December 13, 2022
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Foreign “settler colonial NGO”, founded by “proud homophobe”, receiving Canadian subsidies
In Toronto this week a group founded by an openly racist and homophobic politician recently made “overlord” of the West Bank in new far-right Israeli government will be fundraising with Canadian taxpayer support. Jerusalem based Regavim has four events scheduled in the greater Toronto area.
Regavim was founded by Bezalel Smotrich, who was recently granted special power to control the lives of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. Amidst these discussion, Israeli paper Ha’aretz recently noted, “The Regavim NGO and Bezalel Smotrich don’t want law and order, they want to use more force against the Arabs.”
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.
“Canadian taxpayers shouldn’t be giving a penny to subsidize this violent settler colonialist organization” noted Rabbi David Mivasair. “The Canada Revenue Agency must audit Mizrachi Canada and immediately halt it from granting tax receipts to Regavim’s donors.”
According to CRA rules, registered charities are not supposed to assist the Israeli settlement project in the occupied West Bank since Ottawa officially considers them a violation of international law.
Khaled Mouammar indicated “Regavim targets not only Palestinians in the West Bank but also Palestinian citizens of Israel in the Negev and the Galilee to maintain a Jewish majority in those regions.”
A formal complaint detailing why Canadian taxpayers should not be subsidizing Regavim has been submitted to the Canada Revenue Agency.
For more information:
Just Peace Advocates, info@justpeaceadvocates.ca
Canadian Foreign Policy info@foreignpolicy.ca
