Ottawa ignores questionable pro-Palestinian charities

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Ottawa wants to take away the charity status of the 100-year-old Jewish National Fund of Canada for allegedly breaking the rules – but the Trudeau Liberals aren’t doing likewise with a host of pro-Palestinian charities, some with questionable links.

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Because some Canadian pro-Palestine charities have been funding – or have possible links to – Palestinian extremist or terror groups, the Sun has learned. And, in some cases, they’re doing so right out in the open.

The four charities are Canadian Palestinian Foundation, Hands For Charity, International Development and Relief Foundation (IDRF) and Medical Aid for Palestine.

All have been accepted as legitimate charities by Ottawa. All have the ability to provide tax receipts for donations, which together add up to millions. And all have been sending large amounts to Gaza and the West Bank, for years.

The revelations are found in the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) filings made by the charities themselves. The filings show links or possible links with entities in the Middle East that have long been associated with terror.

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This newspaper obtained the information through searches of CRA charity databases, their T3010 filings, corporation searches and evidence found openly on social media.

CANADIAN PALESTINIAN FOUNDATION

The Foundation describes its objectives as “allocating donations and funds” to “victims of violence” in “Arab countries.” In their most-recent CRA available filings, from 2022, the Foundation admits it sent nearly $14,000 to An Najah University in Nablus, in the Northern West Bank, even though they are not considered a “qualified donee” under Canadian law.

According to the Middle East Forum, An Najah University is considered a terrorist recruitment ground, with even Hamas calling it “a greenhouse for martyrs.” The university has student groups directly associated with Hamas, and Israel has accused several students there of belonging to terrorist cells. According to charities watchdog NGO Monitor, the university has held ceremonies honouring Palestinian terrorists.

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The Foundation has also sent thousands to Palestinian charity Inash El Usra, which the CRA itself says is connected with Hamas. Inash El Usra’s website states that it supports families of “martyrs,” resisters and detainees. Inash El Usra has also been funded by another Canadian charity, IRFAN-Canada, which had its charitable status revoked by the federal government a decade ago for its links to terrorism.

Inash El Usra’s website shows videos of a children’s concert, uploaded to their YouTube account. In one video, a child is dressed up as a Hasidic Jew – complete with payot or side curls – and he shoots a toy machine gun at girls wearing Palestinian flags.

Finally, the Canadian Palestinian Foundation in 2022 provided more than $400,000 to Community Abdel Shafi, which watchdog NGO Monitor says was founded and is directed by leaders of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a listed terrorist entity in Canada.

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HANDS FOR CHARITY

Based in Montreal, Hands for Charity in 2022 sent $51,000 to a charity in Gaza called Al Hayah for Family Development, which “partners” with an organization that the U.S. has prohibited its nationals from doing business with for allegedly funding Hamas.

For example, Al Hayah has admitted its relationship with a pro-Palestinian organization called Interpal. Al Hayah has stated online that it supports “families who are the torches of the whole nation with their steadfastness [against Israel].”

But the United States has designated Interpal in the past as one of several “charities that provide support to Hamas and form part of its funding network in Europe.” Interpal has strongly denied the allegations, and a U.K. Charity Commission inquiry initially agreed – but that same Commission in 2009 ordered Interpal to end its links with Union of Good, which had been designated by the U.S. Treasury as “an organization created by Hamas leadership to transfer funds to the terrorist organization.”

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Meanwhile, British bank HSBC has stopped accepting donations for Interpal.

Hands for Charity has videos on their Facebook and YouTube accounts showing support for the Al-Shifaa and Al Wafa hospitals. Hamas built tunnels in the base of Al-Shifaa Hospital and took Israeli hostages there on Oct. 7.

Terrorists also used Al Wafa as a military base and fired anti-tank missiles at Israeli soldiers from the hospital.

Asked for comment, Hands for Charity CEO Ahmed Hussein stated: “Hands for Charity conducts thorough due diligence on all of its partners and their affiliates. The allegations regarding relationships with any terrorist entities are false. We do not work with or fund any partners who are listed in Canada’s listing of terrorist entities. Our organization adheres to a strict anti-terrorism policy to ensure our work reaches the most vulnerable while remaining compliant and protecting against any risk of terrorism financing.”

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MEDICAL AID FOR PALESTINE (MAP)

Previously called the Palestine Red Crescent Society and set up in Canada forty years ago, this charity had objectives that appeared to be inconsistent with the rules until 2014.

The charity listed zero dollars in expenses in nearly every single category for things such as office supplies, transportation, salaries, staff training, research and rent – but listed most of their expenses, which added up to hundreds of thousands of dollars each year, in the category called “other.”

Charity law experts say it is unusual that an active charity that is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on anything has “zero expenses” in all of the normal categories that most charities spend on. Their filings also provide no details on how they use donations, which are substantial. Even though it claims to be focused on medical aid for Palestinians, Medical Aid for Palestine told CRA its only external activities in 2018 and 2019 were in the African nation of Tanzania.

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However, in the United Kingdom, there is a “Medical Aid for Palestinians,” which is also a registered charity with a controversial past. It is not known whether it has a relationship with MAP in Canada. The UK MAP has worked with Abdel Shafi Community Health. NGO Monitor has alleged that some staff of Abdel Shafi Community Health have ties to the terrorist group PFLP. In addition, it has boasted that it enjoys an “excellent relationship” with Hamas’ health agency.

Asked for comment about relationship between Medical Aid for Palestine in Canada and the U.K., spokesperson Farah Albarahmeh challenged the notion that MAP had changed its original charitable objects. But she did not answer questions about how MAP uses donations, why a Palestinian charity was active in Africa, or any relationship with MAP in Britain, the PFLP or Interpal.

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Meanwhile, MAP in the United Kingdom did not respond to questions about its activities or links to MAP Canada.

INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND RELIEF FOUNDATION (IDRF)

The IDRF describes itself as a non-profit organization in Canada and claims to offer relief programs around the world based on Islamic principles.

In 2022, the last available filing year, IDRF submitted to Ottawa a T3010 form – a Registered Charity Information Form – stating that their activities were in “PS,” which is Palestine, a state not recognized by Canada. In the previous filing year, 80 different Canadian charities made millions in donations to the IDRF.

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The IDRF has donated hundreds of thousands to the Culture and Free Thought Association (CFTA), which also received donations from the Mennonite Central Committee and Medical Aid for Palestine. According to NGO Monitor, the CFTA in 2017 organized a workshop with the terrorist PFLP, and – as a member of the Palestinian NGO Network (PNGO), refused to sign the anti-terror clause that is a condition of US government funding.

In addition, the IDRF participated in a program with a group called PARC (Palestine’s “Agricultural Development Association”). PARC was founded by Judeh Deeb Ibrahim Jamal, who has been convicted in Israel for providing funding to Hamas. PARC works with the Union of Agricultural Work Committee, which a 1993 report prepared for the U.S. government by the Global Bureau’s Center for Governance and Democracy alleged is the “agricultural arm” of the PFLP.

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The IDRF also funded a project led by Taawon (“The Welfare Association”), which itself helps Palestinian “orphans and their mothers,” which typically refers to families of men who are “martyrs” and have been killed in armed engagements with the IDF or imprisoned in Israel for crimes or attempted crimes against Israelis.

IDRF Canada is partnered in Toronto with the Abu Huraira Center, which the Jerusalem Post has reported receives fundraising assistance from an al-Qaeda-linked charity. Several members of Abu Huraira Center allegedly left Canada in 2019 to join the Somali terror group Al-Shaabab.

Asked for comment, IDRF, MAP, the Abu Huraira Center and the Mennonite Central Committee did not respond.

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Meanwhile, the Minister responsible for CRA, Marie-Claude Bibeau, was asked if her department has been sufficiently diligent in ensuring they do not have dealings with extremist or terrorist groups. Her spokesperson confirmed that An Najah University, which has received extensive funding from the Canadian Palestinian Foundation, “is not considered to be a qualified donee.”

Her departmental spokesperson, Nina Ioussoupova, also said “charities … are prohibited from providing any form of support for terrorism.”

Asked what the federal government does, if anything, to combat illicit or illegal charity activities, she said: “If members of the public are concerned that a registered charity is not complying with the provisions of the Act, they are encouraged to contact the CRA’s Leads Program.”

She did not say what Ottawa itself does to ensure charities do not provide support to extremist and terrorist groups.

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