Photo taken at Jews Say No To Genocide coalition press conference in Toronto, Ontario on November 30, 2023, against charges on those alleged to be part of action at an Indigo store in Toronto. Credit: The Canada Files/’X’

Written by: Yves Engler

A central part of Jiu Jitsu is channeling your enemy’s power to your advantage. The left should learn from that.

The Israel lobby’s panic over posters on an Indigo store should be thrown in their face by emphasizing Canada’s most important contribution to Palestinian dispossession.

On November 10 some individuals put posters and fake blood on an Indigo bookstore in Toronto to denounce CEO Heather Reisman’s assistance for non-Israelis to join its military. The posters were a satirical book cover stamped “Heather’s pick” entitled “Funding Genocide”. Reisman is named “Chief Occupation Lover” and quoted saying “I’m happy to use profits from your purchases to fund the Israeli army and bomb civilians.”

The Israel lobby panicked and the media hyped their outrage over purported “antisemitism”. Ten days later the Toronto police organized a pre-dawn raid of the residences of seven individuals allegedly involved in this “crime”. York University followed suit by suspending three employees accused of involvement in the vandalism.

But the brouhaha is entirely about political posters and water-soluble paint, which was easily removed. It may be vandalism, but if there’s no lasting effect on the store window, that charge may not even stick.

In fact, police bursting into your home early in the morning, cuffing everyone and detaining individuals for hours is a greater punishment than a standard postering or graffiti offence. But the Israel lobby/media/police/York University abuse isn’t the main outrage in this affair. It is that the public has given around $40 million in tax credits to Reisman and her husband for the $100+ million they have donated to a registered charity they established to assist the Israeli occupation force even though Canada Revenue Agency rules preclude supporting another country’s military.

As part of pushing back against the police and York’s overreach we should be pressing the CRA to revoke the charitable status of Reisman and husband Gerry Schwartz’ Heseg Foundation for lone soldiers. This charity offers a window into a largely overlooked element of Canadian complicity in Palestinian dispossession. Each year over 200 charities, including many that violate CRA rules, send money to support projects in apartheid Israel. Despite a GDP equal to Canada’s, Israel receives around a quarter billion dollars a year from registered Canadian charities.

Heseg is not the only registered charity assisting Israel’s military in contravention of CRA rules. Last year a formal legal complaint was submitted to the CRA detailing the Canadian Zionist Cultural Association’s support for the Israeli military. As this author has detailed, a slew of Canadian charities raise funds for Israeli universities that collaborate extensively with the IDF on research or training initiatives. A number of the charities financing Israeli universities operate projects that specifically support the Israeli military.

In the past the CRA has taken action against charities assisting the Israeli military. In 2019 they withdrew the charitable status of Beth Oloth, partly based on its assistance for Israel’s military. At about the same time the Jewish National Fund of Canada was reprimanded for assisting the Israeli military. In 2003 the court upheld the revocation of the Canadian Magen David Adom charitable status, which was partly due to supports it gave the Israeli military.

It’s not only supporting foreign militaries that contravenes CRA policy. Supporting West Bank settlements and explicitly racist organizations is a violation of the CRA’s rules for registered charities. Over the past year Just Peace Advocates has assisted with complaints to the CRA detailing 10 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 on Israel-focused charities.

The legal and political battle over the “Indigo 11” is an opportunity to denounce the CRA for not revoking Heseg’s charitable status. People need to exploit the Israel lobby’s over the top outrage about posters to challenge Canada’s most important contribution to Palestinian dispossession.

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Yves Engler is the author of 12 books. His latest book, available now, is "Stand on Guard For Whom? -- A People's History of the Canadian Military”.

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