel and are using their taxpayer subsidized funds to campaign for the racist, colonial, World Zionist Congress. In effect all Canadian taxpayers are subsidizing partisan political activities in contravention of CRA rules.
Another recent JPA report points out how B’nai Brith has registered 45 different charities over the decades. A number have been revoked by the CRA while others were voluntarily revoked and still others have failed to file to the CRA. The genocidal apartheid promoting organization currently has 13 registered charities.
Dozens, maybe hundreds, of the 1,000 Jewish charities violate existing CRA rules. We need to press the CRA to apply its rules. But anti-racists, internationalists and anyone concerned about public spending should also be considering changes to the Income Tax Act that would constrain Zionist charities.
I don’t believe the public should be subsidizing organizations sending money to a faraway genocidal supremacist state. Nor should we be subsidizing groups promoting that lawless foreign state. Many, if not most, Canadians likely agree. The law should reflect public sentiment.
Please email the CRA to investigate Kars4Kids.
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