In 2024, Just Peace Advocates, Palestinian and Jewish Unity, Canadian Foreign Policy Institute, and several notable individuals made two submissions to the CRA regarding United Israel Appeal (UIAC).

UIAC states that its purpose is to “conduct social welfare programs in Canada and Israel.” These programs include “resettlement of new immigrants, student scholarships, community rehabilitation projects…” What the UIAC does not explicitly state, is just how much of their funds go to Israel, nor the details of these so called “resettlement” and “community” programs.

In 2024, 96% of UIAC’s charitable program expenses¹ went to Israel.

What does UIAC fund in Israel?

The UIAC sends funds to²:

• Israeli municipalities, despite CRA confirmation that governments outside of Canada are not qualified charities.³
  • For instance, UIAC sent $237,310 to the Upper Galilee Regional Council, $219,850 to Bnei Shimon Regional Council, $171,432 to Ramat Negev Regional Council, and Mevoot Hahermon Regional Council.
• Entities in illegal settlements.
  • For instance, UIAC sent $102,340 to Ohr Torah Stone and $62,591 to Orot Israel.
• Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI) which focused on immigration and creating a Jewish majority state. These funds can be attributed as going to occupied Palestinian territory.⁴
• Recipients that support the Israeli military, in violation of CRA policy.
  • For instance, UIAC sent $134, 922 to Beit Halochem, $199,399 to Friends of Zahal Disabled Veterans, and $1,993,687 to Magen David Adom.

This is not surprising when considering the close ties between UIAC and the State of Israel.

UIAC, along with the Jewish Federations of Canada (JFC), is in close partnership with JAFI. As they note online, JAFI “is a primary agent for JFC-UIA in carrying out our mandate.” JAFI was established in 1929 and acts as the operational branch of the World Zionist Organization (WZO). The WZO is the non-governmental organization that led to the creation of the State of Israel. It was founded at the First Zionist Congress in 1897 by the instigation of Theodor Herzl. As the author of a 2025 Jerusalem Post article described it:

“[T]he WZO was the start-up, with its end product being the State of Israel.” However, the WZO never actually ‘exited’ the picture, they remain an integral part of the Zionist State. After the WZO transferred its “civic administrative responsibilities” to the “Government of Israel”, the government recognized “the WZO and its affiliated subsidiaries as an integral part of the civic efforts of settling the land, facilitating immigration to it, and providing quality education to its citizens. The WZO became a golden institutional standard of sorts.”

Another one of UIAC’s partners is Keren Hayesod. Keren Hayesod is one of the consituent bodies of JAFI and encourages illegal settlement. They do this work in close collaboration with the Government of Israel.

Together, the WZO, JAFI, Keren Hayesod, and the Jewish National Fund (KKL-JNF) “comprise the four pillar national institutions of the State of Israel, all of which enjoy a special protected legal status.” This is especially notable as a new sanctions package was submitted to the Canadian government, targeting the WZO and its “Settlement Division.” Why is this important? As Dr. Miles Howe explained:

“The World Zionist Organization and its operational arm, the Jewish Agency for Israel, are aspects of a parastate that operates as the tip of the colonization spear for Zionist expansion and provides the state of Israel with a perverse measure of plausible deniability for its daily mounting slew of abhorrent war crimes. Based off of internationally illegal land allocations, the WZO runs hundreds of thousands of dunams in the West Bank like a private, outlaw, fiefdom, where any modicum of rationality and morality is suspended in lieu of the rule of Zionist fanaticism. It grants so-called ‘authorization certificates’ to privately held Palestinian lands and provides expired certificates to a degenerate class of settler fanatics, streamlining the slippery slope into the law of the jungle which masquerades as the Israeli legal system.

So, while Canada has recently recognized the state of Palestine, the next obvious questions concern what this state should look like, territorially, how to assist the birthing of this state, and what measures will be taken against those organizations that hinder and impede its creation. If Canada wishes to live up to its public policy statement on the matter, then it has long known that settlements are the major impediment to Palestinian statehood. Aside from the Israeli state, the WZO is the key driver behind settlement in the Occupied Territories and should be immediately – and fully – sanctioned.”

Dr. Miles howe

UIAC is directly implicated in this pipeline, as it sends funds for these exact (illegal) purposes.

Between 1991 and 2024, UIAC received $1,702,478,227 (over $1.7 billion) from individual donors and other charitable organizations (Table 5). 86% of all donations to UIAC are from other charities. Looking at a more recent period, we found that between 2013 and 2024, UIAC received $829,716,353 from other registered charities (Table 1). The biggest donors to UIAC over that same period were United Jewish Appeal Of Greater Toronto ($419,378,048) and Federation CJA ($129,763,60), representing 66% of all charitable donations from 2013 to 2024.

Between 2013 and 2023, UIAC reported transferring $8,230,770 to other qualified donnees/registered charities (Tables 3 and 4). In contrast, over this same period, UIAC sent $565,881,865 to Israel. This is approximately 68 times more money going to Israel compared to that which went to qualified donnees/registered charities (Table 6). Notably, UIAC failed to report the recipient organizations in Israel until we submitted a complaint to the CRA. You can see a full list of recipients in Israel from 2023 and 2024.

Data Tables

Table 1. Total donations from other Canadian registered charities to UIAC between 2013-2024 (T1236 data)

Table 2. Full list of registered Canadian charity donations to UIAC between 2013-2024 (T1236 data)

Table 3. Total funds transferred from UIAC to Canadian recipients between 2013-2023 (T1236 data)

Table 4. Full list of Canadian recipients of UIAC funds between 2013 to 2023 (T1236 data)

Table 5. Total donations (from individuals and Canadian charities) to UIAC between 1991 and 2024

Table 6. Total funds sent outside of Canada from 1997 to 2024 (Schedule 2)

You can read our previous analysis and actions here:

https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-the-cra-to-investigate-how-canadian-charities-have-fueled-israels-economy-of-genocide-through-state-of-israel-bonds?clear_id=true

1 This assumes that none of the management, fundraising, or “other” expenses were sent to Israel. UIA reported $81,100,902 of charitable program expenses, and sent $77,874,902 to Israel.

2The examples provided are based soley on UIA’s 2024 filing — there are ample more examples over the previous years.

3 This includes municipalities directly receiving funds, as well as other entities providing services as foundations or community centres that normally would be associated with municipal government.

4 https://www.guidestar.org.il/search-companies/