The Jewish National Fund offers maybe the starkest institutional example of the shift within the left establishment regarding colonial Jewish supremacy. A decade ago, leading left politicians participated in the explicitly racist organization’s events and now prominent figures are pulling out of forums because of their affiliation to the JNF.
In a positive sign, David Suzuki (and a second speaker) recently withdrew from a forum established by JNF Canada with support from the Israeli government. The prominent environmentalist was scheduled to headline an upcoming Climate Solutions Prize (CSP) event but withdrew when people pointed out that the CSP was instigated by the land thieving organization. Suzuki labelled the JNF “a controversial group”.
Unfortunately, it hasn’t always been this way in green and left circles. In 2013 Green Party leader Elizabeth May attended a JNF Ottawa fundraiser, which I and dozens of others protested. Erasing the existence of the indigenous Palestinians, May lauded “the great work that’s [the JNF] done in making the desert bloom.” Three years later May successfully diluted a Green party resolution — strongly endorsed by members in an online poll prior to the convention — calling for the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) to revoke the JNF’s charitable status.
Another ‘left’ political party has had far greater ties to the JNF. In 2016 NDP foreign affairs critic Hélène Laverdière participated in a JNF tree planting ceremony in Jerusalem. During a visit to Israel with Canada’s Governor General, the NDP’s foreign critic attended a ceremony with JNF World Chairman Danny Atar and a number of other top officials of the JNF (KKL in Israel). During the Harper regime NDP MP Pat Martin spoke at a JNF event at the prime minister’s residence in Ottawa to “recognize and thank the people that have helped to make JNF Canada what it is today.” Nova Scotia Premier Darrell Dexter planted a tree at a JNF garden in 2011. Manitoba NDP Premier Gary Doer was honoured at a 2006 JNF Negev Dinner in Winnipeg and cabinet minister Christine Melnick received the same honour in 2011. During a 2010 trip to Israel subsequent Manitoba NDP Premier Greg Selinger signed an accord with the JNF to jointly develop two bird conservation sites while water stewardship minister Melnick spoke at the opening ceremony for a park built in Jaffa by the JNF, Tel Aviv Foundation and Manitoba-Israel Shared Values Roundtable.
It’s not like these ‘leftists’ didn’t know. In response to Premier Selinger signing an accord with the JNF, I wrote a 2010 article “Progressive Canadians must challenge Jewish National Fund’s charitable status.” A decade before that, activists were already picketing local JNF fundraising galas. Born in a West Bank village demolished to make way for the JNF’s Canada Park, Ismail Zayid complained to the CRA about its charitable status for four decades. Lebanese Canadian Ron Saba was aggressively raising the subject through the mid-2000s and a coalition led by Independent Jewish Voices ultimately filed a detailed complaint to the CRA and Minister of National Revenue about the JNF.
While the JNF campaigning – and broader Palestine activism – had already largely made the supremacist organization toxic on the left, the CRA’s revocation of the JNF’s charitable status in 2024 delivered the final death nail. Suzuki highlighted the point in his statement on withdrawing from CSP, noting that the JNF “had its Canadian charitable status revoked.”
Revoking the JNF’s charitable status gave decades of activist claims state legitimacy. The other participants in the CSP event should withdraw from the upcoming conference. There’s nothing “green” about a forum instigated by an organization that destroys the natural landscape to plant non-native trees, spurring wildfires and exacerbating the climate crisis.
The efforts to discredit the JNF in left/liberal circles should be applied to other leading genocidal Jewish supremacist institutions, notably the federations which sponsor the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs and a slew of Zionist projects. Unfortunately, provincial NDP officials continue to do events with these pro-Israel Jewish federations and they receive large sums in public grants (as well as tax deductible donations). We need to politically discredit the federations and target their charitable status.
David Suzuki’s withdrawal from the Climate Solutions Prize event highlights and reflects the success of principled grassroots activism that was often at odds with establishment left politicians.
Please email participants to withdraw from Zionist greenwashing Climate Solutions Prize event.
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