<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On behalf of JNF Canada (JNF), I wish to respond to allegations made by Independent Jewish Voices Canada, longstanding opponents of JNF Canada, as well as the opinion piece you published [\u201cTax troubles start year,\u201d <\/a>Jewish Independent<\/a><\/em>, Jan. 11<\/a>].<\/p>\n\n\n\n With regard to the substantive issues that have\nbeen raised about our projects in Israel we wish to reiterate our position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2022 JNF has in the past carried out projects\nmainly of a charitable nature, such as parks, playgrounds and recreational\nfacilities on land owned by the Israel Defence Forces. Our charitable funds\nnever flowed to the IDF. The charitable funds were directed toward the hiring\nof indigent labourers to construct these projects. These expenditures represent\nunder one percent of our expenditures over the past decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In your coverage, you suggest that we took\naction based upon an alert from the CRA. This, in fact, is not the case.\nRather, it was our legal counsel who advised us several years ago that the\nindirect association with the IDF may be misconstrued or criticized by the CRA,\nso we ended our participation at that time. We have not for several years\ncarried out projects located on IDF land, and we continue to operate in\naccordance with CRA regulations governing our status as a charitable\norganization. We stopped these projects on the advice of counsel well before\nthis issue was brought to the public\u2019s attention by a group trying to\nsensationalize it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2022 With regard to projects located in disputed\nterritory, JNF is committed to continuing to work with CRA to ensure we are in\nfull compliance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2022 Finally, in terms of governance and\nreporting, JNF operates in compliance with the Canada Income Tax Act. We have\nIsraeli staff on site to direct our projects in Israel and regularly report on\nour activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thank you for highlighting our work and for\nacknowledging that \u201cIsrael is Israel, is large part, thanks to JNF.\u201d We take\npride in having supported the building of water reservoirs, collaborated with\ndozens of educational institutions, built numerous recreational\/educational\nfacilities, planted millions of trees and supported pioneering research in\ngreen technology. Key projects for this year include supporting a trauma centre\nin Sderot, a project to feed Israel\u2019s hungry, the rehabilitation of the Be\u2019eri\nand Kissufim forests, and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n JNF\u2019s management and lay leadership are\ncommitted to improving our operations. For the past number of years, we have\nbeen making changes to strengthen our governance and controls. What will not\nchange, however, is our commitment to helping build the foundations of Israel\u2019s\nfuture. We will always stand shoulder to shoulder with the people of Israel to\nbenefit the social service and environmental fabric of the state of Israel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Lance Davis<\/strong> is chief\nexecutive officer of Jewish National Fund Canada.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On behalf of JNF Canada (JNF), I wish to respond to allegations made by Independent Jewish Voices Canada, longstanding opponents of JNF Canada, as well as the opinion piece you published [\u201cTax troubles start year,\u201d Jewish Independent, Jan. 11]. With regard to the substantive issues that have been raised about our projects in Israel we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[5695,4882,1245,4330,59,60,3170],"class_list":["post-31732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-op-ed","tag-cra","tag-ijv","tag-independent-jewish-voices","tag-israel","tag-jewish-national-fund","tag-jnf","tag-taxes"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31732\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}