Canadian charities channeling millions to fund Israeli army, illegal West Bank settlements
Ottawa's complicity in supporting Israel’s occupation
of Palestine through unchecked financial networks persists despite growing
public opposition
OCT 28, 2025
A new investigation by The Fifth Estate, the
investigative program of Canada’s public broadcaster CBC, has revealed that
several Canadian charities funneled large sums to organizations tied to
Israel’s military and the expansion of illegal Jewish settlements in the
occupied West Bank.
The investigative episode released on 16 October found
that registered charities, including the Jewish National Fund of Canada (JNF),
Mizrachi Organization of Canada, and the Canadian Zionist Cultural Association
(CZCA), issued tax receipts for donations that ultimately supported illegal
settlements and the Israeli army.
According to The Fifth Estate, Mizrachi Canada alone
sent $50 million between 2007 and 2022, followed by another $5 million in 2023
and 2024. The CZCA transferred millions more to Israeli military-linked
institutions, such as the Association for Israeli Soldiers and Friends of the
IDF.
While Canadian law prohibits funding foreign
militaries, these organizations retained nonprofit status, allowing donors to
claim tax deductions.
Critics told CBC that these practices violate tax
regulations and contradict Ottawa’s stated opposition to settlements.
The JNF, founded before the establishment of Israel,
has long been accused of expropriating Palestinian land.
Its Canadian branch has sponsored over 180 projects
since 2000, including “Canada Park,” built over 7,000 dunams of occupied West
Bank land.
In 2023, the JNF raised $4.4 million for projects in
occupied Palestine and set a new goal of up to $30 million for its “Israel
Resilience Campaign.”
Public pressure during Israel’s ongoing genocide in
Gaza prompted Ottawa last year to revoke the JNF’s charitable status for failing to restrict the use of
donations.
However, JNF officials immediately formed a new
entity, Friends of JNF Canada, to continue fundraising while the original fund
appealed the decision.
JNF Canada President Nathan Disenhouse told National
Post that the new charity would “fundraise for Israel in a similar way
that JNF Canada did, but with the ability to issue tax receipts,” adding that
its focus would include “the mental and physical health of Israelis.”
Independent Jewish Voices, which first filed the
complaint leading to the delisting, accused the JNF of financing discriminatory
and harmful projects in Israel and the occupied West Bank.
The organization has since lost a judicial appeal and
vowed to take the case to the Supreme Court of Canada.
Meanwhile, The Fifth Estate documented the human toll
of these donations in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli settlers continue
to attack Palestinian civilians with impunity.
In one case, Khader Nawajah, from the village of
Khirbet Susya, recounted how settlers beat him and his wife with stones and
sticks. His doctor said such cases occur “many times, sometimes daily.”
Since May 2024, Ottawa has sanctioned 17 individuals
and seven entities for what it called “extremist settler violence against
civilians,” even as Canadian charities continued to channel funds that sustain
the same system of occupation and abuse.
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