It’s time for the CRA to stop the JNF!

In 2024, it’s time for the CRA to stop the JNF!

This year marks 123 years since the Jewish National Fund was founded in 1901 to raise funds for the colonization of Palestine.

It marks 58 years since JNF Canada was granted charitable status by the Canada Revenue Agency, the same year three Palestinian villages in the occupied West Bank were demolished to make way for the JNF’s “Canada Park”.

And it will mark 7 years since IJV submitted our formal complaint about how the practices of the Jewish National Fund of Canada violate Canadian and international law, and contribute to the ongoing occupation and colonization of Palestinian land.

Join us in calling on the CRA to once and for all take action and revoke the JNF’s charitable status in Canada!

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The Honourable Marie-Claude, 
Minister of National Revenue

CC:

Mr. Tony Manconi, Director General, Charities Directorate, Canada Revenue Agency
Mr. Robert Delaney,  Director, Compliance Division, Charities Directorate, Canada Revenue Agency
Ms. Jennifer Fraser, Chief of Staff, Canada Revenue Agency
Ms. Iqra Khalid, MP, Parliamentary Secretary for the Minister of National Revenue
Mr. Adam Chambers, MP, Conservative Party Shadow Minister for National Revenue
Ms. Niki Ashton, MP, NDP Critic for National Revenue
Mr. Jean-Denis Garon, MP, Bloc Quebecois Finance Critic

Dear Minister Bibeau,

The Jewish National Fund of Canada (JNF Canada) – which serves as a fundraising branch of the notorious, racially discriminatory organization in Israel, the JNF – has had charitable status in Canada since 1967.

For the vast majority of this time, Canadians have been formally complaining to the Canada Revenue Agency about JNF Canada’s flagrant violations of the laws governing charitable organizations. More recently in October 2017, a comprehensive complaint was sent to the CRA, followed by a parliamentary petition demanding action, which garnered over 3500 signatures.

After more than half a century issuing tax receipts for Canadian donors toward financing the dispossession of Palestinians and the erasure of their historical presence in their native villages, I call upon you to finally initiate the revocation of JNF Canada’s scandalous charitable status.

The JNF’s landholdings – accounting for roughly 13% of all land in Israel – are chartered for exclusive Jewish ownership, lease, and benefit. At least 1 in 5 Israelis is not Jewish. As a result, Israel’s own High Court ruled the JNF is a discriminatory entity.

In addition to violating Canadian law through its discriminatory practices, JNF Canada has consistently violated the Income Tax Act, common law, and Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) policy guidance CG-002 by supporting a foreign army through the building of roads, training facilities, and other infrastructure that is either entirely or primarily for the benefit of the Israel Defence Forces.
 
Further, JNF Canada has violated Canadian and international law by enabling physical changes to lands within Occupied Territory, thereby helping Israel effectively annex this land, and in the case of East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, deepen control over land already annexed illegally.

Notably, the JNF Canada’s flagship project, “Canada Park”, was built on the lands of forcibly depopulated Palestinian villages destroyed immediately following the 1967 war. The JNF was involved in demolishing these villages, in direct violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention and customary international law.

As customary international law is part of the common law of Canada, the Canadian government has the legal duty to stop assisting the JNF and disgorge what assistance it has already provided.

Out of respect for Canadian and international law, and the human rights and dignity of Palestinians, I urge you to immediately initiate the revocation of JNF Canada’s charitable status.

For more information, please visit www.stopthejnf.ca.

Sincerely,