At the start of the month Sylvan Adams (ER: a dual nationality Canadian) gave US$100 million to Ben-Gurion University.

During a Toronto gala for the university’s Canadian fundraising branch, the Canadian billionaire announced the money for “rebuilding and strengthening the south … in the wake of the Oct. 7th attack against Israel’s southern border communities.” Over the past ten weeks United Israel Appeal Canada has raised $100 million. After a recent Jewish National Fund of Canada fundraiser, the registered charity’s executive Director Jeff Springer said, “We raised money for the war during this event.”

Throughout its history flare ups in Israeli violence has prompted an outpouring of financial assistance from Canadian Zionists. A significant share of that money has been underwritten by the public.

The Canadian tax code has long been used to subsidize projects in Israel, and pro-apartheid groups have received large amounts in public grants. While little discussed, the ‘Zionifaction’ of charitable status is Canada’s most significant contribution to Palestinian dispossession.

Canadians provide a massive, unique, subsidy to Israel. About a hundreds [sic] of million dollars a year in public money is funneled to a country that has long committed the crime of apartheid, and tens of millions of dollars more goes to groups promoting anti-Palestinian policies within Canada.

Benefiting from the ability to grant tax credits covering as much as half of a donation, registered charities finance projects in Israel as well as Canada’s apartheid lobby. Additionally, many Canadian apartheid lobby groups receive direct government grants.

Over 200 registered Canadian charities finance projects in Israel. It’s difficult to quantify exactly how much they funnel to a country with a GDP per capita equal to Canada’s, but Just Peace Advocates research has put it at around a quarter billion dollars annually. A third of that sum would be covered by taxpayers through charitable write-offs.

Most years United Israel Appeal Canada is the largest single source of charity funds for Israel, sending between $50 and $110 million. It’s overseen by the Jewish federations of Toronto, Montréal, Winnipeg, Windsor, Calgary, Edmonton, Hamilton, London, Ottawa, Vancouver and Atlantic Canada. In addition to the funds raised by United Israel Appeal, the Jewish Federations raise hundreds of millions of dollars annually. Some of those funds are sent directly to projects in Israel.

The Federations organize Toronto’s Walk with Israel and Montréal’s annual Israel Day Celebration. The Federations also operate Israel Engagement initiatives that host Israeli teens who defer their military service for one year to volunteer to “teach about Israel through creative programs and challenging discussions.”

The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), Canada’s most influential apartheid lobby group, “is the advocacy agent of Jewish Federations across Canada”. The Federations fund many other apartheid lobby groups and Israel ‘lobby sustaining’ organizations, which are pro-apartheid but not principally focused on Israel campaigning.

Beyond benefiting from charitable status, the federations receive tens of millions of dollars in direct federal, provincial and municipal grants. Last December Ottawa put up $25 million for the Vancouver Jewish Community Centre, which includes an “Israeli Department” and is adorned with Israeli flags. Similarly, Montreal’s Sylvan Adams YM-YWHA received $8 million in federal funding in March. The facility operated by the Montréal Federation is named after a billionaire who has plowed hundreds of millions of dollars into campaigning for Israel. In 2012 UJA Toronto received $30 million in federal and provincial funding to build a new community centre.

The Federations receive tens of millions of dollars more in government grants for various initiatives ranging from security assistance to educational projects. Overseen by Federation CJA, the Montréal Holocaust Museum recently received $40 million in provincial, municipal and federal funding for its expansion (as well as a similar amount in tax subsidized donations). But the Museum is a sponsor of the ongoing Montreal Israeli Film Festival with the Israeli Consul General, Israel Bonds and other groups. The Holocaust Museum says it “is proud to have taken part in the Canadian delegation” that helped develop the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) anti-Palestinian definition of antisemitism. When the Project Montréal municipal government refused to heed the apartheid lobby’s push to adopt the IHRA’s definition of antisemitism in 2020, the museum released a statement criticizing the party headlined “The Montreal Holocaust Museum regretfully notes the Montreal Mayor’s refusal to support the definition.”

In the last federal budget the Liberals provided $2.4 million for the Toronto Holocaust Museum, which is overseen by that city’s federation. An advocate of the IHRA’s anti-Palestinian definition of antisemitism, the Toronto Holocaust Museum also received half a million dollars in provincial funding. At the June launch of the museum speakers stood in front of Canadian, Ontario and Israeli flags.

The Federations provide funding to a slew of Israel lobby sustaining organizations from private schools to Hillels (ER: these are university campus groups). One of those groups is Birthright Canada, which spends over three million dollars a year paying for young Jews to go to Israel. A dozen campus based Hillels are also among the federation assisted Israel lobby ‘sustaining’ registered charities. So are Israel studies and pro-apartheid Jewish studies programs established at universities by donors receiving generous tax credits.

As part of a “counterattack” against pro-Palestinian activism at Concordia, David Azrieli spent $5 million to establish Israel studies at that Montréal university (as well as $1 million on Jewish studies). More than $10 million in tax-deductible donations were made to the University of Toronto to establish the Anne Tanenbaum Centre for Jewish Studies and the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Chair in Israeli Studies. Millions more were donated to launch similar initiatives at the University of Calgary, York, McGill and other universities.

Probably the most significant cog in the lobby ‘sustaining’ wheel, private Jewish schools generally indoctrinate young minds into worshiping a violent, far away state oppressing millions. TanenbaumCHAT, Bnei Akiva and more than a dozen other registered charity schools raise around fifty million dollars annually in donations. With Québec offering unique support to private schools, pro-apartheid Jewish schools receive around $10 million in direct public grants annually.

After CIJA, B’nai B’rith is the second most influential Israel lobby group. The registered charity raises about ten million dollars a year (through multiple arms). Another influential charity lobby group is Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre with a $7 million budget.

Honest Reporting Canada, StandWithUs Canada and Hasbara Fellowships Canada are almost entirely focused on apartheid campaigning. These registered charities have a combined annual budget of $2 million.

Israel lobby and ‘sustaining’ organizations receive upwards of $100 million a year in direct government grants. Additionally, registered charities funneling money to Israel or Canadian apartheid lobby organizations raise half a billion dollars a year (around a third covered by taxpayers).

The ability to secure significant public assistance obviously reflects Israel lobby power. Simultaneously, it strengthens the lobby’s power as well as apartheid in Israel.

The subsidies must be countered. The first step to upending Canadian assistance to apartheid and the Israel lobby is to map it, which Just Peace Advocates is doing. Additionally, anti-apartheid forces should state clearly their opposition to the Jewish Federations receiving government grants so long as they funnel money to Israel and sponsor CIJA. While that demand will garner little immediate political traction, it’s an essential step towards politicizing the federations.

More immediately relevant are ongoing efforts to press the Canada Revenue Agency to apply its own rules regarding charities it’s empowered with special tax status. The CRA currently forbids registered charities from supporting foreign militaries, explicitly racist organizations and West Bank settlements yet a slew of Israel focused charities do just those things. Over the past year, complaints have been submitted to the CRA detailing about a dozen different charities – with over $100 million in revenue – violating these rules. (CRA investigations and audits are confidential so the status of the complaints is unclear.) Many other charities should be challenged and more campaigning is needed to press the CRA to take action, which they have done with Israel-focused charities. (In recent years the CRA has revoked the charitable status of a dozen organizations providing funds to Israel.)

Removing groups’ charitable status and dampening the flow of public funds to the apartheid lobby is paramount, but there’s also an ideological value to the campaigning. While apartheid apologists complain incessantly about Israel being unfairly “singled out”, pushing the CRA to apply its own rules towards massive subsidies highlights how Israel is in fact singled out for special treatment. No other wealthy, faraway, country receives a remotely comparable amount of charity fundraising.

In essence, Canada’s tax code and government grant system are structured to enable a wealthy, apartheid state, committing genocide in Gaza at the expense of the colonized Palestinians. Whether through legal or political channels, it’s imperative to push back against the staggering sums of public funds subsidizing Israel and sustaining the apartheid lobby in Canada.

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