Rallies Organized Canada Revenue Agency Offices To Protest Canadian Charities Assisting Genocide in Palestine

On International Day of Charity, September 5, rallies will be held at about 20 Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) offices across the country to challenge the CRA over its lax attitude towards charities assisting Israel's genocide. In what may be the largest ever coordinated protest at CRA offices, activists are simply calling on the revenue agency to uphold its own rules regarding registered charities financing illegal West Bank colonies, racist organizations and foreign militaries.

 

“On International Day of Charity we are telling the Canada Revenue Agency that groups promoting genocide shouldn’t be considered charity,” noted Karem Rodman of Just Peace Advocates. “Forcing all Canadians to subsidize the Israeli military, racist organizations and West Bank colonies is a perversion of charity”, added Rodman

 

“A truly independent, law-abiding Canada Revenue Agency would revoke the charitable status of dozens of organizations violating CRA rules by assisting the Israeli military, racist organizations and West Bank colonies,” noted Khaled Mouammar, a Christian Palestinian-Arab denied the right to return since 1948 because of his religious and ethnocultural category. Mouammar is former president of Canadian Arab Federation (2005 to 2012), and a former Member of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (1994 to 2005).

 

Thursday’s protests come amidst a move that sent shockwaves through the network of 200+ charities raising over a quarter billion dollars a year for projects in Israel. Recently the CRA revoked the charitable status of the Jewish National Fund (JNF) of Canada and Ne’eman Foundation, which have raised nearly $350 million over the past decade. The CRA revocation has caused a rift among pro-Israel organizations and has been cited by groups in the UK calling for that country to revoke the JNF’s charitable status.

 

“The Canada Revenue Agency shouldn't subsidize groups promoting apartheid and genocide” concluded Rabbi David Mivasair, an active member of Independent Jewish Voices Canada,who served as the spiritual leader of synagogues in the U.S. and Canada for nearly 25 years.