Demands grow for CRA to end the Canada to Israel charity pipeline

Crescent International

Jumada' al-Ula' 05, 1447 2025-10-27

Daily News Analysis

by Crescent International

Canadians are greatly alarmed by Jewish organizations using ‘charitable’ cover to funnel hundreds of millions of tax-free dollars, perhaps billions, to fund Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine.

Such activities violate Canadian laws.

Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), the body responsible for monitoring charities, has been made aware of these illegal activities since at least 2021.

Yet, the CRA has been reluctant to take action barring a few exceptions.

Contrast that with the targeting of Muslim and Sikh charities.

Their operations have been disrupted on nothing more than suspicion.

Tthe National Security and Intelligence Review Agency’s (NSIRA) review of the Review and Analysis Division (RAD), tasked with ensuring that charities do not fund terrorism found clear bias.

NSIRA found that most charities audited were Muslim or Sikh, and in many cases there was no clear risk of terrorist funding yet their operations were disrupted.

Their conclusion: RAD’s decisions were potentially “driven by bias and discrimination.”

This is not news to us, and of course not to the many Muslim charities that were and are unfairly targeted, said Just Peace Advocates, the Canadian advocacy group that brought these matters to the attention of CRA.

The CRA responded by agreeing with 5 of the 6 recommendations from NSIRA.

This is an opportunity for the CRA to put their words into action and seriously look into money being transferred by Canadian Jewish ‘charitable’ organizations to fund illegal settlements and the Israeli military.

Between 2021 and 2025, Just Peace Advocates submitted dozens of complaints to the CRA focusing on more than 50 Canadian Jewish charities and qualified donees.

Key submissions include the Ne’eman Foundation (now revoked), HESEG Foundation, Gerald Schwartz & Heather Reisman Foundation, Mizrachi Canada (6 times), United Israel Appeal of Canada (2 times), Canadian Zionists Cultural Association (3 times), and many more.

A full list of Jewish ‘charities’ involved in such activities is given at the end of this post.

Some of these submissions were made alongside other organizations such as Independent Jewish Voices, Palestinian and Jewish Unity, Canadian Foreign Policy Institute, ICJP Canada, and others.

These efforts also grew out of the Palestinian-led movement Defund Racism.

Through various campaigns, the CRA has also received tens of thousands of letters from Canadians demanding they take immediate and decisive action to end their complicity.

On October 16, CBC’s The Fifth Estate finally released a documentary titled “Funding the Occupation.”

The CBC was made aware of the illegal activities of Canadian Jewish organizations over many years but remained mum until now.

In the documentary, several Palestinian families and communities who are the victims of Israeli war crimes in the West Bank were interviewed.

This included Nasser Nawaj’ah and his family from Khirbet Susiya, Khalil Hathaleen and the Umm al-Khair community, Heidar Abu Ghosh from Imwas, and Issa Amron from Hebron.

They also spoke with a far-right, racist, Israeli group that defended its destruction of Palestinian homes and violence against Palestinians.

Despite the recent documentary, the CBC remains deeply complicit in Israel’s occupation, apartheid, and genocide (which it still fails to name); and it can and will be held accountable for its actions, not just over the last two years, but for decades before that.

Canadians are demanding that CRA take immediate action to stop tax-subsidized funds supporting illegal activities in Israel by revoking charitable status for organizations that facilitate war crimes.

The CRA and the Government of Canada have clear principles and legislation that charities must follow.

However, they fail to enforce their own policies, instead letting these registered charities funnel tax-subsidized dollars to illegal settlements and support for the Israeli military.

The point: CRA is well aware of Canadian charities violating its own policies as well as international and domestic law.

The CRA violates its own policies by:

• Allowing charities to support foreign military (in contravention of the Public Benefit Test, CG-002 Section 4).
• Failing to ensure charities fulfill their duties under the Income Tax Act, specifically by failing to accurately report their revenue and expenses, at times, completely missing a tax filing, or failing to complete whole sections of their tax return.

The CRA violates international law by:

• Allowing upholding the charitable status of organizations who violate international laws such as the Fourth Geneva Convention, Rome Statute, and Genocide Convention.
• The CRA is required, by international law, to “carefully review any organization that is financially or politically supporting the unlawful occupation.”
• Specifically, Canada must not “give support to these organizations, for example through allowing the organization to have tax-exempt status or providing tax deductibility for donations to the organization and must ensure that financial contributions to support the unlawful occupation, including settlements and settlers, cease.”

The CRA violates domestic law through various legislation including:

• Income Tax Act, Foreign Enlistment Act, Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act, and the Geneva Conventions Act

Canadian charities, regulated by the CRA, are actively funding Israeli occupation, apartheid, and genocide.

This is not simply about “violent settlers.”

Regardless of individual settlers carrying out attacks, settler presence in the West Bank through outposts, settlements, or new infrastructure is illegal under international law and against Canadian public policy.

Canada is complicit.

It is (past) time for the CRA to take action to halt its participation in the ongoing colonization of Palestine, through the facilitation of tax-subsidized funds for a genocidal military and apartheid regime, said Just Peace Advocates.

There is ample, credible evidence that Canadian charities are funding Israeli terrorism: war crimes, apartheid, genocide, and its illegal occupation.

To not audit, suspend, and revoke these charities simply reinforces anti-Muslim discrimination and anti-Palestinian racism.

List of charities and qualified donees included in complaints to the CRA:

• 1-R32 Foundation (731148292RR0001)
• Anne & Max Tanenbaum Community Hebrew Academy Of Toronto (129827226RR0001)
• Ariel University (qualified donee)
• Azrieli Foundation (892425166RR0001)
• Bar-Ilan University (qualified donee)
• Beit Halochem Canada /Aid To Disabled Veterans Of Israel (Canada) (118779081RR0001)
• Ben-Gurion University (qualified donee)
• Birthright Israel Foundation Of Canada (879358612RR0001)
• Bnei Akiva School (119306009 RR 0001)
• Canada Charity Partners (818335390RR0001)
• Canadian Associates of the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Inc. (106869183 RR 0001)
• Canadian Foundation for Education and Welfare of Jews of the CIS (137508370RR0001)
• Canadian Friends of Bar-Ilan University (106846520RR0001)
• Canadian Friends of Haifa University (106846538RR0001)
• Canadian Friends of Hebrew University (124355363RR0001)
• Canadian Friends of Sheba Medical Enter (890940448RR0001)
• Canadian Friends of Tel Aviv University (124035643RR0001)
• Canadian Friends Of The Shalom Hartman Institute (887099992RR0001)
• Canadian Friends Of Yeshivat Har Etzion (118832732RR0001)
• Canadian Zionists Cultural Association (108075748RR0001)
• Chabad Lubavitch (855088654RR0001)
• CRIB Canada (844902825RR0001)
• Empower Ministries (858042872RR0001)
• Emunah Canada (107304446RR0001)
• Foundation for Public Policy Development (769006933RR0001)
• Friends of JNF Canada (762236461RR0001)
• Hebrew University (qualified donee)
• HESEG Foundation (834998965RR0001)
• HonestReporting Canada (799547534RR0001)
• IDF Widows And Orphans Canada (816519243RR0001)
• International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (869411587RR0001)
• Israel Magen Fund of Canada (845641299RR0001)
• Israel’s Peace Ministries (859174955RR0001)
• Jerusalem College of Technology (qualified donee)
• Jewish Heritage Foundation of Canada (118974294RR0001)
• Jewish National Fund of Canada (now revoked)
• Magen Herut Canada (714293479RR0001)
• Maharam Tav Fund (843395195RR0001)
• Mizrachi Canada (119043891RR0001)
• Ne’eman Foundation (now revoked)
• Oorah Charitable Foundation (Kars4Kids) 807556071 RR 0001
• Reichman University (qualified donee)
• Ronnen Harray Foundation (730740339RR0001)
• Shomrim Toronto (795441302RR0001)
• Technion (qualified donee)
• Technion Canada (118836519RR0001)
• Tel Aviv University (qualified donee)
• The Canadian Friends of the Jerusalem College of Technology School of Applied Sciences (139807176RR0001)
• The Canadian Society for the Weizmann Institute of Science (130930092RR0001)
• The David Hofstedter Family Foundation (119229466RR0001)
• The Emunium Fund (716794748 RR 0001, now revoked)
• The Gerald Schwartz & Heather Reisman Foundation (138445580RR0001)
• The Jerusalem Foundation of Canada Inc (108085218RR0001)
• The Weizmann Institute of Science (qualified donee)
• United Israel Appeal of Canada (134593391RR0001)
• University of Haifa (qualified donee)
• and others including asking CRA to investigate charities including family foundations making donations to these ‘charities’.

Sponsored by: Just Peace Advocates