By Yves Engler

Have all Canadians underwritten $180 million of a billionaire power couple’s donations to a charity assisting a murderous military in violation of Canada Revenue Agency rules? How long until the CRA finally shutters a charity it never should have registered?

On August 10, the CRA revoked the charitable status of the Jewish National Fund of Canada and Ne’eman Foundation, which have raised a combined $350 million over the past decade. The news has sent shockwaves through the network of 200+ charities raising over a quarter billion dollars a year for projects in Israel, prompting open conflict between the JNF and Canadian Jewish News.

While most attention has focused on the far more influential JNF, the CRA’s rationale for revoking the Ne’eman Foundation’s charitable status threatens multiple Zionist charities, notably Gerry Schwartz and Heather Reisman’s HESEG Foundation for Lone Soldiers. In its rationale for revoking Ne’eman, the CRA states clearly that it considers assisting the Israeli military and specifically “lone soldiers” a violation of charity rules.

The revocation letter notes, “We further stated that increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), which is further discussed in section 2.b), is not a charitable purpose.”

It repeats that point on multiple occasions and identifies assistance for “lone soldiers” as assistance for the Israeli military. Referring to “lone soldiers” more than a dozen times, the CRA letter notes, “The Lone Solider Centre’s website also clearly defines the term lone solider as ‘an IDF solider with no family in Israel to support him or her’… As such, we are unable to accept the Organization’s representations that this agent does not support the IDF and that lone soldiers are simply immigrants without a family in Israel.”

In 2005 Reisman and Schwartz established the HESEG Foundation for Lone Soldiers. Established to “recognize and honor the contribution of Lone Soldiers to Israel”, HESEG provides scholarships and other forms of support to Torontonians, New Yorkers, and other non-Israelis (Lone Soldiers) who join an occupation force brutalizing Palestinians.

The HESEG Board has included a handful of top military officials and Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz spoke at the first HESEG Foundation Grants Awards Ceremony.

After the IOF killed 1,400 Palestinians in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead in 2009, HESEG delivered $160,000 in gifts to Israeli soldiers who took part in the violence. More recently, HESEG has funded scholarships for members of the Duvdevan, an undercover commando unit known for disguising itself and blending in with Palestinians in the Occupied Territories to carry out operations.

The Duvdevan scholarships are partly based on “excellence during army service”, which in the context of the Israeli occupation likely means kidnapping or killing Palestinians. Since 2005 Reisman and Schwartz have given nearly $200 million to assist “lone soldiers”.

Up to “90%” of wealthy people’s donations to registered charities are covered by all taxpayers, explained charity law expert Mark Blumberg in a recent Canadian Jewish News interview on the revocation of the Jewish National Fund’s charitable status.

“There’s a lot of wealthy people getting 80 or 90 cents on the dollar when they donate”, explained Blumberg. “What that means is their money is going to Israel, for very good stuff in Israel, but it’s only 10 cents their money 90 percent [is] federal and provincial money.”

Have all Canadians covered 90% of Schwartz and Reisman’s donations to a charity assisting the Israeli military in violation of Canada Revenue Agency rules? That would mean taxpayers covered $180 million of the billionaire couples’ donations to a military brutalizing Palestinians. Whatever the exact sum, it’s outrageous Canadians are subsidizing even one cent of a billionaire couple’s funding for a brutal foreign military.

How could an organization “for Lone Soldiers” ever have been registered as a charity? Before it became a charity the court upheld the revocation of Canadian Magen David Adom’s charitable status, which was partly due to its support for the Israeli military.

HESEG may even violate Canada’s Foreign Enlistment Act, which states: “Any person who, within Canada, recruits or otherwise induces any person or body of persons to enlist or to accept any commission or engagement in the armed forces of any foreign state or other armed forces operating in that state is guilty of an offense.”

Fortunately, the CRA’s decision against the Ne’eman Foundation lays the ground to revoke the charitable status of the much-criticized HESEG Foundation for Lone Soldiers.

But HESEG isn’t the only charity that should be worried about the CRA’s rationale for revoking the Ne’eman Foundation’s charitable status. The Canadian Zionist Cultural Association also assists the Israeli military in clear violation of CRA rules. Until a formal complaint was instigated, CZCA was listed on an Israeli military website as one of six international organizations “authorized to raise donations for the IDF.”

CZCA has allocated multiple millions of dollars to YAHAD, which says its “aim is raising funds for IDF soldiers”. Over a decade ago the CRA flagged CZCA’s assistance to illegal West Bank colonies.

Mizrachi Canada must also be immediately revoked. It has assisted the Duvdevan Foundation, which supports the murderous Duvdevan Unit. Mizrachi Canada has also assisted organizations helping block aid trucks to Gaza and racist settler organization Ir David, which is also cited in Ne’eman’s revocation letters.

Dozens of other Israel-focused charities assist the Israeli military, racist organizations, and West Bank colonies in violation of CRA rules. In the first-ever coordinated day of action on the subject, protesters descended on 20 CRA offices across the country Thursday to demand the revenue agency apply the law towards Israel-focused charities.

The International Day of Charity protests were covered by CTV London, CFAX 1070 Victoria, Muslim Link, Jacobin, Niagra’s Pelham, and other media. There’s growing momentum for Canada to stop subsidizing genocide.

 – Yves Engler is the author of Canada and Israel: Building Apartheid and a number of other books. He contributed this article to The Palestine Chronicle. Visit his website: yvesengler.com.