The Canadian Foreign Policy Institute, the Canadian BDS Coalition, Canada Palestine Association, Palestinian and Jewish Unity, Independent Jewish Voices, Palestine House (Palestinian Canadian Community Centre), Samidoun, and Just Peace Advocates launched a campaign to tell the Canada Revenue Agency that colonialism is not charity.
In December, Regavim hosted a series of fundraisers in the Greater Toronto Area. The Canada Revenue Agency shouldn’t provide a single tax receipt for donations to this racist, colonialist, organization.
Israeli professor Neve Gordon has labeled Regavim a “settler colonial NGO” while Ha’aretz called them “one of the most prominent right-wing groups in Israel today.” According to Defund Racism, Regavim “works to expand Jewish control of land across Israel and the Palestinian Occupied Territories by pushing Israeli administrative, judicial, legislative, and military bodies to dispossess Palestinian and other non-Jewish communities of their land.”
Regavim’s website offers tax receipts to Canadian donors. Its fiscal sponsor is registered charity Mizrachi Canada, which channeled $6 million to Israel in 2021. A formal complaint has been submitted to the Canada Revenue Agency, and close to 2,000 letters sent so far.
There are a number of other organizations such as Regavim included in the Palestine based #DefundRacism campaign, and a number of Canadian charities that act as conduits to these and other organizations.
Read more, Dec. 13 press release from Just Peace Advocates and the Canadian Foreign Policy Institute
Organizations joining in support include:
Academics for Palestine- Concordia
Africa4Palestine
Australians for Palestine
Baltimore Nonviolence Center
BDS Vancouver/Coast Salish Territories
Bruce R. Allen Paralegal
Canadian Council of Muslim Women Montreal
Chrysalis Theatre , Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
CJPMESaskatoon
Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid Victoria, British Columbia
Daraja Press
Early Childhood Development Intercultural Partnerships
Edmonton Small Press Association
Friends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA)
Global Peace Alliance BC Society
Good Shepherd Collective, Palestine
Jewish Network for Palestine, UK
Kairos Sabeel Nederland
Kashmir Law and Justice Project
Knowledge Track Inc.
Mid Islanders for Justice and Peace in the Middle East
Montreal for a World BEYOND War
NDP Socialist Caucus
Niagara Movement for Justice in Palestine-Israel (NMJPI)
Oakville Palestinian Rights Association
Peace Alliance Winnipeg
Quebec Public Interest Research Group Concordia
Rosette Fair Trade, Ottawa
Rumbo a Gaza, Spain
SE London Friends of Palestine, UK
Socialist Action / Ligue pour l’Action socialiste
The Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy – MIFTAH, Palestine
Toronto Raging Grannies
United Network for Justice and Peace in Palestine and Israel (UNJPPI)
World BEYOND War Canada
Youth of Sumud, Palestine
These organizations join in also supporting the Defund Racism campaign.
We ask other organizations to join in telling the CRA that “colonialism is not charity.”
Also read:
Protesting ‘Violent Settler Colonialist’ Regavim is Not Antisemitic, Yves Engler, Palestine Chronicle, Dec. 23, 2022.
Palestinian Voices are Still Presumed Guilty in Canada, Paul Salvatori, Palestine Chronicle, Dec. 26, 2022.
